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Miami will take center stage in the global artificial intelligence conversation on April 5, 2025 as it hosts the Miami AI Agent Summit, presented by Miami AI Hub and CrewAI. This high-impact, half-day event will explore the accelerating role of autonomous AI agents in transforming industries, streamlining operations, and reshaping how businesses and societies function. Miami AI Agent Summit is part of CrewAI Enterprise AI Agent Week, a global celebration of AI agent innovation happening in cities worldwide, and will take place at the innovation campus and startup hub The Lab Miami.

Miami AI Agent Summit is designed for builders, founders, enterprise leaders, investors, and researchers. Over 200 attendees will gather for an afternoon of meaningful dialogue, visionary thinking, and practical insights into one of AI’s most transformative domains. Discussions will center on how intelligent agents are deployed in real-world environments, automating workflows, making complex decisions, and augmenting human capabilities.

Opening remarks will be delivered by João (Joe) Moura, founder and CEO of CrewAI, a leader in enterprise AI agent orchestration, and Burhan Sebin, founder of Miami AI Hub. Burhan Sebin is a leading force in Miami’s AI landscape, committed to making the city a global hub for responsible and accessible AI development. Through his work building Miami AI Hub, he has helped bring together startups, corporate partners, and technologists in a collaborative space designed to unlock AI’s potential across disciplines and industries. He is working to establish strong AI ecosystem linkages between the United States, Southern Europe, and Latin America.

The event will open with a Powerhouse Fireside Chat featuring forward thinkers Clem Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, a global pioneer in open-source AI and collaborative machine learning, and Greg Isenberg, founder and CEO of Late Checkout, a builder of digital communities and product strategy at the intersection of technology and culture.

Additional speakers from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, boldstartVC, J.P. Morgan, and leading AI startups will join throughout the afternoon. Programming will include expert panels on enterprise implementation and startup innovation within the AI agent ecosystem.

This gathering marks a milestone for Miami’s emergence as a serious player in global AI. The summit offers participants a rare opportunity to engage directly with the field's top minds, discover new AI agent products, and connect with Miami’s fast-growing tech and innovation community.

Miami AI Agent Summit will take place on April 5, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at The Lab Miami. Registration will open soon, and space is limited. Please apply here: https://lu.ma/68ozqs92

About Miami AI Hub

Miami AI Hub drives innovation and collaboration in artificial intelligence within the city’s dynamic tech ecosystem. Founded by Burhan Sebin, a recognized AI leader, the hub connects Miami to the global AI landscape, bridging the U.S., Italy, Spain, and Latin America. Sebin previously led research and entrepreneurship at Venture Miami, shaping policies to support the city’s tech growth.

With over 4,000 participants, 50+ AI startup showcases, and speakers from industry leaders like NVIDIA, Apple, Google, and AWS, Miami AI Hub serves as an innovation catalyst, community hub, and startup launchpad. It advances AI-driven solutions, fosters collaboration, and provides cutting-edge education and mentorship to empower the next generation of AI pioneers.

For more information, visit www.miamiaihub.com.

On March 11, Forbes China and Sports Illustrated co-hosted the 2025 Forbes China Women's Summit at Bund One in Shanghai. The summit presented a global perspective on contemporary Chinese women in diverse fields, bringing together outstanding women from various industries to explore how female leadership can shape a better future.

During the summit, Forbes China released the 2025 "20 Women to Watch in Business" list, showcasing female entrepreneurs who have demonstrated resilience in adversity. By highlighting their extraordinary courage and wisdom, the list aims to inspire more women to take center stage, bring new vitality to the business world, and become an indispensable force in shaping the future. Hu Di, Business President of 58.com (Group), was recognized as one of the 2025 Forbes China "20 Women to Watch in Business."

The honorees came from a range of industries and niche sectors, including semiconductors, healthcare, and software & IT services. Notably, the semiconductor industry accounts for the largest share at 20%, while an impressive 35% of the listed individuals are involved in artificial intelligence. These figures indicate a significant rise in the number of women venturing into deep-tech entrepreneurship.

As the youngest Business President of 58.com (Group), Hu Di has progressed from a university recruit to a core member of the entrepreneurial team within an internet company. Over the past 12 years, she has remained deeply engaged in the digital media sector, achieving remarkable success in advancing high-quality employment, platform ecosystem development, technological innovation, user value enhancement, and exporting China’s life service expertise to international markets.

A pioneering entrepreneur of the post-’90s generation, Hu Di graduated from Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and was a visiting scholar in innovation at Yale University. She currently serves as Vice President of the Capital Internet Association, a member of the 7th Committee of the Chaoyang District Youth Federation in Beijing, a deputy to the 17th and 18th People's Congress of Tianjin, Vice President of the Beijing Youth New Media Association, a member of the Tianjin Business Environment Expert Committee, an executive director of the China Youth New Media Association, and a judge for the Greater China Effie Awards and Golden Investment Awards.

Since joining 58.com in July 2012, she has risen to her current role as Business President of 58.com Group. She has received numerous accolades, including 2023 Beijing Employment and Entrepreneurship Outstanding Individual, 2024 Beijing Role Model – Most Outstanding Internet Professional, and 2024 Hurun U35 China Entrepreneurship Pioneer.

Content sourced from Forbes China.

About 58.com

58.com is a leading lifestyle services platform in China that operates across a broad range of sectors including recruitment, real estate, automotive, and local lifestyle services. For more information, please visit https://bj.58.com.

Artist, technologist, and entrepreneur Michael VanPatten has announced that his wildlife photography piece, Roswell Flying Crane Over the Waterfalls, has been selected for display in the upcoming Art of Georgia exhibit. The piece will be showcased at either the State Capitol or the Governor’s Mansion, where it will remain on view as part of the exhibition running from January 2025 through December 2026.

VanPatten’s work was chosen through the Art of Georgia contest, organized by the Georgia Council for the Arts, which highlights artwork showcasing the state’s landscapes and natural beauty. His winning piece is one of 47 selected for the exhibition, following a review process that involved the governor and his staff evaluating numerous submissions.

Roswell Flying Crane Over the Waterfalls is a striking composition capturing a blue heron in mid-flight above a cascading waterfall in Roswell, Georgia. The image balances movement and serenity, with the heron’s outstretched wings mirroring the graceful flow of water beneath it. The scene evokes a sense of freedom and tranquility, drawing viewers into a moment of stillness.

“It’s truly an honor to have my work recognized. Having my piece selected by the governor and displayed in such a prominent setting is an unexpected and humbling achievement,” VanPatten said. “I don’t usually enter competitions, but I saw this as an opportunity to share my perspective on Georgia’s beauty.”

VanPatten has spent years capturing landscapes, wildlife, and cityscapes, developing a unique eye for composition. After a career in technology, finance, and marketing, he returned to art full time, blending traditional photography with AI-driven enhancements to create images that challenge perception and engage viewers in new ways. His work explores surrealism, depth, and movement, utilizing digital tools to refine and elevate his original photographs.

VanPatten aims to continue breaking artistic barriers and invites viewers to experience his work with an immersive lens as Roswell Flying Crane Over the Waterfalls prepares for its unveiling.

About Michael VanPatten

Michael VanPatten is an artist, technologist, and entrepreneur blending photography with digital artistry. After a career in tech, marketing, and finance, he founded View Finder Arts, capturing stunning landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes using cameras, drones, and AI-driven enhancements. His limited-edition works are featured in offices, galleries, and private collections.

Explore his work or inquire about purchases at https://viewfinderarts.com.

Omni Acquisition Corp. ("OAC"), an affiliate of Echo Base Holdings ("Echo Base"), acquired the assets, operations, and key staff of the Omni Wallet ("Omni"), a leading Web3 wallet known for pioneering multi-chain integration, from Omni Ltd. This Echo Base acquisition further extends the ecosystem of cryptocurrency and fintech-based ventures to give users full crypto autonomy across more than 25 blockchain networks. The Echo base portfolio includes Paxful, the world’s largest people-powered marketplace, connecting over 14 million users across 140+ countries to move, earn, save, and store money - even without a bank account.

Omni is the most comprehensive wallet in Web3, aggregating the in-demand features, such as swapping, staking, lending, token management, DeFi, NFTs, and more into one mobile-first platform. Omni's multi-chain support and full-suite product integrations aim to make any crypto function as user-friendly as ordering an Uber. Omni's key employees joining the global Echo Base team will continue building on the platform and scale further user adoption while shipping new cutting-edge products.

In 2021, Omni launched as the next generation Web3 super app, redefining crypto accessibility by seamlessly integrating assets, staking, NFTs, and dApps across 25+ blockchains—including EVM, non-EVM, and major Layer 2 solutions. Omni addressed the increasing complexity of managing diverse blockchain assets, introducing groundbreaking ease with its intuitive Explore Screen, allowing users to effortlessly stake, swap, and bridge tokens, engage in liquid staking without lockups, and directly access dApps like Yearn Finance and Aave V3. It consolidated multiple wallet management into one streamlined experience by enabling seamless import of wallets like Metamask, Phantom, and Keplr. Omni further enhanced convenience with a native fiat on-ramp. Its robust security featured direct Ledger hardware wallet integration, ensuring assets remain protected. Omni unified NFTs across Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and beyond, showcasing them within one elegant multi-chain gallery. Built from first principles to tackle Web3's evolving demands, Omni simplified complex interactions, making Web3 universally accessible.

Founded by co-founders and core team members, Apurv Mishra, Philip Zudemberg, and Serafin Lion Engel, are excited for the new chapter ahead for Omni—continuing to deliver unmatched functionality, security, and always staying ahead to make crypto accessible.

"From the beginning, our goal at Omni has been to simplify digital portfolio management and give users access to all of web3 in one approachable, effective, and engaging app," says Serafin Lion Engel, CEO of Omni and StakeKit. "Joining the Echo Base ecosystem will supercharge Omni's growth trajectory as the home for all things staking and DeFi. We're excited to see Omni reach new heights with the Echo Base team."

"The Echo Base portfolio provides an exceptional trading experience for our crypto users from on-ramp to arbitrage to yield generation. Bringing Omni into our ecosystem equips our users with best-in-class storage and utility solutions for their assets. Now users can manage all their digital finance needs without leaving our portfolio of products," adds Roshan Dharia, CEO of Echo Base.

About StakeKit

StakeKit provides the most comprehensive infrastructure for accessing, orchestrating, and monetizing staking and DeFi yields across Web3. Trusted by industry leaders such as Ledger, Zerion, and Tangem, currently powering more than 1,000 yields across more than 75 blockchain networks, spanning staking, liquid staking, restaking, Real-World Assets (RWAs), and DeFi. To learn more, visit www.stakek.it.

About Omni

Launched in 2021, Omni is a comprehensive Web3 wallet supporting assets across 25+ blockchain networks, enabling seamless token management, DeFi activity, NFTs, and multi-chain staking with a single mnemonic. It aggregates bridging and DEX services for efficient swaps, abstracts staking complexity, integrates Ledger for security, and offers WalletConnect, fiat on-ramp, and broad NFT support. For more information, visit www.omni.app.

Wallester, the Estonian-based digital finance leader specialising in innovative digital financial solutions and card issuance, announced the conclusion of a transformative year marked by unprecedented growth and strategic market expansion across Europe, reflecting the growing demand for innovative payment solutions in the FinTech sector.

Robust Financial Performance

Financially, the firm demonstrated impressive performance. Unaudited revenue for the year reached €17.2M, representing an 87% Year-over-Year (YoY) increase. These figures underscore the company’s robust financial health and operational efficiency.

Under the leadership of CEO and co-founder Sergei Astafjev, the organisation achieved exceptional growth across its business segments. Specifically, unaudited revenue reached €17.2M, marking an 87% YoY increase. Within this, Wallester White-Label revenue grew to €8.5M, a 70% YoY rise, while Wallester Business revenue doubled to €8.6M, reflecting an impressive 109% YoY growth.

Annualised Run Rate (ARR) also saw a significant boost, reaching €26.3M, representing a 98% YoY increase.

EBITDA surged from a deficit of €-0.5M to a positive €3.4M, marking an astonishing 800% YoY growth. Similarly, net profit increased dramatically from €-0.6M in 2023 to €2.3M in 2024, representing an extraordinary 457% YoY improvement. These financial metrics highlight the company's ability to navigate challenges while maintaining strong growth trajectories and enhancing profitability.

Geographic Expansion

One of the most notable events of 2024 occurred in March when the company received a cross-border activity license from the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), allowing the company to extend its services to the United Kingdom. As the first Estonian company to secure such a license post-Brexit, Wallester is uniquely positioned to tap into one of the world’s premier financial hubs. The UK team, led by CEO Julian Brand and supported by Group Chief Risk Officer Anna Maxim, is set to drive further success in this new market.

Meanwhile, Wallester continued its geographic expansion with the official opening of a new office in Riga, Latvia, in October. This move strengthens the company’s ability to serve clients in the Baltic region and beyond, enhancing its infrastructure and offering additional resources to fuel business growth.

Client Acquisition and Partnerships

The company also welcomed 2,250 new clients and issued over 1,000,000 cards during the year. These clients span diverse sectors, including travel businesses, payment service providers, large corporations, fintechs, governmental providers, and many others. The range and scale of industries reinforce the company’s unwavering belief in its market fit and leading position within the sector.

Award-Winning Year

Wallester was named the top startup in Estonia at the Äripäev TOP100 Gala, secured the 5th spot in the Sifted 30 Eastern Europe & Baltics Leaderboard, and was named the Best FinTech Partner at the 2024 FinTech Awards Europe and Best Enterprise Software Solution by SaaStock. The company also secured a spot on the iconic Estonian Mafia Wall of Fame at LIFT99 Tallinn Hub.

Looking Ahead to 2025

As we look towards 2025, plans are in place to expand its business to new countries, grow its team significantly, and bring in fresh ideas and experts to support its roadmap. Astafjev commented “Reflecting on 2024, I am filled with great pride at how our team dealt with numerous challenges and showed creativity and determination. We never stopped believing in our ability to deliver exceptional solutions. Thank you to every business that chose Wallester as their partner. We look forward to continuing our upward trajectory in 2025 and delivering even better results.”
 
What We Do

Our White-Label solution enables businesses to integrate financial services directly into their platforms—a concept known as embedded finance. This allows companies to launch branded payment cards tailored to their specific needs, enhancing customer experiences and opening new revenue streams. We ensure a swift time-to-market with simplified integration and dedicated support from our implementation team.

Wallester Business is designed to modernise corporate expense management. It provides companies with instant access to virtual and physical Visa cards, streamlining financial processes through a modern app and comprehensive portal. Features include expense tracking, budget analytics, and seamless integration with accounting systems to enhance financial oversight and efficiency.

With a diverse team of over 140 professionals located in Estonia, Latvia, France and the UK, Wallester is dedicated to developing high-quality, profitable products for our clients. Our passion for innovation drives us to improve and adapt to the evolving financial landscape continuously.

About Wallester 

Wallester is an Estonian-licensed financial institution and an official Visa partner since 2018, specialising in innovative digital financial solutions and card issuance. We empower companies across the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK to streamline payments, launch branded cards, and scale efficiently. For more information, visit www.wallester.com.

In today’s digital world, homeowners have little control over how their home appears on real estate platforms—until now. Unlisted, the world’s leading platform for off-market real estate, is the only real estate platform that allows homeowners to manage their home’s digital presence, ensuring their property is accurately represented, whether they’re selling soon or not.

Most real estate websites rely on old listing data and photos from when the home was sold by the previous owners, leaving the current homeowners with little control over how their home is presented online. Unlisted changes that by creating a customizable property profile for every home in the country. Homeowners have direct control over their property profile, allowing them to:

“We live in a digital age. The ability to track and display accurate data about our most important asset, our home, translates to real value. If two homes are otherwise similar, but one has consistently updated their home data over time and the other hasn’t, the former is more desirable. We are empowering homeowners to drive the value for their property digitally, even if they’re not selling today,” says Katie Hill, founder and CEO of Unlisted.

By updating their home’s information on Unlisted, homeowners can gauge buyer interest and stay informed about potential demand, helping them feel prepared when the time comes to sell. Whether they’re simply exploring their options or considering an off-market sale, Unlisted gives them the insights they need—without the pressure of a public listing.

To learn more, please visit UnlistedHomes.com. To claim your home and update your property profile, visit UnlistedHomes.com/claim.

About Unlisted

Unlisted is an AI-powered real estate technology platform designed to reveal off-market property opportunities. By leveraging machine learning, the company creates more dynamic, efficient market opportunities for buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals. For more information, visit https://unlistedhomes.com.

Power Plays of the Wealthy: How to Retire Early, Supercharge Your Cash Flow, and Minimize Taxes is the title of Harvest Financial Advisors' founder and CEO Marc Henn’s new book, in which Henn argues that the cards are stacked against members of the middle class who want to attain financial freedom but who don’t understand how the wealthy invest.

While financial and tax advisors often provide advice focused on investments and tax filing, Marc Henn, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professional, seeks to peel back the curtain to reveal how the wealthy invest across multiple asset classes and strategically layer those investments to minimize taxes, generate cash flow, and build their assets. "These strategies don’t have to remain a mystery," Henn explains. "Anyone can use one or all of these strategies to grow their own wealth."

Breaking Out of the Middle Class

With 35 years of experience in finance, Marc Henn’s passion has always been helping others build generational wealth. As a young man, Henn participated in the AT&T Collegiate Investment Challenge, landing among the top 50 participants in the nation. He founded Harvest Financial Advisors in 2008, headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, and for nearly 17 years has served as the firm’s CEO. During those years, Henn says, “I have recognized that the financial industry does a poor job serving clients that have between $10 million and $200 million in assets.”

Henn founded Harvest to help transition traditional wealth management clients into multi-family office clients. Many self-made entrepreneurs, small business owners, and successful executives acquire significant wealth without acquiring the investment and tax strategies that the truly wealthy use to maintain and grow their wealth across generations. That’s where Henn hopes to make a difference, both with his financial planning firm and his book.

The 3 Power Plays of the Wealthy

In Power Plays of the Wealthy, Henn draws attention to three overarching strategies that the wealthy employ. The first involves recognizing the five super asset classes that wealthy investors use and the unique tax strategies that come with these. The second is to become a producer first so that you can maximize your cash flow. The third is to minimize your taxes to help you build your financial legacy.

“One strategy the wealthy use are tax incentives to provide services for people, like housing and energy,” Henn shares, “—and this in turn builds more wealth for them. You, as a citizen of this great country, are participating in this whether you choose to or not. Either you are using the financial strategies and tax incentives to build your wealth, or your taxes are used to fund this for others.”

Not Just Strategy But Mindset

Building wealth requires more than just uncovering these power plays, however. It also requires a particular mindset and a willingness to stay the course with a chosen strategy. One anecdote that Henn shares in his book illustrates how easily fear or greed can derail a great strategy. Marc shares how, when he was nine, President Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, a man with a more “colorful” public persona, used his presidential brother’s fame to sell many cans of his company’s Billy Beer. 

Henn, despite his young age, was collecting beer cans, and he acquired two Billy Beer cans. When Billy Beer stopped producing in 1978, the price of the cans shot up, and he received an offer of $500 for his two cans. His father advised waiting for a higher price, believing the cans would only increase in value.

Unfortunately, Billy Beer cans were not collectibles for very long. The president of a beer can collectibles group declared that the cans were not unique. After that, the Billy Beer cans dropped in value overnight to the price of tin, a few cents per pound. Ruefully, Marc recalls, “Greed stole $500 from a pre-teen boy in Indiana.”

Those who build wealth master a strategy and don’t sacrifice it to short-term impulses of fear or avarice. Then, they master another strategy and another after that. Now, Marc Henn hopes that his book, Power Plays of the Wealthy, will provide successful executives and business owners with the tools to do the same, taking their wealth-building to a different level and changing the trajectory of their financial lives and legacies.

About Harvest Financial Advisors

Harvest Financial Advisors is a team of seasoned professionals committed to helping clients grow, protect, and enjoy their wealth. We always put our clients first and give them personal attention, custom-tailored solutions, and a remarkable range of services. For more information, visit https://harvestadvisors.com.

About Marc Henn

Marc Henn is the founder and CEO of Harvest Financial Advisors, headquartered in Cincinnati, OH. He is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professional, assisting family office and wealth management clients for over thirty years.

Henn is affiliated with the College for Financial Planning and Financial Planning Association (FPA). He is also a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Arbitrator, a member of the American Numismatic Association, and a former member of the National Association of Forensic Economics and Economics Center for Education and Research. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Purdue University in 1990.

Henn's journey into the finance world began in high school, then progressed as he participated in the AT&T Collegiate Investment Challenge and landed among the top 50 nationwide. He continued to pursue his passion, exploring many aspects of finance until he discovered fee-only financial advising and founded Harvest Financial Advisors in 2008.

FirstBuild, the cocreation community of GE Appliances, a Haier company, and King Arthur Baking Company, America's most trusted baking company, today announced the launch and pre-sale availability of the Sourdough Sidekick. The Sourdough Sidekick automatically feeds and builds sourdough starter, freeing sourdough baking enthusiasts from the chore of starter maintenance. This partnership brings together two of America's oldest companies to solve one of home baking’s most persistent and age-old challenges: maintaining a healthy, consistent sourdough starter, the foundation of amazing homemade sourdough bread.

“At GE Appliances and FirstBuild, open innovation is the key to unlocking consumer needs and transforming them into groundbreaking solutions,” said GE Appliances CEO Kevin Nolan. “By listening to our customers and collaborating with enthusiasts, we are innovating the future of what’s next for the home."

Sourdough is on the rise

Sourdough baking is surging—60% of bread bakers now maintain an active starter, according to King Arthur’s 2024 Bread Baking Survey. In the past year alone, King Arthur’s sourdough content drew 18.4 million views, with its Sourdough Starter recipe leading the way with 1.3 million views—the most popular recipe of the year. King Arthur’s Fresh Sourdough Starter is also its top-selling direct-to-consumer item, highlighting how many bakers are beginning their sourdough journey. As more bakers embrace naturally leavened bread, sourdough inquiries continue to flood King Arthur’s Baker’s Hotline—proof that while enthusiasm is high, so are the questions around starter care.

With its smart feeding system, the Sourdough Sidekick eliminates the chore of daily starter maintenance, the top frustration of sourdough bakers. The Sourdough Sidekick’s unique “Auto” mode enables bakers to tell it how much starter their recipe needs and when they need it, down to the day and hour. Fill the flour and water hoppers, add a seed amount, then the Sourdough Sidekick does the rest without requiring discard for up to seven days.

Launched in 2014 as an experiment to see if product innovation could happen faster in the open than behind closed doors, FirstBuild has helped renew the pace of innovation for GE Appliances. FirstBuild has been behind significant commercial successes like the viral Opal Nugget Ice Maker—now the bestselling small appliance for GE Appliances and primary driver for GE Appliances’ re-entry into the small appliances category in 2020 to the revolutionary GE Profile™ Smart Indoor Smoker.

"The Sourdough Sidekick exemplifies what FirstBuild is all about—bringing together passionate communities to build innovative products that solve real needs faced by consumers," said FirstBuild President André Zdanow. "By combining our hardware innovation expertise with King Arthur Baking Company's centuries of baking knowledge, we've created a solution that eliminates the demanding daily maintenance schedule while making sourdough more accessible even when life gets busy, and respecting the overall craft. This is cocreation at its finest—turning community feedback and needs into products that truly enhance people's lives."

King Arthur Baking Company, founded in 1790, brings over two centuries of baking expertise to the collaboration.

“For over 230 years, King Arthur Baking has been at the heart of home baking, and sourdough is one of its most rewarding traditions,” said Karen Colberg, CEO of King Arthur Baking Company. “We’ve helped generations of bakers master the art of maintaining a sourdough starter, and with the Sourdough Sidekick, we’re building on that expertise. This innovation makes sourdough more accessible—whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out. Our mission has always been to inspire the joy of baking and support bakers at every level, and we’re thrilled to partner with FirstBuild to offer a smart, simple way to care for a sourdough starter.”

Key features of the Sourdough Sidekick include:

The Sourdough Sidekick launches today on Indiegogo, with the product expected to begin shipping to backers in January 2026. To learn more and pre-order the Sourdough Sidekick, visit: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sourdough-sidekick

FirstBuild invents what's next for the home. Rapidly taking product concepts from mind to market, FirstBuild's global cocreation mission enables anyone to submit appliance product ideas or contribute to the ideas of others and participate in its hands-on process with its in-house team of world-class engineers and design experts. FirstBuild strives to launch a dozen new products or features each year, with the ultimate goal of launching them at scale—often with their parent company, GE Appliances, a Haier company. Whatever you're passionate about, come make it here. For more information on how to get involved, visit FirstBuild.com.

At GE Appliances, a Haier company, we come together to make good things, for life. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, we are a leading U.S. manufacturer of home appliances with 15,500 team members nationwide. GE Appliances, found in half of all U.S. homes, is proud to be rated America’s #1 Appliance Company (1), trusted by millions of families nationwide. We manufacture and sell products under the Monogram™, Café™, GE Profile™, GE®, Haier™, and Hotpoint™ brands. Our operations support nearly 90,000 additional American jobs and represent an investment of more than $2 billion since 2016. We are deeply committed to the communities where we live and work, passionate about getting closer to our product users to understand their needs and driven by the belief that there’s always a better way.

To learn more about our company, brands, career opportunities, and impact, visit geappliancesco.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

(1) OpenBrand Consumer Tracking Survey, Q1–Q4 2024, Based on Volume of Total Majors/MO/RAC – Retail Units

About King Arthur Baking Company

King Arthur Baking Company has been sharing the joy of baking since 1790. A certified B Corp and 100% employee-owned, King Arthur Baking is the ultimate baking resource, providing the highest quality ingredients for the most delicious baked goods while inspiring connections and community through baking. King Arthur’s superior flours and mixes are available in supermarkets nationwide. Visit KingArthurBaking.com for more specialty baking items, mixes, gluten-free products, recipes, and more. Follow King Arthur Baking Company on Facebook and Instagram.

WarpBuild is rapidly emerging as the market leader in continuous integration, offering a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners that delivers builds up to 10x faster and at a fraction of the cost. Leveraging advanced caching, unlimited concurrency, and native support for Linux, MacOS, and Windows, the platform empowers engineering teams to accelerate development without compromising on performance or security. Builds are intelligently split across custom-built infrastructure and multiple commercial clouds, optimizing peak performance and ensuring that workflows remain resilient under heavy load. The company’s recent expansion into remote container builders—recognized as the fastest in the world by various benchmarks—further solidifies its position at the forefront of CI/CD innovation.

“Our mission is to build products for software engineering teams that make development fast, efficient, and automated,” said Surya Oruganti, CEO of WarpBuild. “With our optimized runners and flexible deployment options—whether on our cloud or yours—teams can focus on building great products instead of managing infrastructure.”

This commitment is evident in every facet of WarpBuild’s design, from its robust caching mechanisms to its scalable, hybrid infrastructure strategy.

For container builds, the system employs a fine-grained automatic caching mechanism that, in real-life scenarios, can reduce build times by up to 40x compared to traditional methods. This breakthrough enables teams to achieve significant productivity gains while lowering operational costs. In addition, builds are split across both proprietary infrastructure and several leading commercial clouds, ensuring that resources are dynamically allocated to meet peak demands, regardless of workload fluctuations.

Expanding beyond its flagship CI runners, WarpBuild recently introduced Helios—a next-generation, agentic workflow definition and automation product tailored for developers. Recognizing that over a third of developers’ time is consumed by process-oriented tasks, Helios automates these workflows with a design built from the ground up for collaboration and the ability to run anywhere, from local environments to any cloud platform. Powered by a custom workflow engine and an in-house developed agent framework, Helios balances performance and flexibility to meet diverse engineering needs. Currently in closed beta, Helios invites select teams to experience its transformative automation capabilities while providing valuable feedback to further refine its features.

"We are building the future of AI-native engineering and developer collaboration," added Oruganti. "Teams need to be remarkably efficient and we are excited to be building the agentic AI automation layer powering them."

Backed by enterprise-grade security measures—including SOC 2 compliance and zero data retention agreements for its AI platforms—WarpBuild is setting a new benchmark for developer productivity for enterprises. With rapid growth already underway, the company continues to drive innovation in build engineering, agentic AI workflows, and developer productivity.

About WarpBuild

WarpBuild empowers engineering teams with a complete set of tools and workflows, enabling fast development iterations that make building, iterating, and deploying code fast, reliable, and delightful. Our team of engineers has been building together for years, driven by a shared passion for developer tools and infrastructure—and a commitment to creating something people truly want. We are backed by top-tier tech investors who passionately support builders working on bold, ambitious ideas. For more information, visit https://www.warpbuild.com.

Rana Hajirasouli, founder of The Surpluss, sees a future where sustainability becomes the foundation, not an add-on, for a profitable business.

For years, the circular economy has been positioned as the answer to sustainable economic growth, promising a transition away from wasteful linear models. Yet, despite growing awareness and technological advancements, global circularity has declined from 9.1% in 2018 to just 7.2% in 2024. This decline shows the fundamental problem, which is that the circular economy is being treated as an add-on rather than an integrated economic force into the core structures of business, trade, and finance.

As the founder of The Surpluss, a climate-tech company enabling governments and businesses to trade excess materials profitably, Rana Hajirasouli, PhD, sees this struggle firsthand. “The circular economy remains a patchwork of good intentions and disjointed strategies,” she says. “For circularity to scale, we must move beyond sustainability as a moral imperative and reframe it as an economic one, motivated by regulatory compliance and financial incentives.” Hajirasouli further argues that shifts must take place for circularity to become a default business model rather than an exception.

One of the biggest barriers to circularity is the perception that it comes at the expense of profitability. Many organizations view sustainability measures as costly add-ons rather than being the core business drivers. The reality, however, is that waste remains an untapped economic asset, a cost to be minimized.

Hajirasouli emphasizes, “Waste is a mispriced asset. The key to closing the circularity gap is to financialize surplus materials—treating them like commodities rather than liabilities.”

Emerging innovations such as Digital Product Passports (DPPs) embed lifecycle data—tracking composition, origin, and repairability into products—creating a market for secondary materials. The European Union (EU) is leading the charge by mandating DPP the framework for batteries by 2026, with textiles, electronics, and construction following in 2030. This signals a shift toward circular accountability, making businesses rethink waste as a financial liability. “Industrial protectionism is accelerating, and circularity is becoming a competitive advantage. Early adopters of digital tracking and secondary material markets will dominate future trade”, says Hajirasouli.

Industries such as electronics, textiles, and packaging must shift toward modular design and high-value material recovery. Governments in other countries are already implementing ‘right to repair’ laws, with product design regulations expected to make planned obsolescence illegal by 2035. Hajirasouli, alluding to the asymmetry between these jurisdictions, states, “With no unified global rules for circularity, US businesses can gain a competitive edge through regulatory arbitrage—leveraging different jurisdictions with partners and suppliers to optimize resource flows ahead of the curve.”

Despite corporate sustainability commitments, the structure of global trade actively discourages circularity. The World Trade Organization (WTO) does not recognize circular materials as a trade category, meaning that in many cases, recycled or refurbished goods are taxed at higher rates than newly manufactured products. The unintended consequence is that global trade favors extraction over recirculation.

Much like the 1944 Agreements for monetary stability, is a Bretton Woods for circularity needed again? As per Hajirasouli, “Circularity policies do not have unified metrics. Without a global framework, the circular economy will remain a collection of localized experiments rather than a global economic system.”

Businesses cannot optimize what they do not measure. While supply chains have been refined for efficiency, waste streams remain largely untracked, unmanaged, and undervalued. Hajirasouli suggests real-time data on materials will work hand-in-hand with sustainable circularity.

While circularity is often framed as a sustainability issue, it is increasingly becoming a matter of resource security. Nations that take circularity seriously understand its direct link to economic sovereignty. For example, the EU is onshoring circular supply chains to reduce dependence on foreign material imports, while the US is investing in semiconductor recycling to strengthen domestic resilience. As nations race to secure their resource independence, circularity will become a strategic priority—not for environmental reasons, but to gain a competitive edge in global trade.

According to Hajirasouli, “At this rate, by 2035, geopolitical competition may accelerate circular adoption faster than any sustainability policy, as countries seek to protect access to critical materials in an era of global resource constraints. Countries taking circularity seriously are leveraging independence on foreign resource extraction and will lead the race in creating new geopolitical flashpoints.”

Emerging technologies such as AI-driven material tracking, blockchain-backed resource passports, and industrial IoT solutions have changed the dynamics as well. By 2028, major corporations may appoint Chief Circularity Officers (CCOs) and Chief Research Officers (CROs) to oversee resource flows in real-time, ensuring that materials are treated as strategic assets rather than waste byproducts. The Surpluss platform connects businesses with partners who can repurpose these surplus materials and assets. “We at The Surpluss are here to make circularity simple and profitable through multisectoral collaboration, not just reduce waste,” says Hajirasouli. “Carbon markets work because carbon has a price. Circularity doesn’t yet—but when it does, the entire economic system will change.”

Most circular initiatives assume that consumers will prioritize sustainability, but the problem is that convenience almost always wins. Even as awareness of climate and waste issues grows, circular products still make up about 8% of global consumption. “The most successful circular systems will be those that require limited behavioral change from consumers. This would mean designing default circular supply chains in e-commerce, automated take-back systems, and subscription-based models that eliminate the burden of ownership.

Circularity needs to be embedded into financial markets, trade agreements, and automated supply chains. “When industries cannot afford to operate without it, circularity will no longer be a ‘choice.’ It will be the foundation of the global economy,” Hajirasouli concludes.

About The Surpluss

The Surpluss is a multi-award winning, female-founded, B-Corp-certified climate-tech company that enables governments and privately held companies of all sizes to trade their excess materials, assets, utilities and resources, profitably. Our intelligent B2B platform helps identify, capture and locate nearby partners that have a use for excess, reducing waste, increasing resource efficiency, and enhancing profitability. We are particularly passionate about catalyzing the next digital evolution of industrial symbiosis to accelerate climate action, with a clear bottom line. For more, visit our website at https://www.thesurpluss.com.

Global Chamber, a global community of CEOs, executives, and industry leaders spanning 525 metro regions worldwide that strategically connects members for optimum impact and success, today announced an exclusive partnership with EZ Newswire, an AI-enabled platform empowering organizations to turn their news into performance.

Through this partnership, Global Chamber members will gain access to EZ Newswire’s AI technology and integrated publisher network, enabling them to seamlessly create and distribute business news to premium outlets. As the preferred global partner, EZ Newswire will offer Global Chamber members an efficient and cost-effective solution to enhance brand visibility and streamline their communications strategy.

“This collaboration underscores Global Chamber’s commitment to equipping our members with best-in-class tools that simplify their marketing and communications efforts,” said Doug Bruhnke, CEO of Global Chamber. “By partnering with EZ Newswire, we are ensuring that our members can easily and affordably share their news, amplify their reach, and achieve greater success in today’s competitive global marketplace.”

Since its launch, EZ Newswire has experienced increased demand from enterprise customers worldwide, providing them with a turnkey solution to create, publish, and amplify time-sensitive business news in premium environments that enhance brand value.

"We are excited to partner with Global Chamber to be their exclusive newswire partner and power the headlines for their community's 525 chapters that serve thousands of businesses of all sizes across the globe," said Neel Shah, EZ Newswire's founder and CEO.

The only newswire trusted by Reuters—the world's largest multimedia news provider, EZ Newswire's technical integration with Reuters is the industry's most advanced, enabling customers to turn their everyday news into quantifiable marketing performance. The partnership is consistent with EZ Newswire's mission to be a leader through innovation and transparency by delivering immediate and high-quality distribution, measurable impact, and clear pricing tied to performance. Organizations such as Saudi Aramco, Mixpanel, the UN, poppi, Priceline, and hundreds of others have switched over to EZ Newswire's platform due to its best-in-class technology and intuitive user experience.

“Partnering with EZ Newswire aligns perfectly with our mission to empower businesses with smarter communication solutions,” added Bruhnke. “We are thrilled to support our members in effectively telling their stories, expanding their reach, and driving measurable business results through EZ Newswire.”

About Global Chamber

Global Chamber® is a unique platform and growing community of CEOs, executives, investors and leaders across 525 chapters and the entire world that strategically connects members anywhere for more impact and success. We facilitate practical and strategic connections that make doing business across regions as easy as doing business across the street, simplifying trade and creating concrete value for our members. We're making connections and growing the network all over the world with trusted leaders that we feel good about introducing. For more information visit www.globalchamber.org.

Global Chamber® is a registered trademark of Global Chamber, LLC since 2014.

About EZ Newswire

EZ Newswire empowers organizations to transform their everyday news into brand performance. Our AI-enabled platform, exclusive distribution network, and omnichannel amplification capabilities make it easy to create, publish, and promote news in premium environments to reach targeted audiences with maximum impact. From startups to scale-ups to the S&P 500, the most influential organizations rely on EZ Newswire to communicate more effectively. For more information, visit www.eznewswire.com.

The Come-See-Me Festival, one of York County’s most anticipated spring traditions, will return to Rock Hill from April 3 to 12, 2025, offering 10 days of family-friendly activities, community spirit, and exciting events. Since its inception in 1962, the festival has grown into a major cultural event, celebrating the best of Rock Hill, its people, and its famous frog mascot.

The Come-See-Me Festival began as a small spring celebration to welcome visitors to the area and has since evolved into a 10-day extravaganza that includes live music, fireworks, fun-filled events, and activities for all ages.

“I could not be more excited for this year’s Come-See-Me Festival,” said Andy Clinton, President and CEO of Visit York County. “It’s such a long-running tradition and truly unique to York County. This event not only brings our local residents together in celebration, but also serves as a powerful driver for tourism. We anticipate hosting many new and returning visitors this year and look forward to showing them what makes York County such a special place to experience.”

Among the many festival highlights are the signature Come-See-Me Parade, the Mayor’s Frog Jump, the Barbeque Cook-off, the Come-See-Me Disc Golf Open, and the dazzling Tailgate Party, Skydiving & Fireworks. Other crowd favorites include Musical Mania, Beach Bash, Chalk On Main, Hops at the Park, and Road Races—each offering a chance to experience the creative energy and hospitality of Rock Hill.

A unique and endearing feature of the festival is its mascot, Glen the Frog, which was created in 1964 by acclaimed local artist and illustrator Vernon Grant, who originally designed the Snap, Crackle, and Pop characters for Kellogg’s in the early 1930s. Grant, inspired by the area's abundance of local frogs, designed the playful frog character to represent the spirit of the festival. Over the years, this quirky frog has become an iconic symbol of the event and a source of pride for Rock Hill residents.

“I’m beyond thrilled for the upcoming Come-See-Me Festival,” said Kelli Shannon, current festival chair. “Our leadership team has worked hard to bring a lineup of exciting activities—both new and returning favorites—that will appeal to every age and interest. From live music and local food vendors to family-friendly activities and special events, it’s all about bringing our community together and having fun. We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone and make this year the best one yet!”

What started as a simple weekend event has now become a 10-day celebration that attracts thousands of visitors annually. 

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit www.comeseeme.org.

About The Come-See-Me Festival

Rock Hill’s annual salute to spring, this 10-day festival brings over 60 events and activities to over 100,000 attendees. Loaded with frogs (yes, frogs!), music and fun, the festival brings together friends, neighbors and festival-lovers from all over the United States and the world. An award-winning festival, Come-See-Me was named the 2019 South Carolina Event of the Year. It’s also ranked as one of the Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 Spring Festivals for more than a decade. For additional information, visit www.comeseeme.org. 

About Visit York County
 
As the destination marketing organization (DMO) for York County, South Carolina, Visit York County exists to raise the profile and boost the economy of York County through tourism and destination marketing while also contributing to the quality of life for residents. For additional information, visit www.visityorkcounty.com.

Global Properties, an international property aggregator, has reached 1 million actual offers. Buyers and investors can access residential and commercial properties in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. The aggregator allows you to quickly compare options from trusted real estate agencies and developers, helping you to make a well-informed decision.

"The Global Properties database is built by integrating international and local developers, real estate agencies, and national aggregators. The data is updated in real time through API integrations and automatic synchronisation with partners' CRMs. AI tools are used to check the relevance of listings maintaining high quality," said Nikolay Zaitsev, Head of Sales for Eurasia and North America at Global Properties.

Global Properties specialists have over 15 years of experience and speak 10+ languages. The platform cooperates with international property experts, including analysts, lawyers, financial advisors, and investment specialists.

Buyers can expect full support throughout every stage of the transaction, including expert guidance in property selection and due diligence, evaluation of investment potential, tax advice, and comprehensive after-sales service.

The website offers other features:

The Value Estimator tool provides an automated property valuation. It analyses:

This helps buyers and investors make smart choices while keeping risks low.

The Global Properties database covers over 50 countries, including top hotspots like the U.S., Spain, the UK, France, Italy, Greece, Thailand, Portugal, and Dubai.

Dubai remains one of the top investment destinations, offering a robust economy, transparent transactions, and attractive returns. With Global Properties, investors get many advantages, including access to exclusive properties for sale in Dubai, ROI forecasting using AI models, buying properties at early stages of construction due to direct integration with developers, and the opportunity to participate in mortgage programmes of international banks,’ said Nikolay Zaitsev.

Investing in property abroad allows you to diversify your assets, gain a passive income of 7–15% per year, and get a residence permit or citizenship. When selecting property, it is essential to consider the local market stability and availability of legal protection for foreign buyers. For example, property in the U.S. does not provide advantages when applying for a residence permit but will provide capital gains of up to 5–6% per year. Foreigners should also consider taxes, maintenance costs, and possible restrictions.

About Global Properties

Based in Dubai, Global Properties is a leading international property aggregator, offering a diverse portfolio of over one million residential and commercial properties for relocation, seasonal getaways, and investment across North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Our platform enables buyers and sellers to seamlessly compare and filter listings from trusted real estate agencies and developers, ensuring informed decision-making. For more information, visit https://global.properties.

In today's digital era, a business’s reputation is no longer confined to word-of-mouth recommendations or physical interactions. The online landscape has dramatically expanded how companies are perceived, making online reputation management (ORM) a critical factor for success. New York-based Danielle Crawford Media specializes in helping businesses shape and protect their online presence, ensuring they maintain a positive reputation that fosters trust and long-term growth.

The Importance of Online Reputation Management

Consumers are increasingly influenced by social media comments, blog posts, and news articles. A business’s online reputation directly impacts brand credibility, customer loyalty, and revenue. Positive online sentiment fosters trust and attracts potential customers, while negative reviews and misleading information can harm a company’s image. Danielle Crawford Media understands these challenges and provides comprehensive ORM solutions to help businesses navigate the digital landscape effectively.

Building Trust Through Strategic ORM

Trust is a cornerstone of any successful business. Danielle Crawford Media empowers companies to proactively manage their online presence, engage with customers, and highlight positive interactions. By strategically showcasing satisfied customer experiences and responding effectively to feedback, businesses can enhance their credibility and demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction.

ORM also plays a key role in brand storytelling. Through strategic content creation, businesses can shape their narrative, highlight achievements, and share positive customer experiences, reinforcing their brand identity and market position.

Enhancing Search Engine Visibility

Search engine optimization (SEO) and online reputation management (ORM) go hand in hand. By optimizing online content, businesses improve search engine rankings while influencing their reputation. Danielle Crawford Media implements ORM strategies that incorporate SEO best practices, ensuring that positive content ranks higher than negative reviews or misleading information. This proactive approach helps businesses maintain control over their online image and attract more potential customers.

Swift Crisis Management and Damage Control

Misinformation and negative press can damage a business’s reputation if not handled effectively. Danielle Crawford Media provides crisis management services that allow businesses to respond swiftly to negative feedback, false claims, or PR missteps. By monitoring online discussions and addressing concerns in a timely, empathetic manner, businesses can mitigate damage and turn potential crises into opportunities for growth.

Ignoring complaints or responding defensively can further escalate issues, which is why Danielle Crawford Media helps businesses develop crisis management plans to ensure transparent and effective communication during challenging times.

Fostering Customer Engagement and Brand Loyalty

Beyond damage control, ORM is also about fostering ongoing customer engagement. Businesses that actively communicate with their audience through social media, forums, and review platforms build stronger relationships with their customers. Danielle Crawford Media encourages businesses to maintain an active online presence, share valuable content, and highlight positive customer stories, ultimately strengthening brand loyalty.

Satisfied customers who feel heard and appreciated are more likely to recommend a business to their network, driving organic referrals and further boosting the company’s reputation.

Conclusion

Online reputation management is no longer optional—it is essential. Whether through SEO improvements, strategic content creation, or proactive customer engagement, Danielle Crawford Media provides businesses with the tools they need to protect and enhance their online image. In today’s fast-paced digital world, a strong reputation is the key to long-term success, and businesses that embrace ORM are poised to thrive.

About Danielle Crawford Media

Danielle Crawford Media, we are committed to amplifying your brand’s voice and driving impactful growth. Our mission is to deliver personalized digital strategies that prioritize measurable success and meaningful engagement. We craft data-driven marketing plans uniquely designed to align with your brand’s goals, ensuring impactful results. Our full-service solutions—from SEO to content creation—are designed to boost engagement and grow your audience effectively. For more information, visit https://www.daniellecrawfordmedia.com.

Eldorado.gg, a leading marketplace for in-game currencies and digital assets, today announced the implementation of Primer as a new payment platform to improve the user experience. This integration enables more seamless transactions for Eldorado's global customer base and reinforces the company’s position as a leader in the digital gaming marketplace. By leveraging Primer’s advanced payment infrastructure, Eldorado's aims to provide quicker, more reliable checkouts while continuing to prioritize security and flexibility in transactions.

Seamless Transactions and Improved User Experience

With Primer integrated into its system, Eldorado offers customers a smoother payment process across a wide range of payment methods. Primer’s technology consolidates multiple payment providers into a single unified platform, reducing friction at checkout. As a result, gamers buying virtual goods on Eldorado —from game accounts to in-game currencies—can complete purchases faster and with greater confidence. The new setup minimizes payment failures and downtime by intelligently routing transactions through multiple providers, ensuring that each purchase is processed even if one network encounters issues.

“Eldorado’s goal is to ensure it's quick, easy and secure for our customers to find the best product for their favorite game, make a payment, receive their order, and get back to playing,” said Arminas Šimkus, Payments Product Owner at Eldorado.gg. “Integrating Primer’s platform helps us deliver on that promise by enabling a seamless payment experience. It builds trust through higher reliability and gives our users more choice in how they pay, all while keeping transactions secure.”

Strengthening Market Leadership in Gaming Commerce

The move to implement Primer not only improves the customer experience but also solidifies Eldorado's standing in the gaming commerce sector. As a marketplace serving millions of gamers worldwide, Eldorado recognizes that a smooth transaction process is critical for maintaining trust between buyers and sellers of digital goods. By adopting innovative payment solutions like Primer, Eldorado differentiates itself as a forward-thinking platform willing to invest in infrastructure that benefits its user community. This enhancement positions Eldorado strongly as the digital asset trading market continues to grow, enabling the company to capture further market share through superior service quality.

Eldorado's marketplace facilitates player-to-player trading of digital assets across numerous popular video games. From World of Warcraft Classic Gold to Fortnite accounts, the platform enables safe transactions for a variety of in-game valuables. The integration of Primer’s payment technology ensures that regardless of the asset being traded or the buyer’s location, the transaction can be completed smoothly. This high level of reliability and ease of use encourages repeat business and attracts new users seeking a trustworthy marketplace.

Expanding Payment Options with Adyen and Stripe

In line with its commitment to payment flexibility, Eldorado is actively working to implement Adyen and Stripe as additional payment gateways. Integrating these global payment processors will offer customers even more ways to pay—from traditional credit cards to region-specific digital wallets—while adding extra layers of redundancy to ensure payments are processed without interruption. By adding Adyen and Stripe, Eldorado aims to broaden its international reach with localized payment choices, all upheld by the platform’s high standards of security and compliance.

Ongoing Commitment to Security and Customer Trust

Eldorado continues to prioritize the security of transactions on its platform alongside expanding its payment features. All payments are protected with industry-standard encryption and fraud prevention measures, safeguarding sensitive data at every step of the purchase. Moreover, the company’s proprietary TradeShield™ system provides an added layer of protection for marketplace trades: it holds the seller’s funds in escrow and guarantees that buyers receive their goods as described or obtain a full refund. This comprehensive approach—combining secure payment processing, robust fraud checks, and an escrow-backed guarantee—underscores Eldorado’s commitment to a safe trading environment for digital assets.

About Eldorado

Founded in 2020, Eldorado.gg is a premier online marketplace, where gamers can securely buy and sell in-game currencies, accounts, items, and other digital assets. As a trusted hub for player-to-player transactions across popular games, we provide a user-friendly platform with competitive pricing, robust security features like the TradeShield™ protection system, and 24/7 customer support. Our mission is to make in-game trading fast, easy, and secure, empowering players to enhance their gaming experiences with confidence. For more information, visit https://www.eldorado.gg.

Unlisted, the AI-powered technology company specializing in off-market residential real estate, today announced Melanie Hayes of The Heider Company at TTR Sotheby’s International Realty is the first agent in the DC metropolitan area to publish an agent profile. Hayes joins her colleagues Joy Denton of Sotheby’s International Realty in Beverly Hills, CA and Brian Caluori of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in Boston, MA.

Unlisted technology is designed to allow agents, buyers, and homeowners to see beyond the MLS. Agents have long searched the tax records to identify homes for clients when nothing on the MLS worked. Unlisted elevates that process and makes the data organized and searchable for everyone.

The platform utilizes publicly available real estate data to create a digital property profile for every home in the country. The real estate records can be quickly searched and organized into curated lists of homes that fit a buyer’s criteria. While the buyers and their agents realize the homes are not for sale, it provides a list of properties they may approach about a potential offer.

Unlisted is unveiling a new feature that leverages the expertise of thoughtfully vetted, proven real estate professionals in the local market to support users. Hayes says, “I believe Unlisted will become an invaluable tool for agents and a reference for homeowners and buyers. I want my profile to be visible and to make myself readily available to help a buyer or homeowner exploring a purchase or sale in the 20007 zip code.”

Hayes serves as an advisor to Unlisted and has guided the startup from its infancy to a national presence and seven-figure funding. On account of Hayes the agent profile was designed to highlight a local agent with a track record in that neighborhood and someone with niche expertise that can truly offer guidance.

Unlike other online platforms, the agents for each zip code are vetted and must be able to offer true value to a prospective buyer or seller. The ethos of Unlisted is different from other real estate websites, the platform is designed to offer information and connection.

Hayes brings extensive real estate experience to her role at Unlisted. She has been with TTR Sotheby's International Realty since 2012, focusing primarily on transactions in Northwest Washington, D.C. Her understanding of the Georgetown market makes her the ideal partner for Unlisted. Hayes is an active member of the Georgetown community, where she lives and works. Additionally, Hayes created GeorgetownPropertyListings.com, a website with local listings.

"We are thrilled to launch Unlisted in the Georgetown market with Melanie Hayes as our agent of record. Her reputation for professionalism, discretion, and delivering exceptional results aligns perfectly with our mission to provide an unmatched off-market real estate experience," said Katie Hill, founder and CEO, Unlisted. "With Melanie’s expertise we are confident this partnership will bring incredible opportunities for buyers and homeowners in Georgetown."

To learn more about Unlisted, visit UnlistedHomes.com. For Unlisted for Agents, visit UnlistedHomes.com/Agents.

To learn more about Melanie Hayes visit GeorgetownPropertyListings.com

About Unlisted

Unlisted is an AI-powered real estate technology platform designed to reveal off-market property opportunities. By leveraging machine learning, the company creates more dynamic, efficient market opportunities for buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals. For more information, visit https://unlistedhomes.com.

Cats may be cherished companions in nearly 50 million U.S. households, but their genetics remain a mystery. Darwin’s Cats, a pioneering research initiative from the nonprofit Darwin’s Ark, is working to change that and calling on cat lovers everywhere to take part in the largest community-powered feline genetics study to date. With its innovative fur-based DNA sequencing method—a first in pet science—Darwin’s Cats is making it easier than ever to contribute to genetics research to improve the health and well-being of cats everywhere.

 

Unlike traditional DNA collection methods, which require saliva swabs or blood draws, fur-based sequencing offers a stress-free way for thousands of cat owners to take science into their own hands—literally. With just a simple brush of their cat’s coat, an easy process that most cats already enjoy, participants can help build the most comprehensive feline genetic database ever assembled to catalyze important scientific discoveries.

“Cats are one of the least-studied companion animals in genomics, and as a result we are missing out on all that genetics can tell us about their ancestry, behavior, and health,” said Dr. Elinor Karlsson, Chief Scientist at Darwin’s Ark, Associate Professor at UMass Chan Medical School, and Director of the Vertebrate Genomics Group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. “I’m excited about Darwin’s Cats’ fur-based DNA collection because it is easy on the cat and easy to scale, making it possible for us to level up cat genetics research.”

Launched last year, Darwin’s Cats is a community science initiative that brings together cat owners, leading researchers, and innovative genomic technologies to solve the mysteries of cat genetics. To advance this research, scientists at Darwin’s Ark developed a novel method for sequencing DNA using fur. This game-changing approach to DNA collection is cat-friendly, cost-effective, and scalable, setting the stage for Darwin’s Cats to advance large-scale genetics research.

By combining genetic data with owner-provided information on appearance, behavior, and health, Darwin’s Cats researchers will be able to investigate:

“This is an exciting opportunity for cat lovers to play a pivotal role in scientific discovery,” said Jill Simmons, Darwin’s Ark CEO. “By harnessing the passion and unmatched expertise of thousands of cat owners, we can transform what we know about cats and help them live healthier, happier lives.”

With 5,000 cats enrolled, Darwin’s Cats is the world’s largest feline community science initiative. And now, thanks to its innovative fur-based approach to DNA sequencing, it is ready for cat lovers everywhere to take part in this groundbreaking study, aiming to enroll 100,000 cats and sequence 5,000 DNA samples in the next year. 

Interested cat owners can become community scientists by registering for free and sharing insights about their cat through research surveys. Those wanting to help expand science’s understanding of feline genetics will receive a DNA kit with a $150 tax-deductible donation that supports the cost of sequencing and analysis. Participants will get regular research updates, and once 1,000 cats are sequenced, they will also receive ancestry and other insights about their cat’s genetics.

Enrollment is now open at darwinsark.org.

About Darwin’s Ark

Darwin’s Ark is a community science nonprofit that catalyzes groundbreaking genetics research by engaging pets and their people in scientific discovery. By uniting pet lovers with leading scientists and cutting-edge genomic technology, Darwin’s Ark explores the genetic foundations of health and behavior—advancing scientific discoveries that improve health and well-being for both pets and their people. Learn more and join the journey of discovery at: https://darwinsark.org.

Statusphere's automated micro-influencer marketing platform continues to innovate in the creator marketing space, most recently through campaigns with GreenPan. The premium cookware brand scaled its UGC using Statusphere’s creator matchmaking technology, resulting in 263 creator posts and 476K+ total views on Instagram. GreenPan also eliminated 286 hours of manual work thanks to the platform’s pre-negotiated collabs with vetted creators.

GreenPan needed a more efficient way to recruit creators and test how UGC impacted paid social campaigns featuring their eco-friendly cookware. The brand wanted to:

The Solution

Using 300+ first-party data points, Statusphere’s platform matched GreenPan with micro-influencers whose lifestyles aligned with the brand’s target audience. By tapping into a network of vetted creators passionate about health-conscious products, GreenPan sourced repurporsable content at scale. This resulted in a steady stream of guaranteed creator content, seamless creator collaborations and a growing UGC library for ongoing promotions.

The Results

What GreenPan Had To Say

“We’re seeing a 3–5X ROAS with UGC created through Statusphere’s platform. Our VP, who’s always challenging us to create authentic content that truly resonates with consumers, has been really impressed by the results. The UGC ads from Statusphere are rapidly becoming top performers in our increasingly complex marketing funnel. We’re grateful for the quality and time-saving benefits that Statusphere’s technology provides, enabling us to scale content creation more efficiently," said Nicole Motto, Influencer & Social Media Marketing Manager at GreenPan.

Why Micro-Influencers Are Difference-Makers

Relatable content and recommendations from “small’ creators are more valuable than ever to consumers. Meanwhile, UGC is a proven way to boost paid social performance but acquiring content from creators at scale is an ongoing challenge for brands.

GreenPan’s success highlights how Statusphere’s automated influencer platform removes barriers to creator recruitment and content sourcing, allowing brands to focus on running high-performing campaigns.

Statusphere’s creator matchmaking technology empowers brands like GreenPan to efficiently connect with the right influencers using 300+ targeting parameters. This allows brands to:

Book a demo to see how Statusphere can help you scale authentic UGC for your paid social campaigns.

About Statusphere

Statusphere is a leading micro-influencer marketing platform that helps busy consumer brands scale influencer collaborations to thousands in a fraction of the time. Trusted by 700+ companies, the platform combines a recruitment-free matchmaking algorithm, automated community management, 48-hour shipping, and guaranteed content to help brands maximize their influencer marketing investment while saving hundreds of hours. To learn more, visit https://joinstatus.com.

Spirited Hive, a premium line of ready-to-drink canned cocktails, is pleased to announce a partnership with Publix Liquors, enabling its immediate expansion into Florida.

To celebrate the growth and expansion, Spirited Hive will host several community events in Tampa, Miami and Orlando through its Hive Community initiative, which connects health-conscious consumers looking for beverage options to complement their balanced lifestyle. Attendees will have an opportunity to taste the better-for-you cocktails firsthand with wellness-oriented activations and exclusive giveaways.

“We continue to see a growing demand for premium ingredients and unique flavor profiles in beverage options among consumers, especially along the coasts,” said Jack Espy, founder and CEO, Spirited Hive. “Only using the most high-quality ingredients possible, our canned spirits are primarily sweetened with organic wildflower honey, giving these classic cocktails a modern twist.”

Fresh off a recent funding round of $3.5 million, Spirited Hive continues to expand into new markets and improve its distribution network given consumer interest in diverse beverage offerings.

Spirited Hive is now available in 355 Publix Liquors stores across Florida and comes in four flavors, along with a Tropical Variety four-pack, priced at $13.99. The RTD cocktails are crafted with premium spirits, sweetened with organic wildflower honey, and are gluten-free.

Spirited Hive is now available in six states including Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, and Connecticut.

About Spirited Hive

Spirited Hive is a premium line of ready-to-drink craft cocktails that redefine the classics. Made with high-quality spirits including gin, tequila, and vodka, Spirited Hive is the only Ready-to-Drink (RTD) cocktail that is fully sweetened by organic wildflower honey in the U.S., providing a better-for-you beverage with no artificial ingredients or synthetic sweeteners. Spirited Hive is a proud partner of Project Apis m., which funds research and efforts to improve honey bee health and vitality. For more information or to find a retailer near you, please visit www.spiritedhive.com or follow @spiritedhive on social media. 

In the ever-evolving world of finance, few individuals have successfully balanced sustainability, innovation, and growth as effectively as Sis Barseghyan, Partner and Chairman of Greenverse Partners. His vision has propelled Greenverse to the forefront of responsible investment driving long-term strategies that harness cutting-edge technologies in the oil and gas, medical, and mining sectors, all while embedding ESG principles at the core of innovation and growth.

Leading Global Debt Solutions at VCA

Beyond his role at Greenverse, Barseghyan serves as Managing Director and Partner at Venture Capital Advisors Ltd (VCA), spearheading global debt solutions for banks, corporations, sovereign entities, and supranational institutions. VCA’s expertise spans a broad range of debt products, including single and multi-tranche issuances, private placements, and high-yield transactions.

His strategic approach ensures that VCA delivers tailored, innovative debt solutions that address the evolving needs of both developed and emerging markets. Whether facilitating mergers and acquisitions or raising capital for growth, Barseghyan’s vision has been instrumental in helping clients navigate complex financial landscapes with confidence and precision.

Multifaceted Career in Investment and Venture Capital

Prior to his current roles, Barseghyan was a Managing Director and Partner at Invista Capital Advisers, overseeing substantial portfolios in the European hospitality and real estate sectors. His tenure saw him lead strategic investments, execute complex transactions, and optimize operational efficiencies to maximize investor value. Simultaneously, as a Venture Partner at Covenant Venture Capital, he played a critical role in supporting high-growth startups and fostering disruptive innovations. His combined expertise in private equity, venture capital, and operational strategy established him as a dynamic leader capable of driving long-term value across industries.

Foundation in Global Finance

Barseghyan’s career in finance began at DNB Markets and Barclays Capital, where he refined his expertise in leveraged finance and infrastructure mergers and acquisitions. These formative experiences provided him with a deep understanding of global financial markets, enabling him to execute large-scale transactions and manage complex financial structures effectively.

Commitment to Sustainable Growth

Sis Barseghyan’s career is a testament to the power of combining financial acumen with a commitment to responsible investment. As one of the three partners at Greenverse Partners, he is reshaping the investment landscape by prioritizing sustainability, innovation, and long-term value creation.

His influence across Greenverse and VCA positions him as a forward-thinking leader in global finance, steering industries critical to the future of business toward sustainable success.

Unlocking Market Potential in Eastern Europe

Recognizing the untapped potential of Eastern Europe including the Baltic States, Barseghyan is keen to bring his extensive expertise in finance and sustainable investment to the region. He sees significant opportunities to advance sustainable business practices, drive innovation, and foster international investment across Eastern European markets.

By leveraging his global expertise in debt arrangement, strategic leadership, and investment, Barseghyan aims to position Eastern Europe as a competitive hub for sustainable economic and technological growth. His vision is to help local businesses scale internationally while attracting global capital, ultimately solidifying the region’s place in the future of sustainable finance.

Sis Barseghyan’s vision across multiple financial domains demonstrates his unwavering commitment to innovation, responsible investment, and strategic growth. His work continues to shape the future of global finance, reinforcing the critical role of sustainability and forward-thinking leadership in today’s economic landscape.

Greenverse Partners is an action-oriented investment and research & development company primarily focused on technological advances in the renewable energy sector. Our mission is twofold: to improve existing energy systems by reshaping them into more environmentally friendly assets and to develop front-line green energy technology. We offer multifaceted environmental solutions that are green, safe, affordable, and straightforward. For more information, visit https://greenversepartners.com.