Disney Offers $60 Million a Year to Hire Workers From a Bankrupt AI Startup
16-minute, 52-second read.
This Week:
- 66 startup founders compete for $100,000 in a reality show where TikTok skills could beat business skills
- An early OpenAI investor is hiring someone to work directly beside him for three years
- Disney offers $60 million a year to hire workers from a bankrupt AI startup
- A new AI platform has generated 1.2 million business ideas to help people start their own companies
- Costco's CEO started as a forklift driver, never graduated from college, and now has a nearly $14 million pay package
- A 29-year-old won Mark Zuckerberg’s trust with a 44-minute call and a memo, then got put in charge of Meta’s biggest AI project
- Zoom is adding eye-scanning technology to help prove you're a real human and not an AI bot
- The CEO of an AI company worth a potential $2 trillion spends up to 40% of his time managing humans
- Melinda French Gates says employees will know within 48 hours if she's unhappy with their work
- Gen Z started building wealth 13 years earlier than boomers but still can't afford the same milestones
66 Startup Founders Compete for $100,000 in a Reality Show Where TikTok Skills Could Beat Business Skills
Sixty-six startup founders showed up at a 400-acre property in Pennsylvania for a two-week competition that reportedly cost $3 million to put together.
Stan cofounders Vitalii Dodonov and John Hu brought them together to build businesses, find customers, make social media videos, and compete for a $100,000 cash prize.
Making entertaining videos was a major part of the competition, and teams could face elimination.
Think about spending years learning how to build a company, only to watch some 22-year-old with a ring light and a TikTok account beat you. You built an app that could change people's lives but nobody watched your video.
The founders worked late, filmed videos during dinner, and gathered around a firepit to hear criticism and face eliminations, just like contestants on a dating show.
One team got so upset over criticism of its video that its members considered splitting up. Before you laugh at these people, remember that you're probably sitting at work right now, making less money than someone filming themselves eating cereal on the internet.
The organizers believe getting attention and finding customers are becoming just as important as building products.
If you spent years becoming great at your job, would you accept losing to someone who's simply better at getting strangers to watch them online?
An Early OpenAI Investor Is Hiring Someone to Work Directly Beside Him for Three Years
An early investor in OpenAI is hiring someone to work directly beside him for three years. The investor, Vinod Khosla, is a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist who has backed some of the world's biggest tech companies.
The job?
Help him decide which startups deserve millions of dollars, meet ambitious founders, research new technologies, and learn how Silicon Valley's biggest investors make money.
Sounds like a dream, right?
Well, hold on, champ. The job originally called for 12-hour office days, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., plus nights and weekends when needed. Khosla later said there are no fixed hours, but the work demands serious commitment.
The salary hasn't been disclosed.
Former chiefs of staff who worked with Khosla have gone on to start companies, launch investment firms, and land major leadership roles.
Imagine spending three years learning from someone who gets to meet tomorrow's billionaires before the rest of the world even knows their names.
Of course, working for a billionaire doesn't automatically make you one. You could sacrifice your evenings, weekends, and social life for three years and still end up looking for another job.
Your friends are getting married, taking vacations, and posting beach pictures, you're still researching another startup at 10 p.m.
But what if those three exhausting years open doors that 20 years of ordinary office work never could?
Would you give up three years of your life for a possible shortcut to the top, or would you rather keep your comfortable job and watch someone else take that chance?
Disney Offers $60 Million a Year to Hire Workers From a Bankrupt AI Startup
Your company goes bankrupt, you're worried about losing your job, and suddenly Disney shows up with a $60 million annual pay package for you and your coworkers.
That's what's happening at Character.AI, an AI startup that filed for bankruptcy after struggling with huge costs and legal problems.
Disney has agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 employees, with their combined yearly pay estimated at $60 million.
That's an average of around $1 million per worker, although nobody knows how much each person would actually earn.
Their company goes bankrupt, and Mickey Mouse shows up with a job offer.
Turns out, even losing your job looks different when you work in AI.
Character.AI's former CEO, Karandeep Anand, had already joined Disney as its first chief technology officer. Disney also offered $20 million for some of the startup's technology, although that deal still faces a possible competing bid.
There's also another twist.
Disney has been cutting jobs at its own company but is now agreeing to hire workers from a startup that couldn't stay in business.
Think about being a Disney employee who just lost your job, watching the company offer huge salaries to people whose employer just went bankrupt.
That's one uncomfortable conversation at the family dinner table.
But the Character.AI workers didn't cause their company's financial problems, and they still have valuable skills Disney wants.
If Disney can afford to spend an estimated $60 million a year hiring AI workers from a bankrupt startup, should its own employees be celebrating the company's future or worrying about their own jobs?
A New AI Platform Has Generated 1.2 Million Business Ideas to Help People Start Their Own Companies
Bill Gross, the entrepreneur who has spent decades building companies, has created something that might make your six-month search for a million-dollar business idea look a little embarrassing.
His new AI platform, Idealab.ai, has studied more than 17 million sources and generated 1.2 million possible business ideas.
And you, my friend, are still deciding whether to start a podcast, open an online store, or sell overpriced coffee to people who can't afford rent.
The platform uses AI to find business opportunities, study competitors, identify potential customers, and help people figure out which ideas might actually work.
Gross also wants to help entrepreneurs turn some of these ideas into real companies.
You spend your entire weekend trying to think of one brilliant business idea, only to discover that a billionaire has built a machine that can suggest thousands before you've even decided on a company name.
Those 1.2 million ideas are not 1.2 million successful businesses.
They're possible opportunities.
Someone still has to build the products, find customers, pay employees, and convince actual human beings to spend money.
Gross wants to help launch 12,000 companies, but that's a goal, not something he's already achieved.
If AI can help almost anyone find a promising business idea, what happens to the person who's been sitting on the same idea for five years, waiting for the perfect moment?
Your future competitor could be a 22-year-old with a laptop, no business experience, and enough confidence to launch while you're still perfecting your logo.
Costco's CEO Started as a Forklift Driver, Never Graduated From College, and Now Has a Nearly $14 Million Pay Package
Costco CEO Ron Vachris started his career driving forklifts in a warehouse in 1982.
He never finished college, never earned a college degree, and somehow ended up running one of America's biggest retailers.
His reported annual pay package?
Nearly $14 million, including stock awards.
Vachris spent about 42 years working his way up, from moving boxes to making decisions for the entire company.
He became CEO in January 2024, and his story is making headlines again.
Who would've thought the guy driving a forklift could one day earn more in a year than most people make in several lifetimes? Suddenly, that expensive diploma hanging on your wall is looking a little nervous.
Vachris didn't jump between companies every two years looking for a better title. He stayed, learned the business, took on bigger jobs, and eventually got the top one.
His father had advised him to focus on doing good work instead of chasing titles. Of course, spending four decades at one company doesn't guarantee you'll become CEO.
Plenty of hardworking people retire without ever getting close to the executive floor and a college degree still opens doors in many careers.
But think about it, Costco's CEO now has a pay package worth about 283 times what its median employee earns. The man who once worked on the warehouse floor now runs the whole operation.
If you were starting your career today, would you spend four years getting a degree, or take a warehouse job and try to work your way to the top?
Be careful before you answer.
That guy you keep walking past in the warehouse might one day be the person deciding your salary.
A 29-Year-Old Won Mark Zuckerberg’s Trust With a 44-Minute Call and a Memo, Then Got Put in Charge of Meta’s Biggest AI Project
You get a call from Mark Zuckerberg, talk for 44 minutes, write one memo, and end up in charge of one of the biggest AI projects in the world.
That's what happened to Alexandr Wang, a 29-year-old who dropped out of MIT and helped start Scale AI.
In 2025, Zuckerberg was unhappy with Meta's progress in AI and called Wang for advice. Two days later, Wang sent him a detailed plan explaining how he would fix Meta's AI problems.
Zuckerberg was impressed enough to eventually put him in charge of Meta Superintelligence Labs, the team working to build some of the world's most powerful AI.
Meta also invested about $14.3 billion in Wang's former company, Scale AI.
This guy sends one memo and gets handed a leading role in a company spending more than $100 billion a year on major investments, largely driven by AI.
Wang wasn't some random guy with a good PowerPoint.
He had already built a major AI company, worked with some of the biggest names in technology, and earned Zuckerberg's respect.
Still, he hadn't personally led the training of a top AI model, yet Zuckerberg trusted him to help lead Meta's attempt to catch its biggest AI competitors.
Some people spend 20 years climbing the corporate ladder, collecting degrees, attending leadership workshops, and begging for promotions. Wang helped turn one conversation and a written plan into one of the most powerful jobs in AI.
Of course, if Meta's massive AI spending doesn't deliver, that impressive job title comes with enormous pressure.
The $100 billion-plus isn't Wang's salary, it's part of Meta's broader investment plans.
If someone like Zuckerberg called you tomorrow and asked how to fix his company, would you have a plan worth reading, or would you tell him you need to schedule another meeting to discuss the meeting?
Zoom Is Adding Eye-Scanning Technology to Help Prove You're a Real Human and Not an AI Bot
Zoom is adding technology that can help prove you're a real human and not some AI pretending to be one. We've officially reached the point where showing your face on a video call might not be enough to convince people you actually exist.
On October 18, Sam Altman's identity company, World, announced that Zoom and financial firms including Bain Capital and VanEck are adopting its human verification technology.
World uses special devices that scan your eyes to help confirm you're a real person.
Once verified, participating Zoom users can show a badge during meetings to prove their identity.
In 2024, an employee at engineering company Arup was tricked into sending about $25 million after joining a video call with AI-generated versions of company executives.
The employee thought the people on the screen were real.
They weren't.
That's the kind of expensive mistake this technology is designed to prevent.
Zoom isn't requiring everyone to scan their eyes, the feature is for participating companies that want extra identity checks. Still, think about where this could go.
Today, you enter a password to join a meeting.
Tomorrow, your company might want proof that you're actually you.
Would you let a company scan your eyes to prove you're human, or would you refuse, even if it meant missing an important meeting or job opportunity?
The CEO of an AI Company Worth a Potential $2 Trillion Spends Up to 40% of His Time Managing Humans
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, the company behind Claude AI, says he spends up to 40% of his working time making sure his employees get along and work well together.
The man running one of the world's biggest AI companies spends almost half his week dealing with humans.
Anthropic has grown to around 3,500 employees and is preparing for a possible stock market debut, with valuations discussed as high as $2 trillion.
Amodei is busy making sure people trust each other, communicate properly, and understand what the company is trying to achieve. He even holds a company meeting every two weeks called "Dario Vision Quest" to explain what's happening and answer questions.
You're building AI that could replace millions of office tasks, only to discover that your own employees still need someone to explain what's going on.
If Amodei works 60 hours a week, 40% means he could spend 24 hours managing company culture, that's three full eight-hour workdays.
Remember, this is the company building AI that could eventually do some of the work you're getting paid to do. Yet its CEO is spending a huge amount of time on something he clearly doesn't want to leave entirely to machines: human relationships.
Amodei made these comments back in February, but the story resurfaced in October as Anthropic's possible IPO attracted attention.
The $2 trillion figure is only a potential valuation, not a confirmed price.
Picture your next meeting.
Your manager spends 45 minutes explaining why everyone needs to communicate better, and you're secretly asking Claude to summarize the meeting.
If one of the world's leading AI companies still needs its CEO spending nearly half his time managing people, is working well with other humans becoming more valuable as AI gets smarter?
Melinda French Gates Says Employees Will Know Within 48 Hours If She's Unhappy With Their Work
Melinda French Gates has a rule that might make your boss look like a professional coward.
If she's unhappy with an employee's work, she says she'll tell them within 48 hours.
Not six months later, not during some awkward performance review, and definitely not after smiling at them in meetings and secretly keeping a list of everything they've done wrong.
The former wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates explained this rule in March, and her comments made headlines again in October.
She doesn't always speak up immediately. If she's angry, she gives herself time to calm down, think clearly, and figure out how to explain the problem without taking her frustration out on someone.
She believes employees deserve to know when something is wrong early enough to fix it. Her approach is meant to stop people from being surprised by criticism during performance reviews.
Think about your own job.
You've been working late, answering emails on weekends, and telling your family you're doing great at work. Then your boss casually announces that your performance has been disappointing for the past four months.
Of course, hearing criticism within 48 hours could also leave employees nervously checking their inbox every time they make a mistake. And Melinda hasn't provided evidence that her approach improves performance.
Would you rather work for a boss who tells you when you've messed up within two days, or one who smiles in your face for six months before destroying your confidence during your annual review?
Gen Z Started Building Wealth 13 Years Earlier Than Boomers but Still Can't Afford the Same Milestones
Gen Z is doing what every financial expert told them to do, and somehow they're still struggling to get ahead.
A new U.S. Bank survey of 5,000 Americans found that Gen Z started building wealth at just 19 years old, compared with 32 for Baby Boomers.
That's a 13-year head start!
But 56% of Gen Z respondents said they've done everything right with their money and still haven't reached their financial goals.
You're saving money, investing early, skipping expensive vacations, and watching your spending, only to find out you still can't afford the house your grandparents bought when they were your age.
The numbers explain why so many young Americans are frustrated.
Home prices have grown much faster than household incomes over the decades, making it harder to buy a house even when you're doing everything you're supposed to do.
In the same survey, 62% of Gen Z respondents said they were struggling to make financial progress, and 29% had given up on owning a home for financial reasons.
You're working, saving, and investing, but someone your age is buying a house, getting married, and posting vacation photos from Italy.
Of course, these are survey responses, not proof that every young American is worse off than their grandparents.
But if starting 13 years earlier still isn't enough to reach the same financial milestones, is the problem how young people manage their money, or how expensive those milestones have become?
Please note that this content is for general information only and shouldn't be considered medical, financial, or professional advice. We encourage you to do your own research and consult a qualified professional before making important decisions.
