Features

In a world awash with AI headlines and tech disruption, Sara Daw, CEO of The CFO Centre, cuts through the noise with a compelling message – AI isn’t coming to take our jobs, it’s coming to transform them. And for company leaders and the finance teams that support them, the implications are both profound and empowering.

Annually my family visits Ithaca, New York to visit friends and celebrate the New Year. Each time we go, I find myself at a small coffee shop; I spend a few hours here by myself, taking stock of where I am with my business, my life, and putting together an intentional idea of where I wish to be at my next visit. I call it my “planning day,” and with my head in a good place, I have some pretty incredible insights that bring great meaning to where I am and where I want to go.

The business world is incredibly volatile, and a company can fail without an expertly executed strategy. Around 90% of startups fail because they run out of capital, don’t define the market need well enough, get outcompeted, or suffer through flawed strategies related to modelling, regulatory challenges, and pricing/cost issues. Without proper strategic planning, a business stands on the edge between success and failure.

The restaurant industry is evolving at a pace previously unimagined. For small restaurant owners, who are often caught between rising operational demands and limited resources, the challenge is particularly daunting.

Building a business is hard enough, but building a business that lasts is even harder. On average, 20% of businesses fail within their first year and 49% fail in their first five years.

The AI revolution is often depicted as a contest between tech giants, each pouring billions into ever-larger, general-purpose models. But while big tech dominates headlines, a quieter transformation is underway: startups with deep domain expertise are building deeply valuable, practical AI solutions that solve real problems. In a world obsessed with big names, it’s these focused, specialist teams that are quietly reshaping industries from the ground up.

Did you know that one of the world’s most recognised fintech companies, Wise, has roots in Ukraine? It’s a story that often goes untold: a fintech giant, founded by Estonians, but in its early days built by a dedicated team of Ukrainian engineers from Cherkasy. This is the unexpected origin story of a company that has revolutionised international money transfers.

Launching a startup is a thrilling endeavour – it’s the dream of building something from nothing, fuelled by passion, grit, and ingenuity. But amidst the hustle of product development, pitching, and building a brand, many founders overlook one of the most critical elements to long-term success: legal infrastructure.

With a potential recession knocking at the door of the American economy, managing cash flow is moving to the centre of the plate for small business founders and CEOs. Recessions inevitably cause a business’s payables to balloon, and with business credit already running tight across the US, the lack of free-flowing capital can create a big problem. 

“Do you want it done fast, or do you want it done right?” This old adage suggests that efficiency and speed naturally come at a trade-off with quality – a troubling thought for anyone who has ever hoped to do something both quickly and properly.

A business partnership can be one of the most rewarding ways to build something lasting and tangible by pooling skills, sharing risk, and aligning ambitions. Partnerships, however, are not without risk.

Sitting in a smoky Moroccan casino at 4am, pregnant and staring down a room of 200 men, I wasn’t just playing poker, I was proving I belonged. Every decision mattered. Every calculated risk, every moment of restraint, every read on my opponents determined whether I’d walk away victorious. That night, I won my first major tournament, and it hit me, poker isn’t just a game, it’s a crash course in business, leadership, and high-pressure decision-making.

Launching a startup is a thrilling endeavour – it’s the dream of building something from nothing, fueled by passion, grit, and ingenuity. But amidst the hustle of product development, pitching, and building a brand, many founders overlook one of the most critical elements to long-term success: legal infrastructure.

Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it emerges in ecosystems where talent and exploration are nurtured and celebrated. This is why startup founders and investors should be paying attention to policy changes in global academic research.

For most Amazon sellers, customer insight is more limited than they’d like. Data is scarce, direct interaction is not an option, and product decisions are often based on trial and error. But a startup called ProductPinion, co-founded by e-commerce entrepreneur Andri Sadlak, is working to change that by bringing real user feedback into product development and Amazon listing optimisation.

In the evolving landscape of health tech, a paradigm shift is underway. We’re moving from isolated product development to the creation of comprehensive systems that prioritise longevity, mental health, and overall well-being. This transition is not just a trend but a necessary evolution to address the complex challenges of modern healthcare.

AI is rapidly reshaping how people discover and evaluate companies online, fundamentally altering the rules for what makes a website succeed. To stand out in this new era, organisations must begin to gear their strategy toward the AI models that will recognise and recommend them.

When most people think of running a PR agency, they think glamour, events, champagne, and paparazzi. But the truth is, that couldn’t be further from the everyday reality of what actually happens.

With a background in building and selling major payments businesses, Justin Pike is no stranger to transforming how money moves. Now, as CEO and Founder of Burbank, he’s leading a new venture from Wales that aims to bring familiar, in-store card-present security to the online checkout process. It’s called Card Present over Internet, and it could just change the balance of power in digital commerce – reducing fraud, restoring trust, and even lowering costs for merchants.

It’s adaptive, data fuelled, and capable of transforming in real time, shifting voice, visuals, and value propositions based on who’s watching, where, and why. For startups and established companies alike, this shift offers both clarity and a challenge to core identity.