INVESTIGATION: HOW THE SAT FAILED AMERICA WHYTHE NFL IS PANDEMIC-PROOF

THE GREAT RETAIL

AMERICA’S RICHEST

SELF-MADE WOMEN

IS TESLA A TRILLION-DOLLAR COMPANY? MEET THE HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUT BILLIONAIRE

Inside

TORY BURCH’S

Survival

Sketchbook

“WE WANTED TO

BE STRONG, PIVOT

AND DO WHAT WE

COULD TO SALVAGE

OUR BUSINESS.”

REINVENTION

AMID THE COVID CARNAGE, A HANDFUL OF INNOVATORS HAVE FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO SELL IN THE 21ST CENTURY, AND INVESTORS, CONSUMERS—AND WORKERS— ARE ALL WINNING

PLUS: THE JUST 100 LIST OF AMERICA’S BEST CORPORATE CITIZENS

November 2020 Volume 203 | Number 5 INSIDE

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COVER STORY

132 | Tory Burch’s

Survival Sketchbook

Amid a luxury fashion apocalypse, one

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retailers (and one of America’s richest

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ON THE COVER: TORY BURCH BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

TEAMWORK.

THE CLEAR SOLUTION TO CLEAN WATER FOR MEGACITIES.

As cities adapt to a new normal, we need to

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Survivors &

Thrivers: 25

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The Great Retail

112

America’s

Most Successful

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The SAT Fails Its Biggest Test

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Maximum

Maverick

Small-Business Standouts

These companies

showcase the strength, adaptability and

diversity of America’s entrepreneurs, giving us hope for the country’s economic future.

Reinvention

Amid the Covid-19 carnage, a handful of innovators have finally figured out how to compete against

Amazon and sell in the 21st century. Investors and consumers—and, yes, workers—are all winning.

Plus: The Just 100 By Steven Bertoni

Women

Entrepreneurs

Forbes has expanded our annual ranking of the nation’s wealthiest self-made women to 100, up from 80 last year. The pandemic has been kind to some, including an executive of work-from-home staple Zoom Video Communications,

but less rosy for others.

The College Board, owner of the SAT, is a billion-dollar company facing an existential crisis: failing to con nect students to success and opportunity in an American system of higher education that was already struggling before the pandemic.

By Susan Adams

Thrill-seeker extraor dinaire Jared Isaacman flies MiGs to relax, but he just pulled his wildest maneuver yet: taking his restaurant and hotel-payments company public while his clients are flaming out. And he just broke the billionaire barrier.

By Giacomo Tognini

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F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

Our advisors listen, so you know you’ve been heard.

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FRONTRUNNER

17 | Pandemic-Proof

Despite being blindsided by the

coronavirus, the National Football

League’s cash juggernaut powers on.

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20 | Large Accumulation

Snowflake’s public debut generated

a blizzard of new billionaires.

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Plus: Classic Rolls-Royce models

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go electric.

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Alice Zhang is working on a drug

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that could be effective against

a host of viruses.

24 | Buy, Hold, Sell

Pick up a Mickey Mantle rookie card;

trade in your Norman Rockwell.

26 | World of Forbes

Around the globe with our

36 international editions.

28 | Conversation

Readers praised new billionaire

Tyler Perry’s business acumen and

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all-around creative mojo.

CONTRARIAN

ENTREPRENEURS

31 | Killing It

Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith are

cashing in by selling immersive mur

der mysteries in monthly subscription

boxes. By Elisabeth Brier

INNOVATION

34 | Health vs. Wealth

Why is biotech billionaire Bob Duggan

trying to make a new antibiotic—and

how can he possibly make money

from it? By Leah Rosenbaum

INNOVATION

38 | The Remote-Work Absolutist

GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij built a

$3 billion developer-tool business

without maintaining any offices. Now

he’s warning companies against doing

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telecommuting halfway. By Alex Konrad

MONEY & INVESTING

42 | The Prophet and Her Profits Cathie Wood has leveraged her

zealous belief in innovation—and her bold predictions—into a $29 billion in-assets investment firm and a

$250 million net worth. By Antoine Gara

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two overseas crises bear watching. By Steve Forbes

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F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) would like to congratulate its Man & Woman of the Year winners. Thank you for your relentless pursuit of a world without blood cancers.

2020 LOCAL WINNERS

NATIONAL MAN OF THE YEAR

RICHPENTZ

Fishers, IN

Principal Global Investors

ALABAMA • BIRMINGHAM: Chris Devine, Green Rock • Sarah McElvy, Milo’s Tea Company • SOUTH ALABAMA: Gene Fox, Remax; Town of Dauphin Island • Cathy De La Garza, Uniti Fiber • ARIZONA • PHOENIX: Anthony Lee, MD, Synergy Rehabilitation & Wellness Center • Phoenix • Kelly Bowden, Bowden Investment Group • ARKANSAS • BENTONVILLE: Kyle Moore, Edward Jones • Helen Page, PricewaterhouseCoopers • LITTLE ROCK • Justin Kramer, Conway Christian School • Nicole Wilson, Arkansas Children’s Hospital • CALIFORNIA • BAKERSFIELD: Anthony Galagaza, Bakersfield City Fire Department • Keri Lynn Kehoe, Self-Employed • BAY AREA: William Ellis, Google • Dominique Kim, Blue Shield of California • FRESNO: Nicolas Kazarian, Wells Fargo • Kristen Droogh, Guardian Harvest • GOLD COAST: Craig Burritt, Aviara Real Estate • Ashley Chanel, Ashley Chanel Events + Design • LOSANGELES: RyanCarley, Mason Controls • Samantha Park, Project Manager • MONTEREY BAY PENINSULA: Jose Castillo, Salinas Valley Memorial Healtchare System • Stephanie Morgan, Spreckels Elementary School • ORANGE COUNTY INLAND EMPIRE: Brent Coleman, Tommy’s Angels Foundation/Retired Law Enforcement • Vanessa Magee, Aesthetician • SACRAMENTO: Ben Sadeghipour, Nahamsec • Allison Steele, Drisha Leggitt & Company • SAN DIEGO: Sonny Talamantes, Davis & Adams Construction • Monica Hayes, Holiday Retirement • SAN JOSE: Mike Mordaunt, Savills • Alisha Weed, Pfizer • COLORADO • DENVER: Sam Winegrad, MECO IV • Jeannine Blankenship, Conejos River Anglers • CONNECTICUT • CONNECTICUT WESTCHESTER HUDSON VALLEY: Rob Bergmann, New York City DOE • Christine Causa, White Plains DOE • DELAWARE • NORTH DELAWARE: Josh Shaver, Diamond State Financial Group • Angie Correale, University of Delaware • SOUTH DELAWARE: Scott Underkoffler, Delaware Department of Transportation • Robbin Thompson, State of Delaware Court of Common Pleas • DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA • WASHINGTON DC METRO: Nathan Scalla, Clark Construction • Tina Swallow, Cisco Systems • FLORIDA • JACKSONVILLE: Dennis James, VyStar Credit Union • Heather Bell, Enterprise Holdings • ORLANDO: Michael Espinosa, InsuranceConsultantsofCentralFlorida •Kendra Haywood, The Core Group • PALM BEACH: Grant Ganzi, Grand Champions Polo Club • Teri Klotz, Boca Raton Regional Hospital & Baptist Health • TAMPA: Mark Meabe, BayCare Medical Group • Jennifer Jenkins, Rooted Holistic Health Coaching,Inc.•GEORGIA•ATLANTA:JeffRoffman,JeffRoffmanPhotography

• Amber Hopkins, Alston Construction • SAVANNAH: Jeff Maine, Proudly • Cathleen Barela, Keller Williams • IDAHO • Clifton Martin, St. Luke’s Health System • KatieCrawford,April Florczyk Real Estate at Keller Williams Realty • ILLINOIS • CHICAGO: Daniel Serota, Aon • Clio Silman, Global Banking Executive in Transition • INDIANA • INDIANAPOLIS: Rich Pentz, Principal Global Investors • Rhonda Hoeft, AR/Haus Group Keller Williams Realty • NORTHEAST INDIANA: Micah Smith, MD, Ortho Northeast • Rachel Hollingsworth, MD, Midwest Anesthesia serving Lutheran Health Network • IOWA • CENTRAL IOWA: Ryan Doty, Des Moines Police Department • Emily Wilkinson, U.S. Bank • KANSAS • WICHITA: Blake Ester, Toppers Plus Truck Accessories • Morgan Calvert • KENTUCKY • LEXINGTON: Jamal Muashsher, Valvoline • Dr. Reshma Ramlal, University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center • LOUISVILLE: Scott Norton, Stock Yards Bank & Trust • Donna Reed • LOUISIANA • LAFAYETTE: Rob Perillo, KATC-TV • Vanessa Magnon, Lafayette Public High Schools • MARYLAND • BALTIMORE: Blair Kennedy, Keller Williams Realty • Alison Bucklin, Pure Water Tech • EASTERN SHORE: Randy Martin, Martin Commercial Real Estate Services LLC • Patsy Lanning, Vision Technologies, Inc. • MASSACHUSETTS • BOSTON: William Iandoli • Kelly Provost, CFGI • MICHIGAN • DETROIT: Martin Uhlik, UAW Local 600 • Nikki L. Ruddy • GRAND RAPIDS: John Doorn, JH Realty Partners • Sarah Drevon, Spectrum Health • MINNESOTA • MINNEAPOLIS: Marc Thompson, Wells Fargo • Stacey Stratton, True Talent Group • MISSOURI • KANSAS CITY: Marty Bax, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P • Katie Grimes, Fountain Mortgage • ST. LOUIS: Suvir Dhar, SWMW Law • Lindsee Travis, Best Teacher Supply • NEBRASKA•OMAHA: JillKestel,NebraskaMedicine•NEWJERSEY•RobGill, EPIC Insurance Services • Angela Newman, Indeed.com • NEW MEXICO • David Grenache, TriCore Reference Laboraoties • Justina Grant, Albuquerque Business First • NEW YORK • ALBANY: Chuck DeCitise, Regeneron • BUFFALO: Joseph Burwick, Freed Maxick • Carly Kennedy, Lawley Insurance • LONG ISLAND: Jesse Giordano, Opal Wealth Advisors • Regina Smith, Karmic Grind-Gritty Buddha • NEW YORK CITY: Kevin Webster, BNP Paribas • Fariha Kabir, Capsule • NORTH CAROLINA • CHARLOTTE: Patrick Gildea, CBRE • Lauren Palmer • TRIANGLE (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill): B. Reeves, CosmoLex • Gayle Aiken • NOVA SCOTIA • HALIFAX: PeterBraithwaite,PeterBraithwaiteStudio•TraceyScanlon,SteeleAuto Group • OHIO • CINCINNATI: Drew Homan, Coldwell Banker West Shell• Kim Beach, Village Insurance • CLEVELAND/AKRON: Justin Brazie,

NATIONAL WOMAN OF THE YEAR

TINASWALLOW

Falls Church, VA

Cisco Systems

NATIONAL

RUNNERS-UP

JESSE GIORDANO

Glen Cove, NY

Opal Wealth Advisors

ALL STAR

ALUMNI

BRIAN FULLER

(Lexie’s Legacy Team)

Atlanta, GA

Integrated Care Solutions

2020 ALL STAR ALUMNI

LAUREN PALMER Charlotte, NC

ALLISON JOCKEL Charlotte, NC Businessolver

The Sherwin-Williams Company • Marissa Haas, John Carroll University • COLUMBUS: Jonathan Mugler, Justice for Girls • Erica Mantell, Ohio Health • DAYTON: Brian LaFreniere, Speedway, LLC • Sara White, Hylant• OKLAHOMA• OKLAHOMACITY:ChadAlexander,Consulting for Tomorrow, Inc. • Dr. Jordan Morton, Mercy Hospital • OREGON • PORTLAND: Will Winter, MD, Compass Oncology • Tara McShane, Country Financial• PENNSYLVANIA• HARRISBURG: Paul Tronilo, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management• EmilyArtman, Geisinger Health Foundation • LEHIGH VALLEY: Gregg Potter, Capital Blue Cross • AnnMarie Vigilante, Langan • PHILADELPHIA: Tom Fox, AnnieMac Home Mortgage • Ellen Rubesin • PITTSBURGH: Bob Friend, Howard Hanna • Lindsey MeyersVanderVeer,FreelanceEventPlanning&Consulting•SCRANTON: Matt Beynon, Brabender Cox, LLC • Linda Walsh, Christian Saunders Real Estate • QUÉBEC• MONTRÉAL: Riccardo Zerbino, Baker Tilly •Alessandra Tropeano, Air Canada • RHODE ISLAND • Richard Laboissonniere, Boss Entertainment • Elizabeth DeLaitsch, CIBC • SOUTH CAROLINA • LOW COUNTRY (CHARLESTON): Robert McGuirt, Vikor Scientfic • Taylor Mitchell, Tift Properties • MIDLANDS (Columbia): Blake Wood, Bioseal • Meg Huggins, River Bluff High School • UPSTATE (Greenville/ Spartanburg): Richard Cox, C. Dan Joyner, REALTORS • Cortney Carter, Collett • TENNESSEE • KNOXVILLE: Adam King, Keystone Mortgage • Laura Benton • NASHVILLE: Eric Larsen, Eric Larsen Law • Kristin Gore, Kristin Gore Yoga • TEXAS • AUSTIN: Daniel Gonzalez, GPAC • Fallon Allison, McGuire Moorman Hospitality • DALLAS: Campbell Puckett, CBRE • Teresa Keenan, Retired, Non-Profit Executive • FORT WORTH: Jim Hogan, GM Financial • Traci Bernard, Texas Health Southlake • HOUSTON: Kyle Santolini, Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty • Lauren Paine, Northwestern Mutual • MONTGOMERY COUNTY: Jamie Schneider, Folk Portraits • Brandi Berrihyll, California Closets • SAN ANTONIO: Thomas Guevara, Bexar County • Linda May, MD, WellMed • UTAH • SALT LAKE CITY: Roger Olbrot, R&R Bodyworks • Carly Brecheisen, Carly Parties • VIRGINIA • Andrew Nusbaum, S. L.Nusbaum Realty •DianeSimon, DominionEnergy •WASHINGTON• SEATTLE: Scott Bond, Zillow • Jenn Mueller, Compass • WISCONSIN • MADISON: Lane Manning, DreamLaneReal Estate |RE/MAXPreferred • Anita Mahamed, Wipfli LLP • MILWAUKEE: Sergio Piraino, Kohl’s • Jennifer Burfeind, Jennifer Properties, LLC

ATLANTA: Brian Fuller, Integrated Care Solutions • AUGUSTA: Onnie Sanford, Paleo Num Yums • BAKERSFIELD: Ghina Itani, Itani Design Concepts • CHARLOTTE: Allison Jockel, Businessolver • CLEVELAND/AKRON: Cindy Burke, Oswald Companies Retiree • EASTERN PA/DELAWARE: Melanie O’Connor, EDSI • FRESNO: Shantelle Andrews, The Andrews Companies • Mike Shirinian, Elbow Room • GOLD COAST: Star Tomlinson, The Drain Co. • INDIANAPOLIS: Zack Bernas, TWG Construction Services • KANSAS CITY: Molly Lack, The University of Kansas Health System • LAS VEGAS: Deirdre Strunk • LEHIGH VALLEY: Amy Kruzel, Norris McLaughlin, P.A. • LONG ISLAND: Nicole Massa, AvalonBay Communities • LOS ANGELES: Cameron Fay, Writer & Director • Mindy Sterling, Actress • MADISON: Zeus Arreguin, E3 Coaching Madison • MIAMI: Richard Marquez, L&R Structural Corp. • MINNEAPOLIS: Robert K. Brown, AxisCommunications • MONTEREY: Nancy Scheid, Scheid Family Wines • NASHVILLE: Hunter Reed, Reliant Bank • Tiffany Reid, Colliers International • NEWPORT: Richard Lindholm, Mobile Beacon • OMAHA: Kevin Malone, UMB Bank • Courtney McCashland, AuctusIQ, LLC • PALM BEACH: Victor Concepcion, VRC Events • PHILADELPHIA: Tyler Geibel, Mulligan’s Bar & Grill • PITTSBURGH: Nicole Conti, Pressley Ridge • SACRAMENTO: Martha Bernauer, Lyon Real Estate • SALT LAKE CITY: Jodie Drecksel, Medtronic, Inc. • SAVANNAH: Kelley Sullivan, New American Funding • TRIANGLE (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill): Camille Spruill, ezTagile, LLC • WASHINGTON DC METRO: James Roberts, Intentional Wealth Partners

SIDELINES

A Time for Action CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: STEVE FORBES; CEO AND PRESIDENT: MICHAEL FEDERLE 

November 2020 • Volume 203 | Number 5

EDITORIAL

Robert F. Smith told me something a few months ago

10

that stuck: The coronavirus, he said, had in some ways been “a blessing.” Specifically, it had forced upon every one in America time to slow down, to listen, to think.

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That helped explain the countrywide urgency follow

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ing George Floyd’s killing and other racial injustices:

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Given this unrequested gift of time, millions of Ameri cans could see the obvious in ways they previously couldn’t. National reflection spurred national action.

Progress requires that business play a leading role. Examples abound on our fourth annual Just 100 list (page 63), which shows that even big-box retailers like Target (page 61) have embraced the benefits of the proverbial rising tide that lifts all boats.

As a voice for progress throughout our history, Forbes is also taking action. Our qualitative curated packages, such as the 30 Under 30, look like America. To supplement our quantitative “counting” lists that don’t, we’ve created entirely new franchises, most notably the Self-Made Women package (page 112), which has become an annual reader favorite.

Heading into 2021, we’re committed to doing more. First, we’re going to expand the scope of our coverage itself. Forbes is synonymous with success, and we’re increasingly going to highlight those who are on their way: The Next 1000. (Nominations are now open at forbes.com/next-1000-nominations.) We’ll devote an issue to Inclusive Capitalism that will focus on systemic change—an extension of our call for a Greater Capitalism to generate permanent solutions to seemingly intractable inequities. And we’re bolstering For(bes)the Culture, the grassroots Black and Brown community that emerged from the 30 Under 30 family. More staff and more con tent, serving thousands of members of what’s becoming the preeminent professional community of its kind. What I love about all these initiatives is that

they’re authentic to Forbes and what we stand for. Political gridlock and dysfunction underscore the need for all of us to hold ourselves to a higher standard, identify positive action right now—and then execute.

—RANDALL LANE, CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER

RANDALL LANE, Chief Content Officer

Director, Editorial Operations: Caroline Howard; Executive Editors: Luisa Kroll, Kerry Lauerman, Michael Noer

Assistant Managing Editors: Jessica Bohrer (Editorial Counsel), Kerry A. Dolan, Brett Knight, Rob LaFranco, Rashaad Lambert (Culture & Community), Janet Novack, Michael Ozanian, Jennifer Rooney, Matt Schifrin, Michael Solomon

Senior Editors: Susan Adams, Maneet Ahuja, Dan Alexander, Kurt Badenhausen, Steven Bertoni, Jeremy Bogaisky, Abram Brown, Dawn Chmielewski, John Dobosz, Amy Feldman, Martin Giles, Christopher Helman, Alex Knapp, Alex Konrad, Alan Ohnsman, Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Susan Radlauer (Research), Tina Russo McCarthy, Nathan Vardi, Merrill Vaughn

Deputy Editors: Colleen Curry, Steven Ehrlich, Iain Martin, Andrea Murphy, Chase Peterson-Withorn, Helen A.S. Popkin, Glenda Toma, Halah Touryalai, Vicky Valet, Jennifer Wang, Taesik Yoon; Associate Editors: Thomas Brewster, Michael del Castillo, Antoine Gara, Julius Juenemann, Maggie McGrath, Marty Swant, Isabel Togoh, Alexandra Wilson

Staff Writers: Angel Au-Yeung, Madeline Berg, Jason Bisnoff, Lauren Debter, David Jeans, Katie Jennings, Jeffrey Kauflin, Noah Kirsch, Chloe Sorvino, Kristin Stoller, Michela Tindera, Ruth Umoh, William Yakowicz

Reporters: Justin Conklin, Katherine Love (Managers, Editorial Operations); Jack Brewster, Deniz Çam, Hayley Cuccinello, Elizabeth Daffin, David Dawkins, Brianne Garrett, Sarah Hansen, Sergei Klebnikov, Tanya Klich, Matthew Perez, Jonathan Ponciano, Carlie Porterfield, Rachel Sandler, Christina Settimi, Ariel Shapiro, Giacomo Tognini, Lisette Voytko

Assistant Editors: Elisabeth Brier, Kenrick Cai, Abigail Freeman, Eliza Haverstock, Christian Kreznar, Monica Melton, Sofia Lotto Persio, Leah Rosenbaum, Alexandra Sternlicht, Kristin Tablang, Samantha Todd, Hank Tucker

Art and Production: Alicia Hallett-Chan (Design Director); Merrilee Barton, Charles Brucaliere, Nick DeSantis, Anton Klusener, Suzanne O’Neill, Robyn Selman, Philip Smith, Gail Toivanen

Audience Development: Social Media: Shauna Gleason (Director); Caroline Dilone, Dario Foroutan, Evan Spadaccini. Newsletters: Nick Shippers, Rachel Thomas

Video: Tim Pierson (Director); Greg Andersson, Leah Bottone, Meghan Christensen, Ivan Clow, Travis Collins, Julia Ferrier, Marc Gomes, Nick Graham, Riley Hallaway, Matthew Kang, Kieran Krug-Meadows, Chad McClymonds, Juliet Muir, Bernard Osei, Jonathan Palmer, Brian Petchers, Morgan Sun, Kirsten Taggart

SALES AND MARKETING

JESSICA SIBLEY, Chief Revenue Officer

Ad Sales: Manni Arango, Maria Aiza Contro, Aaron Andrews, Julia Aziz, Jake Bell, Jessica Blitzer, Leann Bonanno, Marissa Brown, Jeremy Campbell, Shae Carroll, Seema Chaudhari, Julie Chisar, Ruth Chute-Manning, Alexandra Cohn, Jennifer Cooke, Jennifer Crowe, Sarah Curry, Hannah Davidson, Leigh Day, Sean Downey, Emilie Errante, Taylor Felgenhauer, Olivia Gelade, Louisa Goujon, Janett Haas, Shauna Haras, Megan Hennessey, Matthew Herrmann, William Hosinski, Victoria Kreher, Martina Landeka, Jordan Loredo, Brian McLeod, Tara Michaels, Leah Monroe, Bianca Olivas, Akshay Patel, Ryan Queler, Paul Reiss, Melanie Ruderman, Jesse Silberfein, Abbey Smith, Rebecca Taroon, William Thompson (SVP), Laura Villaraut, Kyle Vinansky, Elliot Vinzon, Adam Wallitt, Alex Wood, Casey Zonfrilli

Brand Strategy/Marketing/Partnerships: Lynn Schlesinger (Chief Marketing Officer); Gaston Alegre, Rachel Aquino, Kate Bishop, Erika Burho, Nicholas Clunn, James Colistra, Danielle Collins, Connor Davis, Krystle Davis, William Delehanty, Samantha Evans, Erica Ferraro, Moira Forbes (EVP, ForbesWomen), Kristine Francisco, Ross Gagnon, Cara Gilmartin, Sahara Gipson, Ashley Grado, Julie McGovern, Adelaide Hill, Olivia Hine, Merryl Holland, Amani Hussain, Kari Jones, Nicolette Jones, Nicole Lamastra, Juliana Longo, Brian Lee, Douglas Lopenzina, Erika Maguire, Scott McGrath, James Mentzinger, Sophia Minassian, Antonio Morales, Sade Muhammad, Alexis Murillo, Morgan O’Hare, Romy Oltuski, Zehava Pasternak, Jahcelyne Patton, Jennifer Ramos, Allison Rickert, Claire Robin son, Joshua Robinson, Danielle Rubino, Claire Ryan, Peter Sarnoff, Andrey Slivka, Allyson Souza, Kara Stiles, Ashka Thaker, Rashaad Denzel Toney, Meenal Vamburkar, Jason Webster, Janet Yin

Digital Revenue Operations: Rebeca Solorzano (SVP), Alyson Williams (SVP); Ashley Alexander, Sergiu Bucur, Lisa Chiobi, Andrew Dizon, Rachel Goroff, Lauren Gurnee, Victor Lee, Emily Lewis, Nicole Lewitinn, Kelly Mui, Melis Ocal, Casey Riordan, Steven Song, Jacqueline Subramaniam

ForbesLive: Sherry Phillips (SVP); Jessica Charles, Chardia Christophe, Alex Engel, Madie Federle, Julieanna Gray, Kayla Jennings-Rivera, Nicole Kerno, Susan Kessler, Jessica Lantz, Michael Martin, Sydney Melin, Menaka Menon, Jimmy Okuszka, Mary Margaret Soderquist, Elizabeth Strozier, Shelby Tompkins, Blair Walther

DIGITAL

NINA GOULD, Chief Product Officer; VADIM SUPITSKIY, Chief Technology Officer

Product: Ebony Shears; Terrence Agbi, Jennifer Bruno, Youssef Drihmi, David Feldman, Nina Foroutan, Kelly Hanshaw, Erica Ho, Mike Medric, Martin Navarrete, Dayne Richards, Grant Tunkel, Katie Ward, Mila Wentrys

Corporate Tech: Peter Hahm; Jiten Bhojwani, Christopher Frank, Justin Harris, Joshua Hartzog, Adaze Idehen-Amadasun, Julia Kim

Design: Dan Revitte; Sara Amato, Andres Jauregui, Joy Hwang, Adrienne Michalski

E-Commerce: Emily Jackson; Cory Baldwin, Madeline Kaufman

Engineering: William Anderson; Adrian Ali, Ken Barney, Don Cao, Igor Carrasco, Brian Chamberlain, Kay Chan, Chris DeLeon, Mudit Dhawan, Philip Diaz, Stephen Dotz, Gustavo Faria, Jae Kyung Ha, Benjamin Harrigan, Isabelle Ingato, Daryl Kang, Yanella Lopez, Marissa Orea, Drew Overcash, Sungmin Park, Sameer Patwardhan, Mads Pedersen, Joseph Pietruch, Totaram Ramrattan, Ronak Ray, Charles Rea, Rodney Rodriguez, Kyle Rogers, Aaron Romel, Alexander Shnayderman, Zachery Shuffield, Dmitri Slavinsky, Scott Warner, JD Weiner, Forrest Whiting, Raymond Wong, Heath Woodson, Boris Yakubchik

Business Intelligence: David Johnson; Matthew Haensly, Evelyn Kanu, Alexi Potter, Robert Salgado, Kelsey Simmons, Gregory Spitz, Sukanya Tiwatne

CORPORATE

Finance/Operations: Michael York (Chief Financial Officer); Cristina Baluyut, Noemi Baraket, Oneil Brodie, Adele Cassano, Rosa Colon, Chelsea Deluca, Mike Deochand, Cindy Eng, Nancy Garcia, Iris Garcia, Christie Hansen, Giedre Kristahn, Christopher Labianca, Nina LaFrance (SVP, Consumer Marketing), Stephanie Lewis, Jaclyn Liu, Christopher Lopiano, Andrea Maniscalco, Natalie Maquiling, Christine Martinez, Paul Motta, Nelson Osegueda, Willie Osegueda, Amanda Pasquarello, Barbara Passarella, Jeanine Pecoraro, Gary Prasto, Ivette Reyes, Angel Sauri, Diane Schmid, Lisa Serapiglia, William Simmons, Vera Sit, Courtney Stanton, Parag Tolia, Buddy Trocchia, Donald Walsh

Corporate Partnerships: Peter Hung (Senior Liaison, Investment Group); Taha Ahmed, Rich Karlgaard, Matt Muszala, Katya Soldak

Communications: Matthew Hutchison (Chief Communications Officer); Laura Brusca, Susan Masula, Jocelyn Swift, Christina Vega

Human Resources: Ali Intres (SVP); Ashley Abendschoen, Brooke Dunmore, Emanuel Joseph-Bain, Amanda Osit, Rachel Shapiro

Legal: MariaRosa Cartolano (General Counsel); Paul Anderson, Lindsey Datte, Susy Garcia, Nikki Koval, Josephine Love-Loftin

Forbes Asia: William Adamopoulos (CEO), Justin Doebele (Editor); FORBES CHINA: Sherman Lee (CEO), Russell Flannery (Editor)

Founded in 1917

B.C. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1917–54) Malcolm S. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1954–90)

James W. Michaels, Editor (1961–99) William Baldwin, Editor (1999–2010)

Print Magazine Consultants: Priest + Grace (design); Brian Dawson (editorial); Sarkis Delimelkon (production)

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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ATEM Mini’s includes everything you need. All the buttons are positioned on the front panel so it’s very easy to learn. There are 4 HDMI video inputs for connecting cameras and computers, plus a USB output that lookslike a webcam so you can connect to Zoom or Skype. ATEM Software Control for Mac and PC is also included, which allows access to more advanced “broadcast” features!

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ATEM Mini is really a professional broadcast switcher used by television stations. This means it has professional effects such as a DVE for picture in picture effects commonly used for commentating over a computer slide show. There are titles for presenter names, wipe effects for transitioning between sources and a green screen keyer for replacing backgrounds with graphics.

Live Stream Training and Conferences

The ATEM Mini Pro model has a built in hardware streaming engine for live streaming via its ethernet connection. Thismeans you can live streamto YouTube, Facebook and Teamsin much better quality and with perfectly smooth motion. You can even connect a hard disk or flash storage to the USB connection and record your stream for upload later!

Monitor all Video Inputs!

With so many cameras, computers and effects, things can get busy fast! The ATEM Mini Pro model features a “multiview” that lets you see all cameras, titles and program, plus streaming and recording status all on a single TV or monitor. There are even tally indicators to show when a camera is on air! Only ATEM Mini is a true professional television studio in a small compact design!

ATEM Mini...........$295

ATEM Mini Pro..........$595

ATEM Software Control..........Free

Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com

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President and CEO, Consumers Energy

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“With all thy getting, get understanding”

FACT & COMMENT

By Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief

Hot Spots That Could Burn U.S. 13

While we are focused on a possible new

wave of Covid-19 cases and the upcoming elec

tions, other crises are brewing that could have

an outsize—and adverse—impact on the U.S.

Two big ones are a possible conflict be

tween Turkey and Greece—whose enmity

goes back centuries—and trouble in the un

derappreciated and underreported country

of Belarus, which had been part of the old

Soviet Union but became a separate nation

when the Soviet empire collapsed in 1991.

Both Turkey and Greece are increasingly

at odds over drilling rights for oil and gas

in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Greece, which has nu merous islands in the area, says it has sovereignty over the particular waters that hold considerable drilling promise. Turkey is disputing this claim and recently sent a seismic vessel, backed up by warships, to carry out surveys in the area. Both countries have boosted naval and air forces to reinforce their competing claims.

Turkey’s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdo᝖an declared, “Turkey will continue to follow a determined and active pol icy in the eastern Mediterranean. . . . [The Greeks] are either going to understand the language of politics and diplomacy, or in the field with painful experiences.” Erdo᝖an also made disparaging remarks about what he called Greece’s “dilapi dated” military. The EU, particularly France, as well as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, are backing Greece.

Neither Greece nor Turkey wants a war, but an acciden tal escalation could trigger a conflict.

The countries nearly went to war over two uninhabited islands in 1996, but diplomacy won the day.

In 1974, when Greece announced that it would unite with Cyprus, which has a sizable Turkish minority, Turkey invaded the island, seizing about a third of it and eventually declar ing the occupied zone a new country: the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey has stated that any agreements reached by Cyprus are null and void unless Turkey’s puppet country gives its assent. Fortunately, both sides have agreed to discussions over the dispute, but tensions remain high.

Turkey and Greece are both members of NATO, and an armed conflict between them could have catastrophic re percussions for the future of that alliance, which would delight Russia. There could be other ugly consequences. Turkey, for instance, could send Syrian refugees living in Turkey—there are about 4 million—into Greece and then the rest of Europe, something it did briefly a few years ago.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

The U.S. has yet to become actively involved

in this situation, leaving it to EU diplomats, es

pecially the Germans, and NATO officials. But

that may change, given the stakes involved.

Another crisis that has erupted is in Belarus,

which has been under the iron fist of dictator

Alexander Lukashenko for 26 years. Elections

were held in August, and, predictably, the re

sults were rigged. But the people have had

enough and have been taking to the streets in

such overwhelming numbers that the Luka

shenko dictatorship is actually crumbling.

The danger is that Vladimir Putin doesn’t

want a genuine democracy emerging on Russia’s border. Qui etly, he may already be sending in special forces to help Lu kashenko remain in power, or to install a puppet successor.

Lithuania, a small neighboring country to Belarus, re gained its independence from the Soviet empire in 1991. Un like Russia and Belarus, Lithuania is a vigorous democracy. It’s also a member of the EU and of NATO. The core tenet of NATO—an alliance that was absolutely essential to defeating the Soviet Union during the Cold War—is that an attack on one member nation is considered to be an attack on all. This rule is embedded in Article Five of the NATO Treaty and is what has made NATO so powerful.

Putin has made his hatred of NATO clear. He understands that undermining NATO would be a devastating blow to the U.S. and would make Europe pliant to Russia’s wishes.

Here’s what might happen. If Putin intervenes in Belarus under some phony pretext, he might also be tempted to move troops into Lithuania—not a full-scale invasion, just an occupa tion of a piece of real estate under some other fake rationale.

What would NATO and the U.S. do? Would Washington send troops to fight the Russians? Or would this be the re sponse: It’s not much real estate; the Russians promise to get out, so let’s shake a fist, denounce it and call it a day. However, if, in effect, we did nothing, Putin would have won a massive victory, and the U.S. would suffer a bigger setback than losing the Vietnam War.

As astute Russian expert Leon Aron warns: “A raid would be a very limited operation . . . perhaps a few kilometers deep . . . and then showing that Russia had gotten away with it would be the point. . . . The Kremlin’s geopolitical gains could be enormous. . . . NATO’s Article Five, the cornerstone of col lective defense, would be rendered a fiction. The alliance might start to unravel, as countries on its eastern flank sought individual ‘accommodations’ with Moscow.”

F O R B E S . C O M

Steve Forbes Cont.

Thrilling Escapes from Elections and Covid Woes

The Last Trial—by Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing, $29). This le gal mystery tells a fascinating sto ry smoothly and compellingly. Turow develops his characters in real, multi

14

dimensional ways,

turning John Donne’s

seeming truism that

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no man is an island

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on its head: We are

M

complex individuals

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who are indeed is

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lands, often mysteri

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ous, even as we in

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teract with one another.

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Turow has a gift for portraying what •

could be boring courtroom procedurals as gripping dramas. This allows him not to stint in laying out the full narrative of a complicated trial. You’ll even get the best quick explanation of the differenc es between civil and criminal cases. His ability to explain arcane material in ways that lay people can readily grasp extends, in this case, to the mind-numbing pro cedures involved in getting a drug ap proved by the FDA. He also includes the perceptive musings of older people— all too aware of their mortality—about what their lives have actually meant and what they have and haven’t achieved. This tale has plenty of surprises with up ending twists and turns.

Our protagonist is 85-year-old Ale jandro “Sandy” Stern, who has had a brilliant career as a defense attorney. Against the advice of his daughter, who is his law partner, and his own in stincts, Sandy decides to take on what he knows will be his last case, the de fense of a friend, Kiril Pafko, who, like Sandy, is an Argentine émigré. Also like Sandy, Kiril has achieved great success. On the surface it might seem like Kiril has had even more success, as years before he won the Nobel Prize

Introducing

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The podcast hosted

by Steve Forbes.

Subscribe now on iTunes

or GooglePlay Store.

in Medicine for a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer.

The federal government’s case against Pafko looks fiendishly formida ble. Pafko and his firm developed what appeared to be a miracle anticancer drug, g-Livia. After initial successes in clinical trials, something went dread fully wrong: Several patients died sud denly and inexplicably. Pafko is accused of covering up the deaths to avoid the FDA’s derailing approval of his drug. When the Wall Street Journal, acting on what appeared to be an inside tip, called Pafko for comment on a big story it was publishing, Pafko quickly sold millions of dollars’ worth of stock in his pub licly held company before the revela tion tanked the equity’s price. Worse, the government has also charged Pafko with murder. A guilty verdict would mean that he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. Stern, however, feels he owes Pafko his own life, as he had a certain death case of cancer and was saved by Kiril’s drug.

As the preparations and the trial it self unfold, Stern makes disconcerting discoveries about his friend, including that Kiril had had two mistresses who worked for him, and that Kiril’s son, who also works at the drug firm, har bors well-hidden and deeply antago nistic feelings against his father.

That people may have talents and attributes not readily apparent is ex emplified by Stern’s granddaughter, Pinky—a seeming ne’er-do-well, pro miscuous and sloppily dressed 30-year old—whom Stern, in an act of family charity, employs at his office to do cleri cal chores. It turns out that Pinky has inherited her grandfather’s investiga tive knack. She decides to find out what was really behind the automobile acci dent that nearly cost her grandfather his life when he was deciding whether or not to take on this case.

A special treat is Stern’s cross-ex amination of a hostile witness, which starts out dreadfully but turns into an unexpected triumph for the defense be cause of the diligent digging Pinky has done. All in all, a truly terrific read.

Hid from Our Eyes—by Julia Spencer Fleming (Minotaur Books, $27.99). Talk about life not being easy! Russ van Al styne is the police chief of a town in up state New York, Millers Kill, who has a sensitive murder on his hands. The body of a nicely dressed young woman has been found on an out-of-the-way road, with no obvious signs of foul play. This is eerily similar to a killing back in 1972, a case in which Van Alstyne himself, then a recently returned and troubled Viet nam veteran at loose ends and possess ing a hair-trigger temper, became the prime suspect. He was never charged, but the case has been a weight hanging over him ever since. More puzzling is that this murder turns out to be a copy cat of one committed in 1952, which, like the one Russ was tangled up in 20 years later, was never solved.

Russ’s wife and

crucial partner is

the Reverend Clare

Fergusson, a former

military helicopter

pilot. She’s exhausted

from taking care of

their newborn son,

coping with parish

duties and battling—precariously—her previous addictions. Moreover, she has been pressured into taking on an intern, who turns out to be transgen der. How are some parishioners in this rural area going to react?

If all this wasn’t stressful enough, there’s a save-the-money movement afoot to disband Russ’s already under staffed department and turn its law enforcement duties over to the New York State Police. The issue will be on the ballot in the upcoming election, which puts even more pressure on Russ to solve this devilishly difficult murder.

Spencer-Fleming skillfully weaves the narratives of the two cold cases with the current investigation. Even once ev erything is solved, the weird cold-blood edness of what was done will chill you. Justice is served, but the book closes with a no-good-deed-goes-unpunished ending that leaves you hankering for the next installment in this series.

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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Sportsmoney

PANDEMIC-PROOF

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Despite being blindsided by the coronavirus, the NFL cash juggernaut

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powers on, with the average team worth more than ever in 2020.

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Those empty seats will be filled again someday, after all.

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(Inset) Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis

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Current value ($mil) • Operating income ($mil) 5-Year Value Change (%) $0

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he NFL is back, bringing with it the two most expen sive stadiums ever built: Stanley Kroenke’s $5 billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles

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1. Dallas Cowboys

Owner: Jerry Jones

2. New England Patriots Robert Kraft

3. New York Giants John Mara, Steven Tisch

4. Los Angeles Rams Stanley Kroenke

5. San Francisco 49ers

43% 38% 54%

176% 41%

and Mark Davis’ $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (page 17). The

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venues were the capstones of two franchise N

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relocations and helped turbocharge those U

teams’ values: The Los Angeles Rams are

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now worth $4 billion, up 176% in five

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years; the Las Vegas Raiders are up 117% R

over the same period, to $3.1 billion.

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Unfortunately, SoFi and Allegiant

opened in front of empty seats and vacant boxes, as virus restrictions will keep fans in both cities absent all season. Still, the Rams’ and Raiders’ valuations are both up year-over-year in 2020, as is every

other NFL franchise save the Cincinnati Bengals, who were flat and who are the league’s least valuable team, at $2 billion. The average franchise value ($3.05 billion) is up 7% from last year and tops $3 billion for the first time. That’s because most

bankers look at the potential $5 billion or so revenue hit NFL owners will likely take this year as just a one-year blip.

The NFL gravy train, which in 2019

produced average operating income

(earnings before interest, taxes, depre ciation and amortization) of $109 million per team, is thereafter expected to pick up where it left off. The league’s national media-rights deals, which are split evenly among the 32 teams, average $7.5 billion per year, with negotiations ongoing for even more lucrative television agreements that will kick off in 2023. The NFL is

unmatched on TV, accounting for 42 of the 50 most-watched programs in 2019, and the new collective-bargaining agreement added more TV inventory: two additional playoff games starting this season.

Another factor that keeps valuations

high: NFL teams rarely change hands; average ownership tenure is four decades. “It could take 30 years” to snag a team, says sports investment banker Sal

Galatioto, who says he knows at least

a half-dozen multibillionaires who are looking to buy a franchise. “That scarcity factor holds values up.”

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Denise DeBartolo York, John York

6. New York Jets

Johnson family

7. Chicago Bears

McCaskey family

8. Washington Football Team Daniel Snyder

9. Philadelphia Eagles Jeffrey Lurie

10. Houston Texans

Janice McNair

11. Denver Broncos

Pat Bowlen Trust

12. Las Vegas Raiders

Mark Davis

13. Seattle Seahawks

Paul G. Allen Trust

14. Green Bay Packers Shareholder-owned

15. Pittsburgh Steelers Daniel Rooney Trust,

Arthur Rooney II

16. Baltimore Ravens

Stephen Bisciotti

17. Minnesota Vikings

Zygmunt Wilf

18. Miami Dolphins

Stephen Ross

19. Atlanta Falcons

Arthur Blank

20. Indianapolis Colts James Irsay

21. Los Angeles Chargers Dean Spanos

22. Carolina Panthers David Tepper

23. Kansas City Chiefs Lamar Hunt family

24. New Orleans Saints Gayle Benson

25. Jacksonville Jaguars Shahid Khan

26. Cleveland Browns Dee & Jimmy Haslam

27. Arizona Cardinals

Michael Bidwill

28. Tennessee Titans

Amy Adams Strunk

29. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Glazer family

30. Detroit Lions

Sheila Ford Hamp

31. Buffalo Bills

Terry & Kim Pegula

32. Cincinnati Bengals Michael Brown

37% 44% 23% 42% 32% 65% 117% 64% 56% 58%

54% 86% 57% 72% 52% 70% 63% 63% 63% 66% 57% 51% 54% 51% 46% 46% 38%

F O R B E S . C O M

$2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 $6,000

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THE NFL’S HIGHEST-EARNING PLAYERS

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1. Joey Bosa

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Los Angeles Chargers

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2. Carson Wentz Philadelphia Eagles

Total earnings: $43.8 mil Salary/bonuses: $43 mil Endorsements: $750,000

4. Dak Prescott

Dallas Cowboys

Total earnings: $39.4 mil Salary/bonuses: $31.4 mil Endorsements: $8 mil

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Total earnings: $43.4 mil Salary/bonuses: $39.4 mil Endorsements: $4 mil

5. Drew Brees

New Orleans Saints

Total earnings: $39 mil Salary/bonuses: $25 mil Endorsements: $14 mil

3. Kirk Cousins

Minnesota Vikings

Total earnings: $42.5 mil

Salary/bonuses: $40 mil

Endorsements: $2.5 mil

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Revenue and operating income are for the 2019 season and are net of stadium revenue used for stadium debt service. Current value is enterprise value (equity plus net debt) of team based on current stadium deal (unless new stadium is pending). Operating income is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

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New Billionaire

LARGE

ACCUMULATION

Snowflake’s public debut generated a blizzard

of ten-figure fortunes.

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hen Snowflake pulled off the largest software IPO in

history on September 16, it minted three new billionaires,

including CEO Frank Slootman (above). Big companies

including Adobe, Lionsgate and Sony love Snowflake’s

cloud platform, which helps them manage enormous

amounts of proprietary data across a variety of apps and programs while sharing it—safely—with business partners.

Among its fans: Berkshire Hathaway and Salesforce, both of which bought in as part of the float. “The only problem today was no one wanted to be a seller because the conviction was so high,” Slootman, 62, said on the first trading day, when the stock more than doubled from its offering price of $120 to close at $253.93.

Some problem. With a market cap above $70 billion after day one, San Mateo, California–based Snowflake is the biggest of a Covid bumper crop of tech companies, including Asana and Palantir, to go public this fall, capitalizing on investor demand that has boosted the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 by 24% for the year while the S&P 500 is roughly flat.

CEO Slootman is far from the only Snowflake beneficiary: The biggest winner was cofounder and president of products Benoit Dageville ($1.8 billion), who started Snowflake in 2012 with Thierry Cruanes, Snowflake’s CTO. The IPO pop even made a billionaire of the CEO Slootman replaced in 2019, former Microsoft executive Robert Muglia ($1.3 billion).

Slootman admits that such success might make the company’s founders a touch less hungry, but “Snowflake version two” should keep them busy for many winters to come. “They have to build it,” he says. “I have to sell it.”

F O R B E S . C O M

ForbesLife

CHARGE IT,

PLEASE

TWO CLASSIC ROLLS-ROYCE MODELS GET ELECTRIC UPDATES.

Rolls-Royce has gone back to the future thanks to Lunaz, a U.K. automotive

company that converts classic British vehicles into electric versions. Founded in 2018 by David Lorenz, the Silverstone, England–based company began with vintage Jaguar XK120s and Bentley

Continentals, and recently announced two electric Rolls-Royce models—a

1961 Phantom V (which starts at around $657,000) and vintage Silver Clouds

(beginning at $450,000).

Limited to 30 vehicles, the Rolls

Royce editions include three models: a four-door limousine, a two-door

coupé and a drophead coupé. Power for the Phantom V comes from Lunaz’s 120kWh battery pack, which promises a range of 300 miles. And the interiors come with plenty of modern luxuries, including an infotainment system, a

customizable bar and alpaca-wool floor mats. “The time is right for an electric Rolls-Royce,” Lorenz says of his elegant EVs. “We are answering the need to

marry beautiful classic design with the usability, reliability and sustainability N

of an electric powertrain.” Indeed, the

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Lunaz cars may be EVs under the hood,

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but those iconic Rolls-Royce exteriors

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are still a real gas.

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30 Under 30 Alumni Spotlight

VIRUS FIGHTER

Alice Zhang’s “garbage chute” cellular research might soon help humans fight off viral infections of all kinds, including—well, you know.

S

ForbesLife

HISTORY IN

A BOTTLE

Old Forester

whiskey loves getting older. Each summer, the family-run

Kentucky distillery releases a Birthday Bourbon ($130), which has achieved cult status over the years. And 2020 represents a big milestone for Old Forester, which was founded in 1870. In honor of the brand’s sesquicentennial, it has produced three limited-release 150th Anniversary Bourbons ($150), which are

bottled at individual batch strength—

each is more than

ome dispiriting news: For

viruses that cause diseases

like Ebola, SARS and Covid

19, we have nothing at all that

works like penicillin, a broad

spectrum antibiotic that can combat dozens of bacterial strains—even ones we haven’t discovered yet. Finding something similar for viruses has been the Holy Grail of drug research for decades.

That could all change soon, though, thanks to the work of Alice Zhang, a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 for Science in 2017. Her company, San Francisco–based Verge Genomics, has spent years working on a treatment for ALS, the devastating neurological ailment also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. As it turns out, variations of her ALS drug might be effective against Covid-19—and other viruses as well.

“That’s important,” Zhang says, “because we really need drugs that we can stockpile to prevent the exact situation we’re in right now.”

Several varieties of Verge’s drug candidate “were quite highly effective” against the novel coronavirus in tests run by the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, according to Dr. Mark Namchuk, one of the group’s research leads.

The big caveat: What works in the lab doesn’t always work in the human body. Fewer than 10% of promising drug candidates make it to market, and the success rate for repurposing drugs is roughly the same.

Verge’s drug repairs a “garbage chute” within cells that recycle waste. With a disease like ALS, this process “goes haywire” in the nervous system, Zhang says. But viruses also use it to invade and infect cells. Targeting the “garbage chute” stops viruses from getting in, thereby halting infection.

Zhang’s next step is to partner with a larger pharmaceutical company to start clinical trials, which will likely begin in early 2021. If it pans out, she says, it could be “a frontline defense against future viral outbreaks.”

125 proof—and would

no doubt make

founder George

Garvin Brown proud.

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24

Sports Collectibles Michael Osacky

BUY, HOLD, SELL

Book Value

Leaders from the worlds of business, academia, entertainment and politics share what’s on their bedside table.

RLead appraiser for

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PSA and president of BaseballInTheAttic.com

Wine

Victoria James

1951 Bowman #253 Mickey Mantle Rookie Card

Often overlooked in favor of its legendary 1952 Topps counterpart, Mantle’s ’51 Bowman is severely undervalued at $11,000, and collectors are starting to catch on.

2003 Topps Chrome #111 LeBron James

Rookie Card

In December 2019, James’ rookie card sold for $2,200. It’s currently five times that.

Hold on: A championship with the Lakers could boost that even higher.

Signed Muhammad Ali Photos

Serious collectors likely already have a signed Ali photo, and younger

ones aren’t sold on boxing. Time to sell (at around $400) before prices sink even further.

Peggy Cherng Billionaire cofounder and co-CEO

of Panda Express Grit

By Angela Duckworth Author, sommelier, Cote beverage director

and partner

American Art

Aviva Lehmann

VP and director of American Art at

Heritage Auctions F O R B E S . C O M

Coche-Dury’s

Corton-Charlemagne You can taste the tradi tional, exacting craftsman ship in this Burgundian rarity. You can also see it in its $3,000 price tag. Don’t worry—that’s a bargain.

Hudson River School Cornerstones of

19th-century American art, these bucolic scenes are blue-chip investments. Prime examples—by

Jasper Francis Cropsey, for example—clock in around $100,000.

Heitz’s Martha’s

Vineyard Cabernet Magnum Bottle

Bigger is better.

Larger formats ($350

for a magnum) will keep this wine fresh for post pandemic parties.

Early American

Modernists

They might not quite have Georgia O’Keeffe’s name recognition, but with pieces netting $160,000 and up, modern painters like Man Ray (above) and John Marin are coming into their own.

Prosecco

Nothing beats Italian bubbly with brunch, but at $25 a bottle, it might

be time to clear some space in the wine cellar.

Norman Rockwell

His scenes of bygone innocence are a balm for the uncertainty of the current moment, with prices easily peaking over $1 million. If you’ve got an original, move it now while it’s at its peak.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

Penned by Asian

American psychologist Duckworth, Grit

(Scribner, 2016) is a thoughtful exploration of why some people achieve success and others don’t. Her

research includes

interviews with

successful leaders and offers inspiration we can all use, especially when the world is

testing the strength in each of us. The author’s story of passion and perseverance as

a daughter whose father challenged her to become her best self is something we can all relate to as we evaluate what has driven our own sense of self-determination. I found myself reflecting on where my journey has led me—as a

philanthropist and a parent—and how people around me

have inspired me to live a truly purposeful life. Duckworth’s

perspective is riveting and insightful. Grit is a book my whole company has read.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT SEIKOLUXE.COM

W O R L D

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Around the planet, our 36 licensed

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editions span five continents,

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ANGOLA

José Silva is planning a

$30 million factory to pro

duce painkillers and add

some 300 jobs in Luanda,

the Angolan capital—

growing the MonizSilva

pharmacy chain and

medical-supply distribu

tor he started in 1998.

AUSTRIA

Founded by a trio

of high school

classmates, the

startup Book Your

Room rents idle

meeting spaces

and school gym

nasiums through

out Vienna.

ARGENTINA

Pastalinda’s factory can’t keep up with rising demand for its $239 at-home noodle-making machines, deemed essential manufacturing during the pandemic. “No matter how much stock we add to the web, it runs out in five hours,” says president Jonathan Romero.

28 languages and 24 time zones. They share the same mission:

BOLIVIA BRAZIL

celebrating entrepreneurial capitalism in all its forms.

“The fashion industry was in chaos,” says Deanna Canedo Patiño, reflecting on the immediate conse quences of the pandemic. Now she’s planning

growth into Europe and

The pandemic boosted

São Paulo–based iFood’s

corporate accounts, with

which companies can load

A

credits for employees to

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order lunch delivered wher

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ever they’re working.

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A

BULGARIA

After a heart attack in 2008, Nikolai Sabev

adopted Buddhism and expects his clients can find Zen, too. The e-commerce

logistics platforms built by his Econt will make Bulgarians richer, he says, and then “they will have time for spirituality.”

FRANCE

Art Paris, the contemporary fair held at the Grand Palais

CHINA

After earning a biochemis try Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati and doing a stint at Pfizer, Samantha Du started Shanghai-based pharma company Zai Lab in 2014; it now has a $6 billion market cap.

GEORGIA

Latin America for her

family’s maker of alpaca

and llama-based clothes,

Beatriz Canedo Patiño.

COLOMBIA CYPRUS

Finance Minister Konstan

tinos Petridis revised his

year-end economic forecast

based on government aid

and increasing consumption.

Public debt will shrink by 4%,

followed by restrained gov

ernment spending in 2021.

Bogotá’s first female mayor,

Claudia López (top left),

fronts Forbes Colombia’s

first Power Women edition.

Her goals seem to extend

well beyond local govern

ment: “I have no doubt

that in this decade there

will be a woman president

in Colombia.”

CZECH REPUBLIC

When a customer can celed a purchase of 11 Czech-made Petrof pianos after they were already built, billionaire Karel Komárek, his wife Štěpánka Komárková and his founda tion swooped in to buy the instruments and donate them to local schools.

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that welcomed more than 60,000 visitors in 2019, returned in September as

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one of Europe’s first major

events in months, limiting

crowds to 3,000 at a time.

Seventh on Forbes

Georgia’s list of 12 post

Soviet countries’ highest

paid leaders, Georgia’s

president, Salome Zour

abichvili, earns $2,222 per

month, all of which she

redirects to a foundation.

The EU and China have renewed an agreement for 2021 that Greece badly wanted: It offers some protection to foods like Greece’s olives, wine and ouzo from those selling knockoff goods.

Dávid Boross, 40, and his

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brothers took over their

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parents’ Oázis Garden

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Centers five years ago. The

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Budapest franchise has

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grown to 24 locations and

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targets green-thumbed

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young people.

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Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys,

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has spent the past months

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shifting about 240,000

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employees of the IT firm to

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home offices and landing a

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deal with Vanguard that’s

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reportedly worth $1.5 billion.

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F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

INDONESIA

ISRAEL ITALY JAPAN

KAZAKHSTAN

“We had no money at all for text books, shoes or new clothes,” recalls Gina Khoury of her youth. Now, along with her sister Rania, she runs a popular dress boutique, Rania Gina, which has made Forbes Israel’s list of the nation’s top small companies.

KENYA

Working with MIT Media

Lab, Valentina Sumini, a

34-year-old Genoese archi

tect, designs conceptual

spaces such as a green

house to be built on Mars.

Baseball exec Shun Kakazu

27

has orders from team owner

Masayoshi Son to make the

champion SoftBank Hawks

“best in the world.” In the

game plan: expanding Ja

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R

pan’s pro league into China.

O

In the first half of 2020, demand for pharmaceuti cals dropped in Indonesia as people avoided visiting

doctors and hospitals. But sales at CEO Irwan Hidayat’s herbal-medicine and supplements maker, Sido Muncul, rose to almost

Forbes Kazakhstan

30 Under 30 honoree Bakhtiyar Azhken, 24, helped create a breath alyzer-style device that helps detect cancer early;

LATVIAMEXICO

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University of Mexico re

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searcher and engineer José

E

Alberto Ramírez Aguilar will

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represent Mexico on Latin

America’s first space mis

$100 million.

NICARAGUA

Small artisan shoemakers in the southeast city of Masaya are quietly fighting to survive the pandemic. With fewer orders, Zapa tería Cano owner Francisca Vásquez halved her work ers’ hours and reduced daily production from

it’s now being used as a Covid-19 diagnostic tool.

POLAND

University of Warsaw

classmates Monika

Żochowska and Ewa Dudzic have created a microfiber makeup-removing glove. Their brand, Phenicoptere, currently does $2 million in

Tasked to turn around an insolvent lender in 1993, James Mwangi positioned Nairobi-based Equity for the unbanked—people like his mother, who stored savings under a mattress. Today it serves 14 million customers in six countries.

This year brought

Riga-based DoctorOnline a “pleasant baptism of fire,” says Santa Batuhtina-Bang, who helped create the website and app. Its 130-plus doctors saw tele-appoint ments surge from about two per day to as many as 80.

PORTUGAL

sion, which will fly aboard a spacecraft from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

400 pairs to 200. Michelin-starred chef José

ROMANIA

RUSSIA

;

revenue, ships to 60 coun tries and has additional products in development.

Avillez has had to put his business on ice: His 13 res taurants across Portugal and Dubai temporarily

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Forbes Russia’s list of the country’s richest women in cludes three who divorced billionaire husbands. In the second spot: Polina Yuma

sheva, ex-wife of industrial ist Oleg Deripaska. She’s worth $300 million.

SENEGAL

SAUDI ARABIA

Until 2018, Saudi Arabia forbade women from driving. That didn’t stop Reema Juffali from becoming a top race-car driver, competing last year in the British F4 Champion ship for the first time.

closed, and plans for one in Macau have paused.

Last year the sisters behind Lemon Interior Design staged Romania’s most expensive apartment and expanded into office build ings. Now they’re consult ing with national health officials about redesigning offices for Covid-19.

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SLOVAKIA SOUTH KOREA

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SPAIN

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Thousands of Korean surgery

D

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patients have received 3D-printed

With prescriptions and

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medical history now online in some areas, Spain nearly met its 2020 deadline for digitized government.

Finding only imported

baby food in Senegal, Siny Samba cofounded Le Lion ceau in 2017; its purées are

made of local crops such as millet and cowpea.

THAILAND

implants made of bonelike material

that decomposes after guiding

tissue to heal fractures. T&R Biofab

founder Yun Won-Soo is seeking

approval for use in the U.S.

UKRAINE VIETNAM

Alexey Vadatursky, 73, is

boldly betting on slow, costly

river shipping. Spending

millions over 10 years, his

Mykolaiv-based Nibulon has

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Thai conglomerate TOAVH is involved

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in paint, chemicals, auto parts and

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more. The billionaire Tangkaravakoon

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:

family owns it, and 45-year-old

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Nattavuth Tangkaravakoon runs it.

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His parents chair the company;

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H

his siblings are involved as well.

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S

What most worries Šimon Šicko, CEO of Pixel Federa tion video games? Not the pandemic, “an episode that

we may forget about in three years’time.” Instead, it’s that “environmental change will catch up with us.”

launched a cargo fleet more

eco-friendly and smooth

riding than trucks and trains.

The duo behind Con Cung’s

stores for kids and babies

expect to triple their loca

tions to 1,200 by 2023.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

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Conversation

THE FLUSH 400

A REA L P ERRY TAL E

Hollywood’s newest billionaire started with nothing and worked relentlessly to succeed outside the entertainment

mainstream. Readers were quick to praise Tyler Perry’s business acumen and all-around creative mojo.

@ONLYTEVIN: “So proud

of you, Tyler! Your story

is truly an inspiration to

millions, and I’m so blessed

to be able to witness the

development of it in my

lifetime.”

@CLARK_ROSLYN:

“Your life is not the

product of your

circumstances; it’s

T

he thirty-ninth annual iteration of The Forbes 400, our rank ing of the richest people in America, was the centerpiece of our October issue. Pandemic be damned: The country’s wealthi est gained an aggregate $240 billion over the past year. The familiars at the top—Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, Buffett—were

a product of your decisions. This man proves it.”

JONELLE

(JOEY) BALL:

“If Tyler Perry’s

@ASOT013:

“I hate his movies, but man, I respect the hustle.”

perhaps upstaged by the highest-ranking newcomer, Eric Yuan (No. 43; $11 billion), whose Zoom video-chat platform is the one indisputable winner of 2020, enabling classrooms, regular hellos to Grandma and Friday cock tails with friends. The majority of Forbes 400 members were as rich or richer than last year, but one notable figure was down: Donald J. Trump (No. 339;

story is not motivation, I do not know what is.”

TAVONDA WINBUSH: “He greenlights his own projects and signs his own checks. That’s the way to do it.”

$2.5 billion). Amateur pundits pounced: “You’ve lost $600 million according toForbes,” crowed@Eric19755 onTwitter,“all because of a pandemic you could have prepared for & better responded to.” A contrarian crossfire: “Even some one who isn’t a Trump supporter should look at this as refreshing,” tweeted @ProudAmerican82. “Trump has sacrificed it all for the American people.”

THE INT ERE ST GR APH

1,081,902 views The Forbes 400 2020: The Richest People in America 332,155 TikTok’s 7 Highest-Earning Stars

@YAWOVIELEVN: “Kylie [Jenner], this is what you

call a self-made billionaire.”

215,912 The Inside Story of Robinhood’s Billionaire Founders, Option Kid Cowboys and the Wall Street Sharks That Feed on Them 118,452 From “Poor as Hell” to Billionaire: How Tyler Perry Changed Show Business Forever

54,037 Twelve Years In, Facebook Cofounder Dustin Moskovitz’s Slow-Burn Second Act, Asana, Finally Has Its Moment

35,447 The Inside Story of Biotech’s Barnum and His Covid Cures

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31,430 How Netflix’s Reed Hastings Rewrote the Hollywood Script

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12,782 THE BOMB: How This Impact Investor Is Generating Double-Digit Returns Cleaning Up the Seafood Business

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F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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DARE TO D O D I F F ERENT LY

31

ENTREPRENEURS

By Elisabeth Brier Photograph by Taylor Castle for Forbes

Killing It

RYAN HOGAN and DERRICK SMITH

are cashing in on the pandemic’s

deadly combination of boredom and

screen fatigue by selling immersive

murder mysteries packaged in

monthly subscription boxes.

Hunt A Killer cofounder and CEO Ryan Hogan

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

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It’s Saturday night in Ux

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bridge, Massachusetts, and Heather Nicoll, a

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31-year-old graphic designer, is investigating a •

Paper Trail

Inside the box for Hunt A Killer’s eighth installment, “Curtain Call,” are rehearsal schedules, to-do lists and handwritten letters from the game’s victim, a famous 1930s actress.

tor expects sales of board games in North Amer

ica to increase from $3.4 billion in 2019 to about

On the Block

$4.1 billion in 2024.

murder. Along with a close friend, she rummages N

through a box of old newspaper clippings, finan

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cial records and police reports as she attempts to

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solve the grisly death of Jake Morgan, the lead

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singer of Just4fun, a fictitious boy band. Every N

month Nicoll, along with 100,000 others, pays

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around $30 to Baltimore-based startup Hunt A Killer to receive a new installment of the game. It will take a full “season” of six boxes, costing $180, to get to the bottom of Morgan’s death. “I don’t mess around when it comes to cracking these cases,” says Nicoll, who tracks her results with a pencil in a binder. “I’m fully addicted to investi gating things now.”

Hunt A Killer is played almost entirely off line—and that’s largely the point. “There is not a better time that’s needed to put your phone down, get off Twitter and get off all these oth er devices,” says CEO Ryan Hogan, 36, a former U.S. Naval officer. “We’re going crazy right now. We all need to be able to detox.”

Last year, Hogan’s company, which he cofound ed with his childhood friend Derrick Smith, 37, generated $27 million in revenue by selling sub scriptions, premium “all-in-one” editions and collections of previous installments (starting at $140 for six boxes). The pandemic is providing a big boost: This year Hunt A Killer should book about $50 million in revenue and hopes to turn a profit for the first time. The two founders own 85%, worth just over $65 million.

The duo are the latest beneficiaries of a board game boomlet that dates to the mid-1990s, when a complex German strategy game called Settlers of Catan first became popular on American col lege campuses. Catan has sold more than 30 mil lion copies worldwide and still generates north of $100 million in revenue annually some 25 years after its initial release. Overall, Euromoni

MALCOLM’S

MONOPOLY

Malcolm Forbes flew hot-air

balloons, rode

Harleys—and

spent decades collecting toy

soldiers, miniature boats and board games. In 2010, 20 years after his death, his 214-lot treasure trove hit the auction block. Among the gems was a perfectly staged replica of the Sack of Troy (which sold for $21,250), a three foot model of the Lusitania ocean liner ($194,500) and four vintage Monopoly sets, including one of the earliest known. That circular

oilcloth version (above), hand made in 1933 by Charles Darrow, fetched what’s believed to be the highest price ever paid at auction for a board game: $146,500.

“Growth was explosive for games the first half of this year,” says Stephanie Wissink, who tracks the industry for Jefferies. “The category was up 37% this year. I’ve worked in this space for two decades and have never seen that.”

Hunt A Killer dates back to a failed appar el company called Warwear that Hogan started with his wife while he was still in the Navy. Stuck with $100,000 worth of unsold T-shirts, in 2011 Hogan teamed up with Smith to stage a series of horror-themed 5K races called Run for Your Lives (participants fled zombies planted around the course). That company went bankrupt, but the experience started the duo down an entre preneurial path that by 2016 had morphed into the first installments of Hunt A Killer.

Working from Smith’s basement, the cofound ers did everything themselves, from designing the games to packing and shipping them. By 2017, the company had 25,000 subscribers and a cult following on Facebook. “Covid certainly ac celerated our path,” Hogan says, “but we aren’t a Covid-based company.”

Next up: retail. In September, Hunt A Killer debuted a version of its flagship game for $30 on Amazon. The same product will be available at Target in October. Brand collaborations with Lionsgate, based on the Blair Witch movies, and with Simon & Schuster (Nancy Drew books) are

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also in the works.

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“If we can make these amazing experiences

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that provide escapism and immerse you in a story,”

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Hogan says, “there’s just nothing greater.”

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“THE MORE WAYS WE HAVE TO

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CONNECT, THE MORE MANY OF US

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SEEM DESPERATE TO UNPLUG.”

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:

—Pico Iyer

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F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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CONTRARIAN INNOVATION

By Leah Rosenbaum Photograph by Christian Peacock for Forbes Health vs. Wealth

34

The world is awash in cheap antibiotics. So why is biotech billionaire

N

BOB DUGGAN trying to make a new one—and how can he possibly make money from it?

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B Scientific 

might well have retreated to his house in Costa

Bob Duggan could easily have

called it a career in 2015, after he sold Pharma cyclics, his cancer-drug biotech, to AbbVie. He was 71 years old and worth some $3 billion. He

Rica, with its giant mural of a green-eyed jaguar cub, and lived out the rest of his life on the beach, surfing and reading books about Scientology. But Duggan, now 76, rejects the idea of retirement. “It’s indigenous in every human to want to make a difference, to exercise their ability and capabil ity,” he says. “It has nothing to do with age.”

In April, Duggan became the CEO of Sum mit Therapeutics by buying more than 60% of

Scientologist

Summit Therapeutics CEO Bob Duggan has given more

than $500 million to Scientology over the years but says he doesn’t “introduce religion into business.”

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

Health vs. Wealth Cont.

the Nasdaq-traded company for about $63 mil lion. Summit, which was founded in 2003 but has yet to post any meaningful revenue, is de veloping a new antibiotic for the common but deadly infection Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), which is spread by fecal matter and is often ac

36

quired in hospitals and nursing homes. C. diff itself causes extreme diarrhea and, in severe cases, organ failure and death. Every year almost

N

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a quarter-million Americans are infected with

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C. diff, and 13,000 die.

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It’s a noble place for Duggan to try to make a O

difference, but it’s also a difficult one. Nobody

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disputes that antibiotics are one of the great suc I

•

cess stories of the 20th century. Before penicillin

N

was discovered in 1928, infectious diseases were A

I

the leading cause of death in America, and life R

expectancy at birth was just 58 years. Antibiot

A

R

ics changed everything. With cheap treatments

T

N

widely available for everything from tuberculosis O

to pneumonia, a child born in Cleveland yester C

day can expect to live to be nearly 80.

But there are two main problems with antibiot ics today. First, the economics: There are a lot of different antibiotics already on the market, almost all inexpensive generics. Amoxicillin, for instance, was introduced in 1973 and is one ofthe most com monly prescribed antibiotics in the world. Off-pat ent for decades, it now costs less than a dollar per pill and is highly effective. Given that it takes about $1.3 billion to develop a new drug, hardly anyone is even trying to make novel antibiotics anymore. There’s no easy way to recoup the expense.

Compounding the difficulty is a scientific prob lem. Bacteria mutate and evolve quickly. That means the bacterial strains that are resistant to being killed by a specific antibiotic survive and spread. To treat patients infected with bacteria resistant to a certain antibiotic, a different one needs to be administered. Therefore, when a new antibiotic is finally developed, “doctors reserve it for very severe cases because of resistance,” says Samir Devani, the founder of Rx Securities, a life sciences–oriented investment bank based in London. “What that means commercially is that these new antibiotics get put in the cupboard, and they’re not used.”

The result: Antibiotic development is usu ally not worth it for big pharma companies, and the small firms that still develop them are struggling. Two of Summit’s peers, Achaogen (of which Duggan owned a 15% stake) and Melinta Therapeutics, filed for bankruptcy in the past 18 months. Only 25 new antibiotics have been ap proved over the last 20 years, most of which are

HOW TO PLAY IT by William Baldwin

Drug development is hazardous, be cause most novel

therapies flop and politicians are

aching to crack down on the crazy pricing of the few that succeed. A more sedate way to make money: Run clinical trials and do other

contract work for pharmaceutical companies. Syneos Health gets $4.5 billion of annual revenue that way. Two negatives are an impairment of operations during the pandemic and the recent deci sion by two private equity backers to unload shares. The positives include a growing order backlog and a rea sonable price: The enterprise value is 10 times likely 2021 earnings before interest, taxes and amortization.

William Baldwin is Forbes’ Invest

ment Strategies columnist.

derivatives of existing drugs.

None of this deters Duggan, a committed Sci entologist with a history of investing in under dogs and coming out on top. He started investing in his early 20s while studying business admin istration at UCLA. “I started my investment ca reer with about $5,000,” he says, “and within a year and a half I had half a million dollars.” One of the first companies he invested in was Sunset Designs, the maker of Jiffy Stitchery needlepoint kits, which was sold to British consumer-goods giant Reckitt Benckiser Group for $15 million in the mid-1980s. Next came investments in a bak ery chain, an ethernet firm and a business that designed robotic surgical instruments. In 2008, Duggan became the CEO at Pharmacyclics, a penny-stock biotech.

Then, finally, the billion-dollar break. A drug in Pharmacyclics’ pipeline, Imbruvica, turned out to be a blockbuster treatment for B-cell can cers, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), one of the most common forms of leuke mia in adults. That led directly to the $21 billion acquisition by AbbVie.

As at Pharmacyclics, the fate of Summit lies in one drug: ridinilazole, a new antibiotic for treat ing C. diff which is being tested head-to-head against the generic gold standard, vancomycin. In a recent Phase 2 clinical trial, ridinilazole was found to be not only superior to vancomycin in treating C. diff, but also possibly able to prevent recurrence of disease. If Summit can prove that ridinilazole not only treats but also prevents ill ness better than the best current option, hospi tals could charge a premium for the drug.

Alan Carr, a biotech analyst at Needham, thinks that if any new antibiotic has a shot at success, ridinilazole may be it. “There is a fairly attractive market opportunity for C. diff,” Carr says, noting that the price for ridinilazole will likely be higher because it is a pill, not an in travenous drug, which means it can also be prescribed to patients outside a hospital. But “I don’t think it’s a billion-dollar drug. I think it can be a few hundred million, but I don’t think it’s a blockbuster.”

For Duggan, it all boils down to the simplest wisdom: “How can you not make money if you deliver what patients need?”

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F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

CONTRARIAN INNOVATION

By Alex Konrad Photograph by Timothy Archibald The Remote-Work Absolutist 38

GitLab CEO SID SIJBRANDIJ built a developer-tool business valued at nearly $3 billion without N

maintaining any offices. Now he’s warning companies against doing telecommuting halfway.

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Sid Sijbrandij knows the perils

of working from home. In 2018, after years of toiling exclusively from a small room in his 47th floor apartment in a San Francisco high-rise, the entrepreneur developed foot problems. So he moved in a treadmill desk alongside his Zoom friendly green screen and three monitors.

But GitLab’s CEO says the problem isn’t re

employed by one of the handful of companies that have fully embraced the new work reality, Sijbrandij (pronounced see brandy) thinks you’re probably doing it wrong. His radical take on re mote work: It’s effective only if you go all in. Par tial measures will create tiers of employees who will split the workforce over time, driving away top-performing remote workers who don’t want to compete with lesser-achieving on-site col leagues. “We’ll see some companies . . . go back [to the office] and try to make the best of it, and I think they’ll struggle,” he says.

How GitLab does it:The only time staffers meet in person is for the company’s annual all-hands

“I thought we would spend the next 10 years convincing the world how to do remote better,” says Dutch native Sid Sijbrandij, 41. “Instead, Covid did it within months.”

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LEADING THE WAY

The Remote-Work Absolutist Cont.

gatherings, held (in pre-Covid times, anyway) in lively and relatively cheap locations like Greece. Another pillar of GitLab’s remote-work absolut ism: radical transparency. It publishes a public online handbook detailing how it approaches pretty much any topic. You won’t find individual

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employees’ salaries, but you will find its execu tives’ strategic objectives for the current quarter and the exact formula for calculating wages in

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merged into the handbook, which tracks it all. “Every time you have to wait for permission or sign-off for someone else to do something, that’s a problem,” he says.

He has built one of the world’s most valuable startups, valued at $2.8 billion in 2019, without maintaining offices for any of its 1,300 far-flung employees. It helps that GitLab—which provides a suite of software tools that help developers build, manage and secure their apps—plays ina high-tech category that’s even more important as businesses push sales and customer interactions online.

Even among other pre-pandemic no-office high fliers—notably Automattic, the company behind WordPress—Sijbrandij has long stood out. “We are probablynot as extreme asSidis,” saysDaveMcJan net, CEO of remote-only cloud infrastructure start up HashiCorp, valued at $5 billion. Today, though, Sijbrandij’s radicalism is drawing a vast following. Downloads of GitLab’s free e-book on remote work have exceeded 70,000 since its March release; em ployees are in high demand for webinars.

GitLab’s own globetrotting setup got its start in Europe. Sijbrandij had worked at a submarine company and helped run an online app-review startup on the side when, while managing web projects for the Dutch Ministry of Justice, he came across an open-source projectfrom Ukraine called GitLab with hundreds of volunteer contributors.

In 2012, he reached out to its creators, Dmi triy Zaporozhets and Valery Sizov, telling them he was going to build a business atop their proj ect. A year later, Zaporozhets joined as cofounder and CTO; he is now an engineering fellow. Sizov

HOW TO PLAY IT By Jon D. Markman

Microsoft is the best way to play the rise of soft

ware developer tools. The enter prise software

giant in 2018

purchased GitHub, an open-platform competitor to

GitLab. The $7.5 billion all-stock

acquisition gave Microsoft access to the Linux com

munity, a show case for its own developer tools

and services and a way to monetize the developer

community. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, its Intelligent Cloud division, where

GitHub landed,

reported $39

billion in revenue and $13.9 billion in operating income,

gains of 21% and 20.9%, respec

tively. Although Microsoft shares are up roughly

28% in 2020,

company outreach to developers and the growth of its cloud business

could lift the stock to $290 in a year, a gain of 41% from current levels.

Jon D. Markman is president of

Markman Capital Insight and the

editor of Fast

Forward Investing.

joined in 2014 and is a senior developer. Sijbrandij set about building GitLab the company—named after Git, a popular system for tracking changes in source code—to sell subscriptions to software tools that help manage projects built on the open source tech. Sijbrandij, Zaporozhets, Sizov and six others got together temporarily in California in early 2015 to participate in the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator—the only three months they’ve ever spent working in the same space.

Most of GitLab went back to Europe afterward. Sijbrandij, enamored of the startup scene and with an eye to fundraising, stayed behind. Today, GitLab has raised $476 million, most of which is still on its balance sheet; it sells a suite of 10 dif ferent app tools, from development to security, for up to $99 per user per month, bringing in over $75 million in revenue last year from more than 15,000 customers, including Nvidia, Siemens and Goldman Sachs, which later invested.

The trend of companies moving their op erations online, especially since the start of the pandemic, has pushed even more development to the cloud, meaning business is booming. But customers are increasingly likely to call not for software support, but rather a crash course in how GitLab runs its business.

“Ten to 15% of our engagement with partners is helping them see how we do things,” says Mi chelle Woodward Hodges, GitLab’s vice presi dent of channel partnerships.

Not everything is rosy about remote work, especially now. Sijbrandij is quick to note that he has struggled with not being able to travel; parents on his staff have faced extra child-care demands. GitLab has sought to address that through Friday holidays and has encouraged staycations. “It’s important for everyone to re member that this is not work from anywhere, this is working from home during a pandemic,” Sijbrandij says. “This is not normal times.”

One irony of spreading the remote-work gos pel: More companies following GitLab means its secret is out. “We’ve had an advantage where if you were outside a metro area, there were few options to join a fast-growing company. We’re going to have a ton more competition now, and that’s going to drive wages up,” Sijbrandij says. “I think that’s a great thing for the world. I’m super

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THE WAY, WHY GO AT ALL?”

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—Joe Namath

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CONTRARIAN MONEY & INVESTING

By Antoine Gara Photograph by Eli Warren The Prophet and Her Profits 42

CATHIE WOOD has leveraged her zealous belief in innovation into a

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$29 billion-in-assets investment firm and a $250 million net worth. Among her

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predictions: Tesla will build a fleet of robo-taxis worth $1 trillion.

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Tesla shares were

limping along around $200 in May

2019, about where they had traded five

years earlier, when Elon Musk’s big

gest Wall Street booster tried a gutsy

experiment. Cathie Wood and her Ark

Investment Management were already

well-known for their way-out-there

predictions that Tesla would build a

fleet of robo-taxis worth $1 trillion and

thatits shares would soar 20- or 30-fold

by 2023. Now she stirred the pot again

by publishing online Ark’s new bull’s

case valuation of $1.4 trillion, implying

a share price above $6,000, complete

with every Excel calculation and as

sumption behind those estimates.

Criticism came fast and furious.

Tesla short seller Jim Chanos, famed

for uncovering Enron’s fraud, took

Wood to task over Ark’s forecasts of

Tesla’s gross margins. “[W]hat Ark has

produced is a forward pricing for Tesla,

not a valuation,’’ sniffed valuation ex

pert Aswath Damodaran, a finance

professor at New York University. The

model, he noted, didn’t include a dis

counted cash-flow analysis and carried

incomplete forecasts on the costs Tesla

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The Prophet and Her Profits Cont.

would incur to scale its vehicle production. That $1 trillion value Ark was placing on Tesla’s non existent robo-taxi fleet? “Strikes me as more fairy tale than valuation,’’ Damodaran opined.

Sixteen months later, Tesla shares—after a five-for-one August stock split—were trading at

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$400. In other words, they’d risen tenfold, driv en up by speculation and excitement over Musk’s autonomous-driving and battery technologies

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How To Play It

LOADED ON THE ARK

to capitalize on breakthroughs in robotics, energy storage, DNA sequencing and financial and block chain technology, and makes them available to in vestors, particularly Millennials trading on Rob inhood, as tax-efficient exchange-traded funds.

Its Tesla position and a pandemic that has ac celerated adoption of the technologies embedded in the 35 to 55 companies in each Ark ETF have helped its assets nearly triple in 2020, to $29 bil lion. “Coronavirus has catapulted our innovative platforms into high gear because they solve prob lems,” Wood says. “Innovation solves problems.”

Forbes conservatively values Ark at $500 mil lion, or about 2% of assets under management, roughly the same multiple as publicly traded T. Rowe Price commands. Wood’s 50%-plus owner ship gives her a net worth of $250 million, good for the No. 80 spot on Forbes’ sixth annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women (page 112).

It’s easy to dismiss Wood as the face of a stock market bubble created by the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policy. But she has survived her share of both bubbles and bear markets. While an economics student at the University of Southern California, she studied under supply-side guru Arthur Laffer and apprenticed from 1977 to 1980 at Los Angeles fund giant Capital Group, watch

Cathie Wood’s ETFs bet on big ideas and industry disruptors. Here are some of her top holdings.

ETF

ARKK (Innovation)

ARKW (Next-gen internet) ARKQ (Robotics)

ARKG (Genomics)

ARKF (Fintech)

Stock

Invitae Corp.

Roku

Proto Labs

CRISPR Therapeutics Square

1-Year Gain 109%

68%

26%

81%

165%

Bullish Case

Genetic-testing innovator could cut health-care costs. Consumer operating system for streaming media. 3D printer lowering costs in industries like aerospace. Gene editor developing treatments for cancer and diabetes. The payment processor is becoming a digital bank.

and top-performing investment firms in the world. Its flagship $8.6 billion Ark Innovation Fund is up a staggering 75% in 2020 and has re turned an annual average of 36% over the past five years, nearly triple that of the S&P 500.

While most star stock pickers treat their work like state secrets, Wood makes Ark’s research freely available online and posts real-time logs of her firm’s trades. Instead of hiring MBAs, she prefers to bring onboard young analysts with backgrounds in subjects like molecular biology or computer engineering, figuring they’re more likely to spot the next trend. Even the structure of Ark, an acronym for Active Research Knowledge, is original. Wood manages seven portfolios designed

ing as interest rates approaching 20% crushed the economy and the market. After graduating in 1981, she joined Jennison Associates, now an eq uity investment arm of Prudential, as an econo mist in New York. There she made an early call that inflation and interest rates had peaked. That garnered eye rolls from her superiors, but Wood was right—and the experience inculcated in her an appreciation for the potentially big upside of going against consensus.

Frustrated with her career path at Jennison and wanting to research individual companies, one Friday Wood up and quit. Her mentor at the firm persuaded her to return the following Monday and moved her into equity research. She covered na

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

PROMOTION

2020 KOREA BASIC INCOME FAIR DRAWS DIVERSE IDEAS

Gyeonggi Province received more than 500,000 visitors at its online conference on the benefits of universal basic income and how governments can find solutions for change.

When Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee

Jaemyung first discussed introducing a

basic income program in South Korea sev

eral years ago, the idea was dismissed as far

fetched. But the pandemic has shifted atten

tion to the program after the Korean central

government’s one-off cash payment during

the height of the crisis received widespread

public support.

In mid-September, the Gyeonggi Provin

cial Government hosted a two-day global

online event to explore basic income as a

solution to inequity, the largest conference

of its kind in the world. More than 500,000

people visited the fair’s website, viewed live streaming of the speakers and discussion panels on YouTube, and visited the site’s vir

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jaemyung at the launching ceremony of the Local Government Council on Basic Income.

tual information booths.

That was a 15-fold increase in attendees from last year, according to Gyeonggi offi cials who organized the event. The jump was attributed to growing public interest in uni versal basic income, in part because “disas ter basic income” payments—the first of their kind in Korea—distributed to Gyeong gi’s residents in April and emergency disas ter relief payments offered to all Koreans in May proved effective in mitigating the eco nomic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

In total, 26 researchers, economists and activists from 11 countries participated in the conference and voiced their support for basic income—periodic cash payments to all citizens—as an optimal model for the future. They underlined the need to develop the program from the experimental stage to actual policy.

In his opening address, Governor Lee stressed the importance of public sup port and participation in the realization of basic income, particularly in a time of rapid

The second annual Gyeonggi Province Basic Income International Conference

change. The traditional distribution struc ture of income to labor is drastically chang ing due to the pandemic-induced economic crisis and the development of AI and robot technologies, he said.

In the first panel session— moderated by Eduardo Suplicy, Honorary Co-Chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)—Kim Jae-yong, Gyeonggi’s Senior Secretary for Policy Commitment, noted Korea’s disaster basic income initiative has shown concrete economic and social effects. Basic income is not just part of welfare policy, but also eco nomic policy, he said, adding, “It is a blue print for the future.”

He was followed by Nam Gi-up, Direc tor of the Institute of Land and Liberty of Korea, who during the second panel session suggested a basic income-type national land holding tax to collect unearned profits generated by corporate land ownership to share with the public. The measure would help promote efficient land use and stabilize property prices, he said.

During the third session, under the topic of “Contemporary Capitalism and Quality of Life,” Malcolm Torry, General Manager of BIEN, pointed out, “In a capitalist society, some possess capital or wealth, but some do not. So, it is important to implement basic income schemes that reduce this inequality.”

Susana Martin Belmonte, former chief economist of Rec Moneda Ciudadana in Spain, observed in the fourth session, “In

just one year after Barcelona introduced [real economy currency],the local multiplier effect of public spending increased by 54%. Local currency can be an effective means of pay ment and also be a tool to strengthen the local economy.”

During the fifth session—moderated by Annie Miller, co-founder of BIEN—Lee Seung-yoon, an associate professor of social policy at Chung-Ang University, said, “While a new paradigm for the welfare state is being demanded, discussion on basic income as an alternative to the traditional welfare state needs to be further expanded and materialized as a feasible policy.”

Atthe event’s close,Governor Leepledged to promote the basic income policies dis cussed at the conference and Gyeonggi Province’s internationally acclaimed basic income model.

For more information, please contact: Gyeonggi Provincial Government: https://english.gg.go.kr/

2020 Korea Basic Income Fair Office: https://basicincomefair.gg.go. kr/2020_en/

TEL +82-(0)70-7722-7010

The Prophet and Her Profits Cont.

scent wireless telecom companies in the late 1980s and early ’90s, getting a ground-floor view of the huge economic and societal changes coming as cellphones grew ubiquitous. In 2001, she moved to New York–based AllianceBernstein as chief in vestment officer for thematic portfolios. But the

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2008 financial crisis ushered in an era in which ac tive managers underperformed the S&P 500 and trillions flooded into low-cost index funds. Wood

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Beacon now own 39% of the company. Almost 10% is owned by the firm’s two dozen employees. In 2017, Ark took off, buoyed by surging prices for stocks like Netflix, Salesforce, DNA sequencer Illumina, digital-payments processor Square and digital health provider Athenahealth. Assets rose tenfold, and Ark began to build its brand on the back of bold predictions, an active Twitter pres ence and the free research it put online. (It also attracted notice for a cryptocurrency fund avail able only to accredited investors; Wood started buying Bitcoin, which she calls an “insurance policy” against inflation, in 2015 at $250 a coin.) Wood takes a top-down approach to building portfolios, first identifying disruptions by any means possible, including crowdsourcing—she even opens the firm’s Friday afternoon research meetings to outsiders, who can call in via Lifesize. Economics is central. Wood is most bullish on in novations if she believes their costs will decline over time, creating real demand. When scoring potential holdings, Ark looks at corporate culture and management execution on growth initia tives. Only at the end of the process does Wood value a company, refusing to buy anything she doesn’t expect will rise by 15% annually over five

years, Ark’s minimum expected holding period. The tumult of 2020 has been good for Ark. In March, when the pandemic emerged and stocks plunged, Wood correctly predicted fast-growing tech companies would lead the world (and fi

The Vault

TELEVISIONARY

By the early 1990s, the Japanese had all but

cornered the home-electronics market. But tech futurist George Gilder spied an opportunity for U.S. companies. “The home computer is becom ing more like a television, the television more like a computer,” Gilder wrote in an October 14, 1991, Forbes cover story. “When these two appliances converge into a single box—smart TV, we could call it—a worldwide electronics market worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year will be at stake.” The Wall Street visionary was right about the rise of smart TVs (and even what we’d call them), but America didn’t capitalize—the market is dominated by Chinese, Japanese and South Korean firms.

nancial markets) to recovery. She concentrated Ark portfolios in Tesla and other top picks (see table, p. 44) including education-software com pany 2U and real estate platform Zillow. Then, in late summer, when Tesla soared, she trimmed her holdings and built a large position in the bat tered shares of Slack.

With all successful innovations, of course, come copycats. Gimmicky themed ETFs have proliferated in everything from pets to sports gambling to work-from-home. Fund giants Di mensional Fund Advisors, Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price have all recently launched their own slates of actively managed ETFs.

An optimist by nature, Wood nonetheless of fers some unsettling predictions for the next five years. She expects a broad swath of large indus tries—banking, energy, transportation, health care—to be disrupted by technological change, with many workers displaced. The result, she believes, is that economic growth, inflation and broad market indexes will all fall persistently short of expectations, providing an opportunity for active managers to pick the innovative win ners that will continue to drive market-cap gains.

“I think the benchmarks and the indexes are going to go through a terrible period. We’re al ready seeing it,” she says. “We believe they are being increasingly populated by value traps.”

Does she think the market is now in a bubble? Nope. Uncertainty over the pandemic and the election (Wood supports President Trump “un abashedly”) means money has been flowing out of stocks and into the safety of bonds, she notes. “The fact that people are fearful now that we’re back at the S&P 500 trading at 25 times earnings tells me that we are not in a bubble at all.”

F INA L TH O UGHT

“YOU EITHER ACCEPT THE

RISK OF WINNING, OR

THE GUARANTEE OF LOSING.” —F.C. Yee

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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S P EC IAL RE P O RT

SURVIVORS

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THRIVERS AND 25 Small-Business Standouts

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Even in the most challenging times, the best entrepreneurs find ways to excel. The 25 small

companies listed here—all of which have less than $50 million in 2019 sales and fewerthan 200

employees—are successfully navigating this turbulent year, even as some of their founders

cope with personal losses from Covid-19.

Their paths vary. Some make things that are increasingly critical, such as software that im

proves hospital operations or robots that clean schools. Others have shifted to adapt to the

pandemic, such as the extended-stay hotel operator using its rooms to house displaced inter

national students and traveling doctors, orthe maker ofrolling buffets that started producing

plexiglass dividers. These small-business standouts showcase the strength, adaptability and

diversity of America’s entrepreneurs, giving us hope for the country’s economic future.

EDITED BY AMY FELDMAN • ILLUSTRATION BY ISRAEL G. VARGAS

Reporters: Susan Adams, Elisabeth Brier, Kenrick Cai, Caroline Howard, Katie Jennings, Alex Knapp,

Maggie McGrath, Chloe Sorvino and Giacomo Tognini

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AFRICAN ANCESTRY

HEADQUARTERS: Washington, D.C.

FOUNDERS: Rick Kittles, Gina Paige (CEO) EMPLOYEES: 13

The at-home genetic-testing market

has been on an upswing during the

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pandemic, helping boost business for

African Ancestry. “There’s a Black pride renaissance happening as a result of

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HEADQUARTERS: Louisville, Colorado

FOUNDER: Matanya Horowitz (CEO)

EMPLOYEES: 70

With Amazon and other manufacturers shipping hundreds of millions of boxes each month and workers increasingly anxious about contracting Covid-19, some recycling facilities are turning to AMP Robotics. Its AI-powered robots use computer vision to identify paper, plastic and cardboard

on a conveyor belt, then sort them with a vacuum gripper. Revenue, which has been rising 50% each quarter in 2020, is on

track for an estimated $20 million this year. “Before our technology, the only way to do this was to have someone with a clipboard trying to keep up with these materials

AVIDBOTS

Gina Paige

BALA

streams,” says Horowitz, 32.

ASPETTO

HEADQUARTERS: Fredericksburg, Virginia FOUNDERS: Robert Davis, Abbas Haider (CEO) EMPLOYEES: 12

Body armor has historically been ugly, albeit undeniably utilitarian. Haider and Davis, who founded Aspetto while in college at the University of Mary Washington in Fredricksburg, bet that U.S. government agencies would be willing to pay for better-looking bullet-resistant apparel (often $3,500 per jacket). Since then, Aspetto has expanded beyond fashion to tactical products, winning contracts this year to make female-specific military outfits for the U.S. Air Force and stab vests for the Bureau of Prisons. It expects revenue to reach $12.5 million in 2020, a nearly sevenfold increase from a year ago.

HEADQUARTERS: Kitchener, Ontario FOUNDERS: Pablo Molina, Faizan Sheikh (CEO) EMPLOYEES: 170

Molina and Sheikh, graduates of the University of Waterloo, founded Avidbots to make floor-scrubbing robots. Before the pandemic, its Neo machines toiled away at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Toronto’s Eaton Centre shopping mall, among other locations. Now revenue is on track to double to $10 million as it expands business with customers like DHL shipping and works with school districts as they reopen; New Jersey’s Southern Regional School District is one customer. Next up: a new disinfecting module that can attach to its latest robot and scrub not only floors but touch points like tables and door handles. “We were solving this problem for years, and all of a sudden the world cares about it more,” says Sheikh, 32.

HEADQUARTERS: Los Angeles

FOUNDERS: Natalie Holloway (CEO), Max Kislevitz

EMPLOYEES: 5

Married founders Holloway, 32, and Kislevitz, 34, started selling weighted Bala Bangles—fitness bracelets in pink, turquoise and black—in 2018. The standard is a one-pound bracelet ($49 retail) that can be worn on the wrist or the ankle. They soon added their takes on dumbbells and kettlebells, which they call Bala Bars and the Power Ring. In February they won a $900,000 investment on Shark Tank from Mark Cuban and Maria Sharapova. Then the coronavirus arrived, sending sales soaring as homebound customers looked for new ways to exercise. So far in 2020, they’ve sold 500,000 bangles, and now predict revenue will reach $19 million, up ninefold from last year’s $2 million.

F O R B E S . C O M

COURTESY OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY; DAVID LIVINGSTON-GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY OF NUGGET; COURTESY OF QVENTUS

EVERBLOCK SYSTEMS

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

FOUNDER: Arnon Rosan (CEO)

EMPLOYEES: 14

EverBlock Systems started out making giant modular building blocks and interlocking panels that turned into walls and floors for offices, classrooms and military facilities. Throughout the pandemic, states and cities from New Jersey to New Orleans have used them to build temporary hospitals. Now the five-year-old company is working with schools in New York to convert gyms and auditoriums into classrooms for socially distanced learning. Despite losing most of its pre-pandemic business, EverBlock expects revenue to exceed $20 million this year, more than three times that of last year. Rosan, 51, has experience in disaster recovery, having provided modular floors for tents built by the National Guard and FEMA after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

FARMGIRLFLOWERS

HEADQUARTERS: Watsonville, California FOUNDER: Christina Stembel (CEO)

EMPLOYEES: 165

Former Indiana farm girl Stembel, 42, spent nearly a decade building Farmgirl Flowers into a $33 million (2019 revenue) floral delivery company. Then came Covid-19. She had to close her San Francisco distribution center in March when nonessential businesses were shut, and threw out $150,000 worth of flowers. Rerouting orders to a recently opened distribution center in Ecuador enabled her to fulfill existing purchases. She closed the pricey San Francisco warehouse for good, and partnered with three California farms to directly ship single-variety arrangements, reducing design costs. Despite the closure of the Bay Area center, complaints about a toxic workplace there emerged online in June. These, she says, “were addressed with a rigorous HR investigation when they were originally made.” With more people sending flowers to family and friends they’ve missed lately, Farmgirl projects $60 million in 2020 revenue.

FREIGHTWAVES

HEADQUARTERS: Chattanooga, Tennessee FOUNDER: Craig Fuller

EMPLOYEES: 132

This logistics-industry media company saw half its business wiped out when it had to cancel in person events, but it’s still growing thanks to virtual conferences, a new online broadcast network and a decision to double down on its data-analytics platform to help clients set prices and optimize routes. The four-year-old company hosted 300,000 at virtual events this year, up from the 5,000 it planned to host in person. Increased sponsorships for these gatherings are expected to boost sales to $19 million this year, up from $11 million in 2019.

GOOTEN

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

FOUNDERS: Austen Bernstein, Micah Smith. CEO: Brian Rainey

EMPLOYEES: 90

Print-on-demand company Gooten (named in homage to Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the movable-type printing press) surpassed $18 million in sales in the first half of 2020, more than its total revenue last year. Credit better printing tech that has enabled its business customers (it does not sell to consumers) to cut their inventory of T-shirts, mugs, beach towels and other novelties. To meet demand amid lockdowns, Gooten shifted fulfillment from closed locations to those still open in its network of 40 manufacturers in 80 locations worldwide.

HUNT A KILLER

HEADQUARTERS: Baltimore

FOUNDERS: Ryan Hogan (CEO), Derrick Smith EMPLOYEES: 50

Childhood pals Hogan and Smith are profiting from true-crime fervor and quarantine boredom with their murder-mystery game Hunt A Killer, sold by subscription for $25 to $30 a month. Its boxes of clues include police reports, news clippings and financial records, often inspired by real murders. The four-year-old company expects revenue to reach $50 million this year, nearly double last year’s $27 million; subscriber figures have hit 100,000. “Whether people want an escape from politics or the pandemic, Hunt A Killer engages your brain with something else,” says Hogan, 36. “Even if that’s solving a heinous crime.” (See story, page 31.)

Miyoko

Schinner

LION’S WOOD BANQUET FURNITURE HEADQUARTERS: Baltimore

FOUNDER: Bosley Wright. CEO: Greg Bandelin EMPLOYEES: 65

Lion’s Wood Banquet Furniture usually makes rolling buffets and serving stations for restaurants, hotels and nursing homes out of a 50,000-square-foot factory in Baltimore. But the coronavirus outbreak pushed CEO and co owner Bandelin, 42, a college dropout who had previously owned a cafe, to quickly shift gears. It now sells indoor dining room and bar furniture repurposed for the pandemic. It recently reconfigured locations of publicly traded pub chain Clyde’s and is manufacturing plexiglass dividers for grocery stores and face shields for municipalities. The move seems to be working, as sales for the past 12 months (through August) increased 50%, to $16 million.

MINT HOUSE

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

FOUNDER: Will Lucas

EMPLOYEES: 66

When virus-related closures battered the hospitality industry, Mint House, which provides high-end short-term rentals for business travelers, was in a tough spot. The three-year old company—which recorded $10.5 million in revenue in 2019—moved quickly to provide accommodation for people displaced by the pandemic, including college students and physicians traveling to Covid-19 hot spots. Those changes enabled Mint House not only to fill its existing rooms but also expand its available units by 40% in the third quarter. Now, with 400 short-term spaces in 10 cities across the United States, occupancy is back up to more than 80% from a low of 43% in March.

MIYOKO’S CREAMERY

HEADQUARTERS: Petaluma, California FOUNDER: Miyoko Schinner

EMPLOYEES: 170

Schinner, who has been making vegan cheese and butter for 30 years, got her start teaching cooking classes and hosting a cooking show. After promoting her fourth cookbook, which featured cheese made from cashews, she started Miyoko’s Creamery in 2014. Her brand now sells alternatives to butter, cream cheese and mozzarella, along with other dairy-free products made from nuts, oats and legumes at 20,000 stores including Walmart and Target. Estimated 12-month revenue through August doubled to more than $30 million, as more shoppers turned to plant-based foods. The Japanese immigrant lives on an animal sanctuary in Northern California’s western Marin County, land grazed by some 70 creatures—cows, donkeys and more.

NTOPOLOGY

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

FOUNDERS: Bradley Rothenberg (CEO), Greg Schroy EMPLOYEES: 82

Rothenberg, 35, is building next-generation design software that relies on mathematical computations to create 3D-printed parts and products that are lighter and more efficient than would be possible with older CAD systems. The nTop software has, for example, been used to redesign brackets for space satellites and to make more-efficient spinal cages for back surgery. Despite the pandemic, it raised an additional $42 million in June, led by Insight Partners. Other investors include Canaan and Lockheed Martin, which is also a customer. The fresh capital will help nTop expand as industries including aerospace, automotive and health care adopt 3D printing for future products such as electric vehicles. Revenue is expected to more than triple this year, to $5 million, up from $1.5 million in 2019.

NUGGET

HEADQUARTERS: Butner, North Carolina FOUNDERS: David Baron (CEO), Ryan Cocca, Hannah Fussell

EMPLOYEES: 80

Three University of North Carolina buddies founded Nugget in 2015 to make a better futon— but only a year in, the startup had ditched that utilitarian college standby in favor of fun furniture for kids featuring removable parts that can be used to build ramps, crash pads and stairs. That shift has proven even more lucrative during the pandemic as parents look for ways to entertain their children at home. “It’s like upgraded fort building,” says Cocca, Nugget’s chief marketing officer. Revenue is expected to nearly triple this

David Baron

OUTDOORSY

HEADQUARTERS: Austin, Texas

PACKBACK

HEADQUARTERS: Chicago

FOUNDERS: Nick Currier, Kasey Gandham, Mike Shannon (CEO), Jessica Tenuta

EMPLOYEES: 75

Four friends at Illinois State started Packback as a dorm-room business. They pitched their idea, to rent digital textbooks, on Shark Tank in 2014; Mark Cuban invested $250,000. But that venture flopped and almost went bankrupt. In 2016 they changed course and introduced an artificial intelligence tool that helps students ask more thoughtful questions and post sharper comments in online discussions. When colleges shut down in March, the team laid off more than a dozen people and later landed an $890,000 PPP loan. Business picked up this summer as schools looked for ways to improve their online courses. Students can buy Packback’s tool for $25 a pop. For the fall semester, 250,000 students signed up, more than double the number this time last year; Packback should bring in nearly twice its 2019 revenue of $4 million.

PHONONIC

HEADQUARTERS: Durham, North Carolina FOUNDERS: Tony Atti (CEO), Patrick McCann, Matt Trevithick

EMPLOYEES: 140

Backed by nearly $200 million in venture capital, Phononic spent the past decade perfecting small thermoelectric chips that can replace bulky mechanical compressors for heating and cooling applications, such as cooling the delicate electronics that handle telecommunications data, demand for which has surged as more people work remotely. Atti, 46, a former NASA scientist, says that “Covid accelerated, if not turbocharged” areas his business was targeting, such as 5G adoption. More customers are ordering Phononic’s portable

year, to $50 million, from last year’s $17 million.

ONPOINT SYSTEMS

HEADQUARTERS: Manchester, New Hampshire FOUNDERS: Ken Solinsky, Grace Solinsky EMPLOYEES: 16

In 2019, the Solinskys launched SpotOn, a wireless dog fence that relies on GPS technology to enable anyone to walk (or drive) the perimeter they want their dog to stay within and create a “fence” without wires. The product won an innovation award at the giant consumer-tech conference CES and was selling strongly by winter. Then came the coronavirus. Ken was concerned, but it turned out to be a boon for business, as more homebound people adopted pooches. The company, owned entirely by the couple, estimates a fivefold increase in sales over last year, to $10 million, and is looking to launch other items. “We’re focused on high-tech products for pet owners,” says Ken, 70, who sold his previous company to L3 Communications in 2013.

FOUNDERS: Jeff Cavins (CEO), Jen Young EMPLOYEES: 125

Recreational-vehicle peer-to-peer marketplace Outdoorsy began the pandemic like many other travel-focused companies: watching cancellations pile up. “April 1—our lowest bookings day on record—was our worst nightmare,” says Young, 47, the company’s chief marketing officer. She and life partner Cavins, 59, who founded Outdoorsy five years ago to connect would-be outdoor lovers with owners of the 17 million North American RVs that sit unused much of the year, shifted its marketing strategy to focus on SEO. As Americans got cabin fever and realized RVs could solve the conundrum of “socially distanced travel,” Outdoorsy showed up at the top of Google’s search results. Now the summer of the RV is turning into the opportunity of a lifetime for Outdoorsy, with renters booking longer trips on shorter notice. The result is top-line growth, with sales expected to reach $62 million this year, versus last year’s $38 million.

cooling systems to handle the food-delivery surge. Meanwhile, anticipated demand for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments means that health-care refrigeration manufacturers like Thermo Fisher have increased orders for Phononic’s chips. Revenue should double to $20 million in 2020.

PORTER ROAD

HEADQUARTERS: Nashville, Tennessee

FOUNDERS: Chris Carter (CEO), James Peisker EMPLOYEES: 53

The meat industry’s virus troubles, with outbreaks at processing plants nationwide, have translated into rapid growth for this online butcher. With more people ordering groceries online and cooking at home, sales will likely hit $10 million, up from $5.5 million in 2019. Carter, 38, and Peisker, 35, founded it in 2010 as a Nashville shop known for high-quality meat. It works with local farms, processes all its meat and hand-cuts every piece. In 2017 it began shipping across the country.

QVENTUS

HEADQUARTERS: Mountain View, California FOUNDERS: Ian Christopher,

Mudit Garg (CEO), Brent Newhouse EMPLOYEES: 80

In 2011, Garg, 36, a former McKinsey consultant, cofounded artificial-intelligence startup Qventus to help hospitals boost operational efficiencies and cut costs by tapping into real-time patient data flows and fixing bottlenecks. This spring, the company added Covid-19 mission control, with updates of patients and resources, along with a free scenario planner based on 450 epidemiological models to help city, state and federal officials with allocation of resources including ventilators and a variety of personal protective equipment. With hospitals preparing for a possible second wave and struggling with tighter profit margins, Qventus has rolled out its software to 40 new locations this year and is expecting a 50% increase in revenue, to $18 million, over 2019.

Mudit Garg

RHIZOME

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

FOUNDERS: Benjamin Bernet (co-CEO), Justin Guilbert (co-CEO), Charles Kim EMPLOYEES: 25

When two consumer-products

entrepreneurs got together to start a company in 2018, the result was Bravo Sierra (which means bullshit in military lingo). Their idea: consumer products— shaving cream, lip balm, face moisturizer— that would work under extreme conditions, developed with the military and sold to active service members and veterans. With the help of a former Army Ranger, who became the third cofounder, it debuted its products last summer and now expects $6 million in revenue in its first full year. Along the way, the founders of Rhizome discovered that the same proprietary software and community testing they’d built for Bravo Sierra could be used to help the government and other companies do R&D at lower cost.

SASSY JONES

HEADQUARTERS: Richmond, Virginia

FOUNDER: Charis Jones (CEO)

EMPLOYEES: 28

After years working in sales at Geico, Sysco and more, Jones sold her Mercedes to fund

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HEADQUARTERS: Louisville, Kentucky

FOUNDERS: Demetrius Gray (CEO),

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EMPLOYEES: 11

Gray, 32, quit his job at a large bank after the 2008 crash to work as a storm contractor in his native Kentucky. He soon realized that inefficiencies in reconstruction and insurance were forcing people with damaged homes to wait months or even years to rebuild. In 2016 he teamed with serial entrepreneur Watkins, 36, to launch WeatherCheck.

The $3.5 million (est. 2020 sales) startup collects data from dozens of sources

(including FEMA and mapping-software maker Esri) to create a detailed model of weather damage across the U.S. and Canada. That enables it to work with individuals,

mortgage lenders, corporations and insurers to identify weather-related damage as soon as it happens and process claims faster.

Since the pandemic started, it has also

partnered with businesses to monitor storms that affect employees working remotely.

YELLOWBRICK

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

FOUNDERS: Ankit Dhir, Rob Kingyens (CEO) EMPLOYEES: 17

Yellowbrick offers online career-exploration classes in 10 areas, including performing arts, fashion and gaming. Classes ($1,000 apiece) consist of 10 hours of short videos and self-paced projects created by industry veterans and professors at partner schools, including NYU. When the world locked down, Yellowbrick was forced to innovate the way it shot videos, but demand is likely to double, says Kingyens, 44.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES

RETAIL

REINVENTION

Amid the Covid carnage, a handful of innovators have finally figured out

how to compete against Amazon and sell in the 21st century.

Investors and consumers—and workers—are all winning.

Target CEO Brian Cornell

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an aircraft carrier, online sales doubled and drove a 6% year over-year increase, to $140 billion.

While no one foresaw the coronavirus, these sudden win ners had already been girding for the industry pandemic known as Amazon by embracing the one resource the digital giant lacked—their thousands of physical stores. By hard wiring digital shopping into their locations, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe’s transformed their stores, long viewed as expensive and fast-aging liabilities, into hy perlocal distribution hubs that are now powering in-person and digital shopping alike. Early results were looking good. In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, they became great.

“We are within ten miles of most Americans,” says Cornell,

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Cornell’s contrarian moves had been paying off. Target’s stock had nearly doubled since early 2017, but the Covid news had him on edge. In early January, he had created a task force to monitor the virus. Now it had come to America. Cornell shelved the in-person conference and threw together a virtual one in 48 hours. “I’ll always remember how I got only one question about the virus during the conference,” Cornell says, shaking his head. “And it was whether Chinese production delays would impact our spring line.”

Within a few days, America started locking down, and the retail landscape underwent a seismic shift. Panicked shop pers stripped stores of toilet paper, sanitizer, bleach and bot tled water. Amazon, overwhelmed by an enormous increase in orders, floundered: Deliveries were delayed; shipments of nonessential items became, well, nonessential. Negative cus tomer reviews went up 50%. So did allegations of price goug ing, with six-packs of Bounty paper towels going for nearly $60 and a tub of 75 Clorox wipes offered for $40. (An Ama zon spokesperson says, “Our systems are designed to meet or beat the best available price amongst our competitors, and if we see an error, we work quickly to fix it.”)

With supply chains seizing up and Amazon temporarily stumbling, millions of customers gave other online stores a shot. Smaller, savvy web retailers such as Wayfair and or ganic food peddler Thrive Market saw business boom. Mil lions of mom-and-pop operations were finally compelled to move from storefront-heavy strategies to digital ones. Dit to luxury retail, including brands such as Prada and Tory Burch (see story, page 132).

No one took greater advantage than big-box retailers. In the second quarter, Target sales jumped by nearly 25% year-over year, to $23 billion, as online sales tripled, adding 10 million new customers. Home Depot also grew about 25%, to $38 billion, as its online sales doubled. Even at mighty Walmart, where getting revenue to go up significantly is akin to turning

who saw same-day delivery demand nearly triple and curb side pickup service soar 700%. For years, the retail sector had been losing its way with customer service. Yet this shift was an undeniable consumer benefit. “Target has become truly convenient,” says Paul Trussell, Deutsche Bank’s retail analyst. “It’s taken years of investment, but now you can buy online, pick up in store or use their app to have someone put the product right in the trunk of your car.”

So shoppers and shareholders have benefited. But some thing even more profound has occurred with a third set of winners: workers. To say that high-stress, low-pay retail gigs have lived at the bottom of the economic food chain is an insult to plankton. In 2019, the median annual wage for a retail worker was $25,250, with little upward mobility and turnover rates running about 60 percent a year. All this dys function was subsidized by you, the taxpayer—the Economic Policy Institute estimates that more than 35% of retail work ers receive public assistance. Little wonder that no brick-and mortar retail company has ever before appeared on our Just

Curb Appeal

Target CEO Brian Cornell at a new curbside pickup station in Sarasota, Florida. “You can place an order, drive into over 1,500 parking lots and our team member will walk out and put it in your trunk, contact-free.”

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0

100 list, created in partnership with nonprofit Just Capital, which spotlights America’s best corporate citizens. But something happens when clerks and salespeople sud denly become essential frontline workers. In July, Target ac celerated a plan to raise its minimum wage by two dollars to $15 an hour. Best Buy and Walmart soon followed—and upped the ante, with Walmart pledging to pay some store managers up to $30 an hour. Bonuses, paid sick days and stricter safely measures came next. Yes, respect and consumer demand prompted the wage hikes. More critically, though, the stores of the 21st century need better-trained, multitask ing employees to make them run. “Our workforce will need to evolve in a way that meets the needs of customers,” says Best Buy CEO Corie Barry.

The result: Five brick-and-mortar retailers debut on the 2021 Just 100, led by Target at number 15. “As an essential business, if we were going to take care of America,” CEO Cor nell says, “we had to take care of our team first.”

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s in any pandemic, there have been victims.

Long-suffering companies like JCPenney,

J.Crew, Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier 1, none

of whom shifted fast enough, have filed for

bankruptcy. At the same time, Target shares

are up 60% since their late-March low. Lowe’s is up 140%, Home Depot 75% and Best Buy 105%—all trouncing the S&P

with our research partner Just Capital, showcases the best 1

corporate citizens—and where they score among public

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lion in stimulus checks and few places to spend it. “All those

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dollars have to go somewhere,” says Citi analyst Paul Lejuez.

The victors, in this case, actually shared the spoils amid

1. Microsoft (COMPANY) • Satya Nadella (CEO)

something of an arms race for workers. Walmart, the world’s

20

5

6

7

3

largest private employer, raised wages, paid more than

$1 billion in bonuses and added 14 more annual paid sick

2. NVIDIA • Jensen Huang

days. “Our emergency-leave policy has safeguarded upward

3

9

29

14

1

of hundreds of thousands of associates who knew that they

could take time off and be secure with their job,” says Donna

3. Apple • Tim Cook

Morris, Walmart’s Chief People Officer.

282

11

1

1

20

Home Depot, too, has paid out $1 billion–plus in bonuses

and extended paid leave. “Spring is our Christmas season,

4. Intel • Bob Swan

but we canceled all our promotions because we didn’t want a

23

14

21

2

9

traffic surge in our stores. Safety came before sales,” says CEO

Craig Menear. “We let our team know Home Depot had their

5. Alphabet • Sundar Pichai

back. Take care of your workers, they take care of your cus

877

7

5

9

11

tomers and the rest takes care of itself.”

In addition to Covid pay, corporations are investing re

6. JPMorgan Chase • Jamie Dimon

sources to promote racial equality and increase diversity.

215

26

41

50

6

In June, Walmart’s foundation pledged $100 million for a

center to promote health, education and training for un

7. Salesforce • Marc Benioff

derrepresented groups. People of color make up 47% of

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46

90

266

2

Walmart’s 1.4 million U.S. employees. Women represent 55%

of its workforce, including about half of store managers.

8. AT&T • John Stankey

Target, whose Minneapolis headquarters sit less than four

31

40

51

5

35

miles from where George Floyd died, pledged to increase

the number of Black employees across the company by

9. Cisco Systems • Chuck Robbins

20%. Black staffers currently make up 15% of its workforce.

8

13

44

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Among Target’s 350,000 employees, 50% are people of color;

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30 million–plus families we serve each week,” Cornell says.

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“Diversity is critical to bring that to life.”

Going all in on physical stores requires investing billions in

10. Adobe • Shantanu Narayen

employees. “You can be digital, but you’ve got to deliver digi

350

101

53

21

10

tally with a human,” says Walmart’s Morris.

As stores become more digital and jobs more complex, 64

11. IBM • Arvind Krishna

companies must increase pay and perks to attract and keep

241

3

35

2

81

employees. The latter is extremely tricky (and expensive) in

an industry with such high job churn. “Your employees must

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feel as much differentiation working at Target as customers 1

12. Bank of America • Brian Moynihan

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feel shopping at Target,” says Brandon Fletcher, a retail ana

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13. MasterCard • Ajay Banga

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ew felt good about Target in 2014 when Bri

an Cornell was named CEO.Atthe company,

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which traditionally promoted from within,

14. Anthem • Gail Boudreaux

32

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he was an outsider in more ways than one.

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He grew up in Queens, New York, under

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15. Target • Brian Cornell

tough conditions. His father died when he was in elementary

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school. Heart disease put his mother out of work and his fam

ily on welfare. Grandparents pitched in; school and sports

16. HP • Enrique Lores

offered salvation. Cornell graduated from UCLA in 1981 and

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121

spent the next 30 years as retail’s version of a career military

officer, relocating 15 times as he climbed the corporate ladder

17. Cigna • David Cordani

at Tropicana, Gallo Wines, craft store Michaels, Sam’s Club

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18. Workday • Aneel Bhusri

5

264

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5 BIG-BOX LESSONS

19. Procter & Gamble • David Taylor

41

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FOR SMALL RETAILERS

20. Synchrony Financial • Margaret Keane

12

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FALL ONLINE: Use digital tech to turn your store into a local

across America,” Cornell says. “They shop for you and bring the

21. Facebook • Mark Zuckerberg

fulfillment center. “A vast major ity of online orders are picked,

orderright to your doorstep.”

4

CHOICE PRODUCT: Curate or

815

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608

prepped and packed at our

create high-quality and trendy

22. Ecolab • Doug Baker

stores,” says Target CEO Brian Cornell. “FedEx and UPS sweep

things to help people shop with speed and confidence. “Target

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37

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584

29

by to deliver it the last mile.”

has one of the top product teams

23. General Mills • Jeff Harmening

PICKUP ARTISTS: Takeout isn’t only for food anymore. “We had

in retail,” says Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher. “They have

70

203

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91

6

high demand but had to limit

four brands that do around

24. PepsiCo • Ramon Laguarta

in-store traffic,” says Home Depot CEO Craig Menear. “We started

$1 billion in sales that they built from scratch.”

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89

14

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34

curbside, which let us serve more customers without having them

SAFETY FIRST: Put customers at ease by ensuring that everything

25. Best Buy • Corie Barry

come into the building.”

is sparkling and sanitized. “Long

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38

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10

79

NEED FOR SPEED: Outpace Amazon with same-day delivery. During the

before the CDC was talking about PPE, we were looking at suppliers,”

26. PayPal • Dan Schulman

pandemic, Target has seen sales

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319

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says Donna Morris, Walmart’s Chief

through Shipt, a startup it bought in 2017, jump 350%. “We have over

People Officer. “We needed masks. We needed gloves. We needed an

27. Visa • Alfred Kelly

200,000 Shipt personal shoppers

operational protocol.”

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and two different tours at PepsiCo.

He took over a Target in tatters. The previous year, a data breach had exposed the credit-card numbers of 40 million customers. Meanwhile, a poorly executed launch of 124 stores in Canada was racking up hundreds of millions in losses. Target, which had earned the upscale nickname “Tarjay” thanks to its high-quality products, was now saddled with shabby stores and stale brands.

66

“They were quickly going the way of Kmart,” says Barclays analyst Karen Short. “The stores were messy and out of stock. Employees were unhappy.”

0

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Cornell acted quickly, jettisoning the Canadian

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business and selling a chain of pharmacies to CVS S

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to focus on fixing the U.S. operation. The $7 bil J

lion plan that had sunk the stock in 2017 refreshed E

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stores, gave customers new digital buying options T

and turned locations into warehouses for online •

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orders.Target also launched dozens offresh brands

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like clothing lines Goodfellow & Co. and Universal L

Thread. “Target’s whole existence is to sell stuff

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that wasn’t Walmart fall-apart, but Target Tarjay,” T

Fletcher says. “Cornell went back to Target making really good stuff—good enough that people again call it Tarjay.”

Whatever you call it, Target’s ability to sell high quality stuff via a high-quality experience is crucial if the company is to hold the ground it has won during the pandemic. Big-box retailers have found a formula that works—for now—with lessons for smaller retailers (see sidebar, page 64) and other industries. The challenge: what happens when government stimulus recedes and a stir-crazy

Spotlight

Critical

Connections

Dallas-based AT&T has landed in the Just 100 top 10 for the first time this year thanks to high marks for how the Texas telecom treats its cus tomers, particularly those who need help during an emergency. AT&T’s FirstNet wireless network, built after 9/11, helps firefighters and first responders communicate with each other during crises, while its $650 million disaster-recovery program sends drones to boost cell service for customers who have lost their connections after hurricanes or wild fires. CEO John Stankey, who took the reins of the $180 billion (2019 sales) giant from Randall Stephenson in July, knows there’s more to do. “We’re working with policymakers and the industry to make internet access more available and affordable through a mix of public subsidies for low-income households and smart policies that encourage new infrastructure investment in our country,” he says. —Maggie McGrath

28. General Motors • Mary Barra

country can return in full force to restaurants, bars, hotels and travel.

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And then, of course, there’s Amazon, which

29. Medtronic • Geoff Martha

remains the elephant in every CEO’s home office.

523

43

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544

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After its initial pandemic stumble, Amazon quick

ly hired more than 175,000 new employees and

30. Merck • Kenneth Frazier

fortified its logistics network to get back on track.

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39

Second-quarter sales (which includes large non

retail divisions likeAWS and advertising) exploded

31. Citigroup • Michael Corbat

40%. Even as these big-box retailers enjoy a stock

624

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boost, Amazon’s soaring valuation of $1.5 trillion

is double the size of their market caps—combined.

32. The Hartford • Christopher Swift

That gives it more than enough firepower to com

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pete and disrupt on every front. The pandemic and

its impact on consumer habits have only increased

33. Accenture • Julie Sweet

Amazon’s power and reach.

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Cornell sees his edge both in his Tarjay cachet—

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and his arsenal of thousands of upgraded stores. “A few years ago, everyone said stores were obso

34. Hershey • Michele Buck

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opinion—it was what consumers were telling us,” he says. “Even during the pandemic, about 85% of

35. Dell Technologies • Michael Dell

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all retail spending happened in stores. And now, I

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have 1,900 fulfillment centers across the country. That speed is essential.”

36. Capital One • Richard Fairbank 27

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adapt to a new way of working

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When New York issued its stay at-home order, Celsious founders Corinna and Theresa Williams knew they had to think of a new way of doing business.

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37. Ford Motor • Jim Hackett

46. Hewlett Packard Enterprise • Antonio Neri

181

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111

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38. Boston Scientific • Michael Mahoney 70

47. Nielsen Holdings • David Kenny

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194

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39. UPS • Carol Tomé

48. Edwards Lifesciences • Michael Mussallem

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41. Keysight Technologies • Ron Nersesian •

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42. Verizon • Hans Vestberg

51. American Electric Power • Nick Akins

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43. PNC • William S. Demchak

52. Humana • Bruce Broussard

61

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224

198

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53. Lockheed Martin • James Taiclet

54

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114

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54. Hasbro • Brian Goldner

130

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146

Spotlight

Giving Credit

55. Advanced Micro Devices • Lisa Su

115

70

61

48

567

56. BlackRock • Larry Fink

14

143

566

18

434

57. VMware • Pat Gelsinger

13

210

444

68

416

58. Eli Lilly and Company • David Ricks

117

116

143

39

49

59. NortonLifeLock • Vincent Pilette

706

112

158

15

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More than 25 million American workers were furloughed or laid off

this spring, but Synchrony Financial’s call-center customer-service

60. Regions Financial • John Turner

workers were not among them. Instead, they got bonuses. “Making it

28

139

83

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187

happen wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do,” says CEO Mar

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garet Keane. She also set up a $1.5 million emergency fund for em

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ployees who need help with Covid-related medical costs. These initia

61. Chevron • Michael Wirth

C

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tives helped the $13 billion (2019 net revenue) company rise 27 slots to

24

556

54

718

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No. 20 on the 2021 Just 100 list. Supporting working parents is anoth

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er priority. The Connecticut-based credit-card provider increased paid parental leave to 12 weeks in January, and in June it launched a virtual

62. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals • Leonard Schleifer

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590

48

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summer camp for employees’ children. “I’m a true believer in creating

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an environment where every employee knows that they are valued and trusted,” Keane says. —Brianne Garrett

63. PVH Corp. • Emanuel Chirico

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Spotlight

Squeaky Clean

64. Dominion Energy • Thomas Farrell

62

42

75

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186

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65. VF • Steve Rendle

239

145

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66. Amazon • Jeff Bezos

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67. Illumina • Francis deSouza

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Ecolab, which makes its Just 100 debut at No. 22, logged $15 billion

68. Starbucks • Kevin Johnson •

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in revenue last year from selling water-treatment chemicals and clean ing supplies, including hand sanitizer, to companies including Micro

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460

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soft and Colgate-Palmolive. This spring, it modified production lines at

69. Owens Corning • Brian Chambers E

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seven of its water-treatment plants to increase its hand sanitizer out put. It also donated $3 million worth of its alcohol wipes and disinfec

T

128

337

47

553

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tant sprays to health-care providers in its St. Paul, Minnesota, home

70. Deere & Company • John May

and around the world. “Our team is proud of the way we stepped up our efforts when our expertise was needed most,” CEO Doug Baker

71

19

483

50

242

says. The market agrees: Ecolab is up more than 50% since stocks

71. Akamai Technologies • Tom Leighton

bottomed out in March. Bill Gates is a fan, too; the billionaire owns a 14% stake through his investment firm, Cascade. —M.M.

60

31

424

15

434

72. Wells Fargo • Charles Scharf

149

294

30

16

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73. Avangrid • Dennis Arriola

82. FedEx • Fred Smith

234

48

43

60

525

397

57

24

69

163

74. Dow Inc. • Jim Fitterling

83. Agilent Technologies • Mike McMullen

19

492

127

831

161

64

168

281

53

228

75. MetLife • Michel Khalaf

84. Home Depot • Craig Menear

119

122

150

20

311

277

117

37

117

240

76. Colgate-Palmolive • Noel Wallace

85. Amgen • Robert Bradway

98

91

110

171

410

95

389

151

33

153

77. ServiceNow • Bill McDermott

86. S&P Global • Douglas Peterson

80

6

436

599

378

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113

259

409

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78. Eversource Energy • James Judge

87. CVS Health • Larry Merlo

33

147

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79. Marathon Petroleum • Michael Hennigan

88. Exelon • Christopher Crane

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89. American Express • Stephen Squeri

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81. Campbell Soup • Mark Clouse

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Spotlight

Walking TheTalk

91. Nordstrom • Erik Nordstrom

453

102

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12

247

74

92. Etsy • Josh Silverman

38

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93. T-Mobile • Mike Sievert

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Merck CEO Ken Frazier is one of four Black chief executives leading

94. Intuitive Surgical • Gary Guthart

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America’s largest publicly traded companies, and he’s aware of the responsibility this confers. “If you’re complacent with the status quo,

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you’re complicit in the structural racism and inequality that the sta tus quo hides,” he says. In July, the New Jersey–based pharmaceutical

95. Coca-Cola • James Quincey •

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giant—which is developing two Covid-19 vaccines and tops its industry

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287

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on this year’s Just 100—stopped advertising on Facebook and Insta

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96. Sempra Energy • Jeffrey Martin E

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crimination.” Internally, underrepresented groups accounted for 36% of new hires in 2018, up from 22% four years earlier, and women make

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up 49% of its workforce. “Our goal is to ensure that the diversity of our

97. Delta Air Lines • Ed Bastian

employees mirrors the external world and our patients,” Frazier says.

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“We have to do more, and do better.” —Katie Jennings

98. Xylem • Patrick Decker

122

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99. Cummins • Tom Linebarger

M E TH O D O LO GY: Forbes partnered with Just Capital to rigorously evaluate 928

335

216

68

93

ofthe nation’s largest publicly traded companies (the Russell 1000 minus REITs and 7

pending mergers). Just Capital pulls data from public reports, company surveys and

100. Juniper Networks • Rami Rahim

crowdsourced repositories and, using a team of data scientists and statisticians, weighs that data based on what a survey of 95,000 Americans indicate are the most important

17

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aspects of business behavior: Weightings are based on the treatment of workers (41%), 655

community (20.7%), customers (14.8%), shareholders (14.7%) and the environment (8.9%).

BOTTOMOF THE CLASS

AS 2020 FLIPS THE SCRIPT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS, THESE COMPANIES NEED TO GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER. JUST CAPITAL ANALYZED 928 PUBLIC COMPANIES. BELOW: THE LOWEST 10%.

Choice Hotels International

CSX

Diamondback

Energy

Dish Network

Dollar Tree

EchoStar

Element Solutions

Empire State

Realty Trust

Enphase Energy Euronet Worldwide Extended Stay America Five Below

Fleetcor

Technologies

GrafTech International

Graham Holdings Company Haemonetics

IAC/InterActiveCorp. Immunomedics

Ingersoll Rand

Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Iovance

Biotherapeutics

Iron Mountain

Kinder Morgan

Kirby

Landstar System Life Storage

Lionsgate

Monster Beverage Corporation

Murphy Oil

Corporation

New York Community Bancorp

Nexstar Media Group Novocure

Old Republic

International

Outfront Media

Pilgrims Pride Corporation

Planet Fitness

PPD

Prosperity Bancshares

Quidel

Spectrum Brands Holdings

Take-Two Interactive Software

Tandem Diabetes Care

Targa Resources

Tesla

The Hain Celestral Group

The Wendy’s Company TransDigm Group TripAdvisor

Two Harbors

Uber Technologies Vail Resorts

Valmont Industries Vertiv Holdings

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Acadia Healthcare

Acadia

Pharmaceuticals

Acceleron Pharma

Air Lease Corp.

Amedisys

Amerco

Antero Midstream Corporation F O R B E S . C O M

Ares Management Avantor

Beyond Meat

Bill.com Holdings Cabot Oil & Gas Capri Holdings Carlyle Group

Chegg

Floor & Decor Holdings

Fox Corporation Frontdoor

FTI Consulting

Gaming & Leisure Properties

Generac

Holdings

Globus Medical

Entertainment LKQ

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden Sports Match Group McDonald’s

Middleby

Reata Pharmaceuticals Regal-Beloit

Royal Gold

Seaboard

Signature Bank

Silgan Holdings

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Skechers U.S.A.

Watsco

White Mountains

Insurance Group

World Wrestling

Entertainment

Wyndham Hotels &

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