Rich Lessons

Essence Fest 2026 recap, Trump Accounts are officially live, and Anthropic just made a $150M nonprofit play. We break down what it means for your wallet and your business. Full description: In this week’s mini-episode of Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri are breaking down the massive cultural, financial, and tech shifts happening right now. First up, we just wrapped up Essence Fest in New Orleans, an...

Elon Musk hits $1 Trillion on paper, inflation spikes to a 3-year high, and the Obama Presidential Center prepares for its historic Juneteenth opening in Chicago. This week on Rich Takes, we're breaking down the biggest headlines shaping business, money, tech, and culture. 🔥 Elon Musk reaches trillionaire status on paper after SpaceX's public debut, and thousands of employees become milli...

In this episode of Rich Takes , we break down the massive financial and cultural shifts redefining the business landscape: The Tech Reckoning: Did Uber just prove the AI hype train is getting too expensive to ride? We unpack how they blew through their entire 2026 AI budget in less than four months, and why enterprise giants like Klarna are quietly rehiring the staff they laid off. The Ticketmaste...

What would you do with $22,000 a year, and would your answer change if it meant letting NVIDIA build a mini AI data center in your backyard? This week on Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri break down NVIDIA's rumored residential data center program, what it actually costs when you factor in electricity, water, and city regulations, and why the internet is split clean down the middle on whether to...

This week on Rich Takes, we’re breaking down the stories shaping entrepreneurship, business, tech, and culture right now. We start with The Breakfast Club making history as the first daily live-streaming show on Netflix — and what it says about the growing battle between Netflix, YouTube, podcasts, and the future of content. Are we officially in the content wars era? Then we get into the rise of t...

Are you a founder or a CEO? Because they're not the same thing, and confusing the two might be the most expensive mistake you make. In this episode of Rich Lessons, Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor get into one of the rawest conversations in entrepreneurship: what it actually takes to go from founding a company to scaling one — and why the title of "CEO" means nothing if you ca...

Sheena and Sevetri are back with this week's Rich Takes — and this week it's a full-on face-off. AI is eliminating jobs by the thousands while storytellers and communicators are quietly pulling six and seven-figure salaries. We're breaking it all down. Tech companies are cutting thousands while quietly posting some of the highest-paying content and communications roles we've ever s...

Logan Gobert was still working full-time when she signed a lease, gave herself 60 days to open, and launched Matcha Magic NOLA, one of New Orleans' most talked-about new cafés. In this episode of Rich Lessons, Logan sits down with Sheena and Sevetri to discuss building a wellness-focused café brand in the South, what it actually takes to open a food and beverage business while still working a...

This week on Rich Takes — the hot takes segment of the Rich Lessons podcast — Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor break down the biggest headlines impacting business and culture. The Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act has red states redrawing district maps at lightning speed. Louisiana just went 5-1. Tennessee's Black representation in Memphis is gone. But the real questio...

What does it really take to become a successful NFL agent? In this episode of Rich Lessons, Sheena Allen and Sevetri sit down with NFLPA-certified agent and attorney Paul DeRousselle to discuss the business behind professional football, negotiating NFL contracts, athlete representation, sports law, faith, failure, mental health, and building a career from a small town in Louisiana. Paul shares his...

This week on Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri break down the headlines making noise in business, tech, and culture. The Met Gala is back, and so is the controversy. This year's backlash goes beyond the dress code: Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are now the event's biggest backers, and A-listers like Taraji P. Henson and Jennifer Lewis are speaking out. Plus, Beyoncé made her return after 10 y...

Less than 1% of venture capital goes to Black women, but what's really behind that number, and what does it actually take to change it? In this episode, Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor get candid about the full picture of funding for Black women founders: from what banks and VCs are actually looking for, to why your pitch might be killing your deal before it starts, to why the current f...

The fundraising headlines are misleading founders, and we are breaking it down. In Q1 2026, startups raised a record $297 billion — but $122 billion of that went to a single company: OpenAI. If you have been waiting for the market to turn around, this is the reality check you need before next week's full fundraising episode drops May 5th. Plus, we get into the headlines shaping culture and bus...

From Tim Cook stepping down as CEO of Apple after 15 years to mass layoffs hitting Big Tech, media, and beyond, the future of work is changing faster than most people are ready for. Starting September 1, 2026, Tim Cook officially steps down as Apple CEO after 15 years, handing the reins to John Ternus, current SVP of Hardware. Was this a long time coming? Is Apple too stagnant to survive another d...

In this episode of  Rich Lessons , we sit down with powerhouse executive  Deb Grant —GE's first Black female corporate officer, former president of the GE Foundation (overseeing a $130M budget), board director, and CEO of Corporate Playbook—to decode what actually moves the needle and what it  really  takes to succeed in corporate America and beyond—and it's not just “working harder.” From...

Emma Grede said working from home is hurting women's careers, and Sheena and Sevetri have thoughts.  This week on Rich Takes, we break down why we mostly agree, who works from home actually works for, and the hard truth that if you're not exceptional and you're not an expert, the person showing up in the office is getting the promotion, the relationship, and the job security when layof...

Vibe coding is everywhere, but is it actually changing who can build a tech company, or is it just giving everyone a very polished prototype? Sevetri and Sheena are back with a conversation about the AI-powered development trend taking over the startup world. They break down what vibe coding actually is, who it's for, and — as two tech founders who've built and scaled companies — what the...

This week on Rich Takes, we’re breaking down the headlines shaping culture, business, and the future of entrepreneurship—and some of them are  wild . From a controversial $1.8B AI-powered startup raising eyebrows, to the evolving reality of college sports money + transfer chaos, to a growing backlash against “copy-paste AI” design, this episode is packed with unfiltered takes you won’t hear anywhe...

Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor are back with a fresh Rich Takes covering the Oscars, the Target boycott drama (over or no?), and a food city ranking that has New Orleans sitting exactly where it belongs. First up: the 2026 Oscars. Sinners took home wins, but was it enough? Sevetri breaks down why she woke up the next morning still processing how the night played out, why Sean Baker's B...

Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor are back with another rapid-fire Rich Takes — and they're not holding back. This week, the co-hosts break down the Essence Fest 2026 headliner announcement (Brandy, Monica, and Cardi B), what it signals about the festival's comeback, and why Essence still holds cultural power for Black artists. Then the conversation shifts to rising gas prices, the Mi...

Black female founders are breaking their silence, and the internet has opinions. This week on Rich Takes, Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson break down Hanifa's viral post about supply chain struggles and customer complaints, and ask the harder question: when does grace run out? Plus, is Anthropic actually the "good guy" in the AI wars against OpenAI and the government, or are we all ju...

On this week's Rich Takes — the quick-hit current events segment from the Rich Lessons Podcast — Sheena and Sevetri break down the biggest stories you need to know about right now. First up: the Supreme Court ruled Trump's tariffs illegal, but before the ink dried, he doubled down with a 50% global tariff. The hosts debate whether corporations should be suing for billions when they already...

Is AI actually changing the world, or are we living in a hype bubble? This week on Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri are breaking down the headlines that have everyone talking. First, they dive deep into the AI debate that's taken over the internet from the viral article (“Something Big Is Happening” by Matt Shumer) comparing AI's impact to COVID, to the growing backlash from tech insiders ca...

Subscribe to Rich Lessons on Substack for Exclusive Business Insights and Resources. richlessons.substack.com We're on a brief hiatus from our full-length, guest episodes, but we couldn’t stay quiet with everything happening in business, tech, and culture. In this Hot Takes edition, we break down the biggest headlines of the week — from our Super Bowl recap to the inside story on Khaby Lame’s...

Subscribe to Rich Lessons on Substack for Exclusive Business Insights and Resources. richlessons.substack.com Welcome to 2026, where AI is reshaping the workforce and VCs are changing the fundraising game. In this episode of Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri break down the biggest business trends impacting entrepreneurs right now, from widespread layoffs across industries to shifts in VC funding for...