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Gwyneth Paltrow is ready to take 17-year-old Goop into its next era

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Good morning! Poppi could get acquired, surveillance tech monitors women in Iran, and Gwyneth Paltrow takes Goop into its next era. Have a mindful Monday.

– Next chapter. Gwyneth Paltrow founded Goop nearly 20 years ago—which means Goop is almost a “heritage brand” in an increasingly crowded marketplace of lifestyle competitors, Paltrow tells me in a new interview.

The actor-turned-founder called me last week for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of Goop, leading through layoffs, and how she’s grown as a founder over the past decade-plus. Talking to Paltrow, it’s immediately clear that she’s a real-deal founder. She speaks the language fluently, from how she decided which categories to exit and which to focus on (some Goop had experimented with, like sexual wellness, saw low lifetime value); to deciding to do layoffs (a “difficult” but “necessary” choice to put payroll costs back into growth); to her advice to new founders (it’s about ESPs and QuickBooks).

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Gwyneth Paltrow speaks at Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2024 on September 11, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

Paltrow credits a close-knit group chat of female founders and CEOs with helping her grow as a leader. “It’s sort of like Fight Club,” she jokes. “We’re not really supposed to talk about it.”

And Goop is also growing. Despite the headlines around its 2024 restructuring, I report that revenue grew 10% between 2023 and 2024, with growth across the three categories Goop is now focused on: beauty, its G. Label fashion line, and its Los Angeles-based takeout chain Goop Kitchen.

As Goop enters this next chapter, Paltrow says profitability is coming and that she’s not interested in selling for at least three more years.

“It’s amazing to me we’ve been around this long,” she says. “We want to energetically own who we are and what we’ve accomplished—continue to innovate and accept our place in the landscape and lean into it.”

Read the full interview here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.

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Turkey plans new big tech regulations that risk clash with U.S.

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Turkey is planning new rules to rein in the dominance of major tech firms, imitating the European Union’s regulatory approach at the risk of provoking U.S. retaliation.

The bill, set to be submitted to parliament soon, would prevent technology companies such as Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. from favoring their own services in search engines, app stores, or marketplaces, senior Turkish officials told Bloomberg. The bill is backed by the ruling party and was prepared in collaboration with Turkey’s antitrust authority.

Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 10% of a company’s annual revenue, added the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. 

The move comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and the European Union over digital regulations. The EU’s Digital Markets Act or DMA, enacted in May 2023, aims to curb anti-competitive practices by imposing obligations on “gatekeeper” platforms. Turkey’s proposal aligns with the EU’s approach and could risk straining the nation’s trade ties with Washington. 

US President Donald Trump has strongly criticized the EU’s DMA, calling it “overseas extortion” targeting American tech firms. In response, he has threatened to impose tariffs. 

Under the proposal, closed ecosystems like Apple’s would be required to let users install third-party apps from outside of their platforms, the officials said. In Apple’s case, this means allowing downloads to iPhones and iPads from outside of the App Store, similar to how Google allows sideloading on Android devices. 

It would also restrict platforms from processing user data without explicit consent and limit how they use that data for commercial purposes. 

Additionally, tech firms would be required to provide commercial users — such as app developers, advertisers and marketplace sellers — with clear information on service scope, performance, and pricing. 

The proposal is still subject to revisions before being enacted, and its final provisions could change during the legislative process. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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In wake of tragedies, BofA tasks senior execs with overseeing junior banker workload

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Bank of America, which has come under scrutiny for its treatment of junior bankers, is changing who is overseeing the workloads of its young executives. The bank is now having senior bankers—those who hold a title of director or above—monitor the nature and volume of assignments piled on lower level staff who, in an industry famous for grueling hours, often work well into the night to complete deals. 

Bank of America’s efforts come after a series of tragedies involving young people that have shaken the investment banking sector. In January, Carter Anthony McIntosh, a 28-year-old investment banking associate at Jefferies, passed away from a suspected drug overdose. McIntoch was working as much as 100 hours a week, the New York Post reported. Leo Lukenas, a BofA junior banker, died in May from a blood clot. Lukenas had worked 100-plus hour weeks before his passing. BofA in 2014 instituted policies to limit young banker hours, the junior execs were often pressured into lying about their workloads, the WSJ has reported.

To carry out its oversight program, BofA has long relied on what it calls a chief resource officer model. Under this model, BofA used mid-level executives, on one-year rotations, to allocate work to junior investment bankers, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

BofA has opted to shake up the model as it seeks to build the next generation of leaders, a person familiar with the situation said. The investment bank will now rely on senior bankers, working in permanent, full-time positions across sectors and regions, who will supervise young banker development as their CROs. 

Bank of America  is picking volunteers or assigning the role to the senior bankers, who are no longer dealmakers, the person said. BofA is seeking executives who have a very strong leadership quality, have managed teams and feel strongly about the evolution of junior bankers, they said.

“We want all of our junior bankers to have the best experience possible, learning from the teammates they work with and further benefiting from the career growth and development this role brings,” according to a BofA statement.  

BofA Securities, the investment banking division of Bank of America, employs thousands of bankers. It’s unclear how many are junior bankers. Young executives typically spend several years as a junior banker, including two as an analyst and two to three years as an associate, before they move up to vice president. At that point they usually work on a sector team, like consumer or technology or industrials.

BofA also cut roughly 150 junior investment banking roles, the person. The majority of people that were reduced were “mapped to new roles” outside of investment banking like financial analysis or strategic planning, the person said. “They were given the opportunity to move somewhere else,” they said.

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Four teens charged for alleged pistol-whipping, attempted Bitcoin robbery of OnlyFans influencer

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Four teenagers in Houston, Texas, were charged Thursday for assaulting and trying to steal Bitcoin and Ethereum from an OnlyFans influencer in early March. Kaitlyn Siragusa, known online as “Amouranth,” was sleeping in her home in northwest Houston when three men broke into her room and demanded cryptocurrency, reported FOX 26. Siragusa had previously posted on social media a screenshot of her more than $20 million in cryptocurrency balances, according to the New York Post.

The three men allegedly pistol-whipped the OnlyFans influencer three times before Siragusa’s husband fired shots at the suspects, who then fled Siragusa’s home, according to FOX. The Harris County District Clerk’s Office identified the three men on Friday as Demarcus Morris Jr., 17; Dylan Nesho Campbell, 18; and Bryan Anthony Salazar Guerrero, 19. Officials also identified a 16-year-old as a suspect.

“They brought duct tape and masks and were armed with handguns,” Siragusa posted on X.

The assault and attempted robbery is just one of a series of recent attacks on individuals with known crypto holdings. 

In late January, French police leapt into action after a group of criminals kidnapped David Balland, cofounder of the crypto hardware developer Ledger, and his wife, demanding a ransom in Bitcoin. French authorities, however, tracked down the kidnappers and rescued the couple. Balland’s wife was found unharmed but the Ledger cofounder had his finger severed in the ordeal. The Paris prosecutor’s office said that police had arrested 10 individuals alleged to be part of the kidnapping.

And in February, six men were accused in a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit of kidnapping three family members and a nanny from a Chicago townhouse, according to the Chicago Tribune. The criminals released the victims after they forced the family to hand over more than $15 million in cryptocurrency. 

Crypto executives and wealthy crypto owners are taking notice. Some are hiring bodyguards to protect themselves from would-be attackers, according to WIRED. And others are buying up “wrench-attack” insurance, or policies designed to insure individuals if they’re the victims of a physical-force crypto robbery.

“In general the best things Bitcoiners can do to stay safe is to remain private,” Jameson Lopp, a famous early Bitcoiner, told Fortune. “The goal should be to avoid becoming a target,” he said. “Don’t go around telling anyone about your Bitcoin holdings. Don’t flaunt your wealth online or in meatspace. Don’t engage in risk activities such as high-value face-to-face trades.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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