In 2020, Venmoing total strangers in need became a radical act of support — and trust — Raised in a six-bedroom mansion in Philadelphia’s outer exurbs — the kind with a grand circular driveway, tucked 100 yards from the street — 25-year-old Jake learned from an early age that wealthy families like his had a moral obligation to give back through charity. Jake, who asked OneZero to…

Unemployed teachers, cooks, dancers are turning to Patreon, Twitch, and OnlyFans — “We have nothing to sell besides physical touch.” The thought jarred Amber Briggle awake some nights. It kept her from eating in the first week of the Covid-19 shutdown when she lost six pounds fretting over the sudden collapse of the business she’d built up her “entire adult life.” For…

Most entrepreneurs acquire domains to fit their businesses. Peter Askew does the opposite. — Inside the Switchyards, a buzzy Atlanta co-working space, local tech founders like to plaster the elevator with stickers for their companies. There’s one for Soylent, the Space-Age nutri-gunk whose founder went to Georgia Tech; there’s one for MailChimp, the email behemoth that does almost half a billion dollars in annual…

Inside the big, twisted industry of neighborhood data collection — Annette Lott sat through the meeting with studied patience, waiting for the moment city officials would open the floor and she could ask them about Google Maps. It was late spring in Buffalo, New York, in 2015 — a season that was unusually hot that year, and heated. The wood-paneled…