Remote learning has created a thriving new target market for office supply companies — Christy Warner, a communications manager in Minneapolis, searched for months for a desk that fit her teenage daughter’s room and was priced less than $200. “I looked on Ikea, Wayfair, Overstocked, Target, TJ Maxx, everywhere, and everything is sold out,” she says. Last spring, her daughter, a high school senior…

Covid broke the Lipstick Index and a lot of other economic indicators. Here’s what should replace them. — For years, economists have relied on traditional economic indicators like consumer spending, wages, inflation, and the yield curve to predict an upcoming recession — and economic recovery. They’ve also plumbed all sorts of other weird economic indicators like lipstick sales. Estee Lauder coined the term “the lipstick effect” during the…

Product shortages, clogged supply chains, and stir-crazy parents have left companies scrambling to keep up with surging demand — When stay-at-home orders forced Melissa Rooke, her husband, and two kids, ages four and eight, inside their Los Angeles home last spring, she attempted to buy an aboveground pool for $300. Seven weeks later, the pool had not arrived. After getting her money back from PayPal, she ordered another one…

The recently frozen IPO market is heating up, and companies are racing to go public before the end of summer — The pandemic almost completely shut down the IPO market this spring, crushing the stock market and marking April and May as the slowest public offering run since 2009. It also dashed the ambitious plans of IPO hopefuls, including DoorDash, Robinhood, and Airbnb. But as the stock market has surged back…

Why a new approach to venture capital is powering more sustainable startups — and funding more diverse founders — Thompson Aderinkomi was understandably wary about raising venture capital again. Just four months after closing a $7 million funding round for his first startup RetraceHealth in 2016, Aderinkomi was pushed out of the startup by the new board. This was after he had spent three years and taken on $1…

The pandemic is altering short-term shopper behavior — and retailers can’t keep up — The coronavirus lockdown has businesses reeling, with countless companies anticipating steep sales declines and some entire industries at risk. And yet some items are still flying off the shelves in this new work-from-home (and do-everything-else-from-home) world — and it’s not just toilet paper and hand sanitizer. …

From vaccines to remote job interviews, here’s how companies are working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — Jake Glanville thinks about coronavirus on a daily basis. The CEO of Distributed Bio in San Francisco was featured in the new Netflix series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak for its work on developing an antibody for influenza. …

Find out whether it makes sense for you… —

Dutch auctions? Reverse mergers? Direct listings? The pros and cons of IPO alternatives. — This story is part of The New Rules of the IPO, a multi-part special report. Illustrations: James Clapham A graveyard of hyped unicorns has some companies canceling or postponing their IPOs and considering other alternatives for raising money and getting that coveted ticker symbol. …