There are some founders who think that only good ideas can come from them. Haniff Brown is not one of those founders.
In 2024, the Williams College math major and former private equity investor was promoting his company Fit:match’s AI body-scanning technology as a way to help shoppers find clothes that fit. Then a major English soccer team asked if he’d bring the tech to their youth academy for an entirely different use. He almost said no, but went anyway, and after listening to the coaches, he found an entirely different use for the tech — and much bigger business in the process.
Today, Fit:match partners with FIFA, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball to deliver athletes a full set of anthropometric and body-composition measurements in seconds. Brown spoke with Entrepreneur to share his insights and advice for building, growing and seizing unexpected opportunities.
Let’s start with the elevator pitch. What is Fit:match? Fit:match is a body intelligence platform. Think of us almost like the ChatGPT or the Claude or the Gemini of the human body. We provide remote access to body intelligence and body analytics at scale. So if you want precision or data analytics on the human body, we are the company providing that for hospitals, for athletes, and coaches, and really across the board.
Talk to us about the pivot from your tech focusing on people buying clothing. I think it was in 2024 when we got a call from a really large sports team in England. We were doing some work in a retailer and they said to us, “Hey, we really like your technology. I know that you’re using it for shopping, but can you swing by our youth academy out in the countryside in England?” At first, we were like, no, the technology is built for this purpose. But sometimes as an entrepreneur, you just have to take a risk and you have to go with your gut. And I felt, why not? So when I was there, I started to talk to the coaches, I started to talk to the scouts and then the sports scientists. And that really was the aha moment for us. What they told us at that academy is, “Hey, if you can get this body scanning process down to 10 to 15 seconds, you would unlock a huge advantage for us.” Because most assessments in sports take a long time and involve pulling an athlete out of training. I came back from that trip and I was just like, “We’re going all-in on this.”
You’re a die-hard Manchester United fan — how does it feel to build a business around something you love? What makes me the happiest is the fact that whether it is the MLB or Major League Soccer, we’re doing it at the youth level. If you can democratize it the right way, you can get access to more youth, you can help develop ecosystems and pathways that don’t exist today, and you can also provide data to parents so they can make better decisions for their sons and daughters.
Photo credit: Fit:match
For entrepreneurs, how important is it to put your product in people’s hands toexperience it? You have entrepreneurs, and then you have founders that are trying to build something that doesn’t exist. I’m on the latter piece. A big part of this journey for me has not only been, “Hey, the technology works!” but it’s also now proving to enterprises, businesses, markets and consumers that this is something they can do. A big part of how I’ve tackled adoption is to put the technology out there as much as possible. Because the more that’s hidden, the more obstacles you have to face in that selling journey. So every client call that I have now, whether I’m talking to Cleveland Clinic or a sports team in Peru, I start with a demo of the technology. Not a video, not a picture. We have someone on our team get on the call, take out their iPhone, click four pictures, and go through the technology, because I want to educate the person on the other side that this is easy. This is an experience that I always tell people my eight-year-old son can do and my 70-year-old mom can do. And what I found is the ROI and the payback on putting it out there has been huge.
What’s your advice to founders out there seeking funding? I’ve been fairly open about this. I do not like fundraising. I like building products, I like scaling teams, I like having fun on that side of the business. So I view fundraising almost as if you’re going in a car from Los Angeles to New York, and somewhere along the line you’re gonna break down and not have any fuel left. And you need a gas station along the journey. Fundraising is those gas stations. It’s not the means, it’s not the ends — it’s just some fuel that you need to get to the next stage and execute your journey. If I build the right product, if I build the right market, if I have customers who are paying, I’ll find the right investor. I find a lot of entrepreneurs try to focus on fundraising first, then those things second. What I found is that fundraising becomes easier once you solve for those things. So my advice is to focus on the stuff that investors really want to see.
There are some founders who think that only good ideas can come from them. Haniff Brown is not one of those founders.
In 2024, the Williams College math major and former private equity investor was promoting his company Fit:match’s AI body-scanning technology as a way to help shoppers find clothes that fit. Then a major English soccer team asked if he’d bring the tech to their youth academy for an entirely different use. He almost said no, but went anyway, and after listening to the coaches, he found an entirely different use for the tech — and much bigger business in the process.
Today, Fit:match partners with FIFA, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball to deliver athletes a full set of anthropometric and body-composition measurements in seconds. Brown spoke with Entrepreneur to share his insights and advice for building, growing and seizing unexpected opportunities.
Some Discover cardholders who recently migrated to Capital One are receiving a special Capital One Travel offer worth up to $200 back on their first eligible stay.
Eligible cardholders can earn 15% cash back on their first hotel or vacation-rental booking made through Capital One Travel. The offer applies to up to $1,333.33 in eligible spending, which would earn the maximum $200 back.
Offer Details
Earn 15% cash back on a hotel or vacation rental booking on Capital One Travel, up to $200. This is a limited time offer that will provide eligible customers one-time elevated earn of 15% cash back on one hotel or vacation rental reservation made via Capital One Travel during the offer period for a maximum of $200 of elevated earn for a reservation (only applicable for payments made via Capital One Travel and including taxes and fees).
This offer is only available while supplies last and for one booking per account. Offer expires January 23, 2027.
Important Terms
For this booking, customers will earn 15% cash back on their booking, instead of their standard rewards earn rate, up to a total earn of $200.
If booking a package, only the hotel portion of the package booking will qualify for this offer.
After reaching a total of $200, customers will earn their standard rewards earn rate on the remaining portion of the purchase.
Rewards earnings will apply to net purchases (purchases minus any credits or returns) only.
Rewards will not be earned on any travel credits used or any rewards redeemed for the purchase.
Earned rewards are usually visible online within 10 days, but may take up to 2 statement cycles to post to your account.
This promotion cannot be retroactively applied to bookings made before the offer starts, and will not be applied to any bookings made after the offer expires.
Travel offers are nontransferrable, and may not be combined with other offers unless specified.
Guru’s Wrap-Up
This is a valuable welcome offer for former Discover cardholders moving into the Capital One ecosystem. A $1,333.33 eligible hotel or vacation-rental booking would earn the full $200 back.
The biggest limitation is that the booking must be made through Capital One Travel. Compare the portal price with booking directly. You would also miss out on hotel points, elite-night credits or on-property status benefits when booking through a third party.
OpenAI has hired one of Uber’s highest ranking executives to oversee its global communications efforts, filling a key role that had been vacant for nearly a year as the AI company navigates a challenging political landscape and moves closer to an initial public offering.
Jill Hazelbaker is joining OpenAI as chief corporate affairs officer, the company announced on Tuesday. Hazelbaker, who had been president and chief corporate affairs officer at ride hailing giant Uber, will work alongside OpenAI’s leaders to “deepen public understanding of AI and strengthen trust in its mission,” the company said.
She will report to OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman and starts in early December, OpenAI told Fortune.
“As AI becomes part of more people’s lives, how we communicate, engage, and earn public trust has never been more important,” Brockman said in the announcement, citing Hazelbaker’s experience and understanding of the “opportunities and responsibilities that come with building technology at global scale.”
Hazelbaker is a well respected communications professional in the technology industry. She has served as Uber’s President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for the past 11 years, and previously held senior leadership roles at Snap and Google. She is replacing Hannah Wong, who served as OpenAI’ chief communications officer (CCO) until January 2026. Since then, OpenAI’s Chris Lehane has been leading the team in the interim.
Hazelbaker previously turned down the role
In the ten months since Wong’s departure, OpenAI has experienced a series of public controversies—most notably when its AI agents hacked the company Hugging Face during training in July. The 11-year old company has been criticized for not being sufficiently transparent and communicative about its operations, at a time when public concerns about AI’s potential harms to society, the labor market, and the environment are rising. Backlash to the massive AI data centers being built across the U.S. has emerged as one of the key issues in the midterm elections taking place on Tuesday.
In September, OpenAI told Fortune it was not rushing to fill the role, and was focused on getting the right candidate. Over the summer, it ramped up its search by hiring an executive recruiting firm.
OpenAI offered Hazelbaker the position in the spring, but she turned it down, as Fortune reported in September. Sources suspected her close relationship with Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, desire to be on the East Coast for her family, and already high salary played a role in her declining the role.
It appears OpenAI has now made Hazelbaker an offer she cannot refuse.
Hazelbaker will remain on the East Coast, but will spend time in San Francisco, where OpenAI is headquartered, the company told Fortune.
“The work of building public trust has never been more consequential,” Hazelbaker said in the announcement, describing AI as the “most profound technological shift of our lifetime.”
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said Prime Minister Mark Carney’s fiscal plans aren’t yet making it harder for the central bank to control inflation.
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Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s Transforming Education for the Future Act bundles 22 Democratic bills into a single K-12 blueprint, and she is running to lead the House education committee if Democrats win the House.
The plan would triple Title I funding, fully fund special education, create free universal preschool and repeal the new $1,700 federal school choice tax credit.
With a Republican Senate and/or a Trump veto, oversight of the Education Department is the main tool a Democratic House could use alone.
Voters decide today whether Democrats win the House, the Senate or both. If they do, one of the most detailed pictures of their agenda for education and student loans comes from a single proposal. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) introduced the Transforming Education for the Future Act in September, and it folds 22 Democratic education bills into a single education policy blueprint.
As we’ve highlighted many times, proposed legislation that doesn’t seem to go anywhere usually finds its way into other larger pieces of legislation later. This is how it happens and why voicing your thoughts on individual proposals can help with future change.
If you want to see how you feel about different legislative ideas our education policy quiz shows where the two parties split on many of the same issues.
The bill is not the Democratic Party’s official platform. House Democratic leaders built their first 100 days agenda around health care costs, tariffs and oversight. Bonamici’s bill still matters because she plans to challenge Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) for the top Democratic seat on the House education committee, according to The 74. She also filed a resolution to impeach Education Secretary Linda McMahon over the department’s breakup.
With the focus on education policy, here is what we might expect from new congressional leadership.
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What Is In The Transforming Education For The Future Act?
The Transforming Education for the Future Act (H.R. 10421) would rebuild federal K-12 policy around three goals:
A well-rounded education
Support for educators
Fewer economic barriers to learning
Its biggest funding promises are tripling Title I for high-poverty schools and fully funding special education. It would also create free universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds through a federal-state partnership.
“Full funding” means Washington would cover 40% of the average per-pupil cost of special education, a pledge Congress made in 1975. Federal funding sat around 10% in 2025, according to the school superintendents group AASA.
The bill would also make school breakfast and lunch free for every child and stop relying on standardized test scores as a benchmark.
The package also folds in Rep. Frederica Wilson’s American Teacher Act, which would use federal grants to push states toward a $60,000 minimum teacher salary. That pay push lines up with a Senate Democratic bill to double TEACH Grants for future teachers.
The other bundled bills cover reading, school mental health, charter school transparency and student safety.
American Teacher Act (Wilson) · PARA Educators Act (McBath) · Supporting the Mental Health of Educators and Staff Act (Bonamici)
Funding And Public Schools
IDEA Full Funding Act (Huffman) · Keep Public Funds in Public Schools Act (Moore) · CHARTER Act (DeLauro) · Full-Service Community Schools Expansion Act (Lee) · Universal School Meals Program Act (Omar)
Reading, Arts And History
Arts Education for All Act (Bonamici) · READ Act (McBath) · Right to Read Act (Grijalva) · Black History Is American History Act (Beatty) · HEAL Act (Gottheimer) · Teaching Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander History Act (Meng)
Safety, Health And Research
Expanding Access to Mental Health Services in Schools Act (DeLauro) · FACTS Act (Bonamici) · Keeping All Students Safe Act (Beyer) · Protecting Our Students in Schools Act (Bonamici) · Safe Schools Improvement Act (Sánchez) · School Violence Prevention Act (Hayes) · Mitigating Electronic Access Losses for Students (Bonamici) · New Essential Education Discoveries Act (Bonamici)
Source: Office of Rep. Suzanne Bonamici. The College Investor.
Would Democrats Repeal The Federal School Choice Tax Credit?
Repealing the federal school choice tax credit is one of the plan’s central goals. Bonamici’s bill targets what Democrats call the “federal school voucher program”, the Education Freedom Tax Credit created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Starting January 1, 2027, donors can claim up to $1,700 for gifts to K-12 scholarship groups. Married couples can claim $3,400. 30 states have opted into the credit so far.
The bundled Keep Public Funds in Public Schools Act is a Senate bill from Senator Mark Kelly and 29 Democratic colleagues designed to repeal the credit before it launches.
What Do Democrats Want For College Costs And Student Loans?
Scott and Bonamici, two of the Democrats seeking the education committee gavel, both want to double the maximum Pell Grant, from $7,395 to $14,790. They told Inside Higher Ed they also want to repeal the new caps on graduate and Parent PLUS student loans and lower student loan interest rates. For a student who qualifies for the maximum Pell Grant, doubling the award would add $29,580 in grant money over four years.
The new student loan borrowing limits took effect July 1, 2026. Parent PLUS borrowing now cap at $20,000 a year and $65,000 per student, and most graduate students are capped at $20,500 a year under the new federal limits. Undoing them would take a new law signed by the president.
Oversight is the higher education item Democrats could move fastest. Scott has questioned the shift of student loan collections to Treasury, arguing Treasury treats the job as simply issuing and collecting student loans. A House majority could subpoena McMahon and call career staff to testify on how the transfers are working.
Interest rates are one area drawing interest from both parties. President Trump said he would “certainly consider” a Republican plan to cap federal student loan interest at 2.5%. Many House Democrats back a separate bill that would set the rate at 0%.
One area that’s not being talked about is changes to student loan repayment plans. A lot of borrowers are frustrated by the end of the SAVE plan and the launch of the new RAP plan. However, we have not seen any movement from Democratic leadership to revise the RAP plan or launch a new repayment plan of their own. For student loan borrowers frustrated by the cost of repayment, this is one area that is not being focused on.
How Much Of This Plan Could Become Law?
Most of the Bonamici package would need Republican votes to pass, even if Democrats win both chambers. Republicans hold the Senate 53-47, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats for control. Most bills would still need 60 Senate votes, and President Trump is still President with his veto power through January 2029.
That same math is why the House Republican bills to close the Education Department have not passed.
Spending bills are the bigger lever. Scott and Bonamici both support adding language to must-pass funding bills that would block the Education Department’s interagency agreements, Education Week reported. A Senate committee already advanced a bill to block four office transfers with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski as cosponsors. HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy opposed it, saying the administration should be allowed to test the agreements.
At least one bundled bill already has Republican support. Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) co-led the 2025 version of the IDEA Full Funding Act. Education Week also flagged early childhood education and career and technical education as possible areas of agreement. Bonamici has already pressed McMahon on special education in a House hearing on the department’s breakup.
And there are also multiple pieces of legislation to lower student loan interest rates, though there is disagreement as to how far they should go. The Democratic bill wants to set federal student loan interest rates at 0%, while the Republican bill wants to set interest rates at 2%.
What Does This Mean For Families Right Now?
Nothing changes for families or borrowers on Election Day. Current law governs the 2027-28 school year, including the federal student loan caps, the Repayment Assistance Plan and the school choice credit. Families should plan with today’s rules and treat any Democratic proposal as a possible upside.
An interest rate cut would not change monthly bills for borrowers on income-driven plans, since those payments are set by income. A borrower on RAP can check a payment with our RAP calculator before counting on new relief.
K-12 families have their own planning tools under current law – but many are state-driven. A 529 plan can now cover up to $20,000 a year of K-12 tuition and related costs under the 2026 529 plan expansion (depending on whether you state complies).
What Families And Borrowers Should Do Now
Build your 2027-28 college budget around the current student loan borrowing limits, not a promised repeal.
Check whether you qualify for a student loan forgiveness program under the rules in place today.
If you plan to give to a scholarship group in 2027, read how the Education Freedom Tax Credit works first, since it reains the law unless it is repealed.
Watch the next Pell Grant budget fight, because Congress sets the maximum award each year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Transforming Education For The Future Act Official Democratic Policy?
No. It is Bonamici’s bill, backed by more than a dozen Democratic cosponsors and groups such as the American Federation of Teachers and National PTA. House leaders have not adopted it, though it shows where many Democrats on the House education committee want to go.
Would A Democratic Congress Forgive Student Loans?
The priorities Scott and Bonamici described before the election focus on Pell Grants, borrowing caps, interest rates and oversight. There are no current proposals for broad student loan forgiveness.
When Would Any Changes Take Effect?
The new Congress is seated in January 2027, and oversight hearings could start soon after. New laws would need to clear both the House and Senate and be signed by the president, so families should keep using student loan rules in place for now.
Editor: Colin Graves
The post What Democrats Plan For Schools And Student Loans If They Win Congress appeared first on The College Investor.
President Trump and Big Tech are trying to rebrand artificial intelligence as “Super Intelligence.” But is it a breakthrough, or just the next phase of surveillance capitalism?
Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Fortinet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
The Swedish programmer who sold his Lego-like sandbox game to Microsoft for $2.5 billion is now trying to turn a Beverly Hills trophy home back into cash. His timing, however, is raising eyebrows.
Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, has listed his roughly 22,300-square-foot Trousdale Estates compound for $70 million—the same price he paid for it in 2014, The Wall Street Journal first reported. If it fetches its asking price, it would be the priciest home sale in Beverly Hills this year and the second most expensive in Los Angeles County, behind only the $130 million Casa Encantada estate Peter Thiel bought at a foreclosure auction in September, The Real Deal reported, citing the Los Angeles Times.
Aaron Kirman and Katia De Los Reyes of Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California hold the listing, alongside Branden and Rayni Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates. Kirman told the Journal that Persson simply isn’t spending much time in Los Angeles anymore and “is committed to selling.” He also acknowledged that luxury markets nationwide have cooled, adding: “We’re not doing aspirational pricing anymore.” It’s a reality sellers far below Persson’s tax bracket know well: Across the U.S., homeowners have been forced to slash asking prices in a stagnant market.
A $70 million price tag, frozen in time
Persson bought the property in December 2014, just months after Microsoft agreed to acquire Mojang, the Stockholm studio behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. Persson owned roughly 70% of the company, and the deal made him a billionaire. Forbes estimates his net worth at about $1.5 billion.
The purchase famously beat out a bid reportedly involving Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and at the time it was the most expensive home sale in Beverly Hills history. The spec mansion, built by developer Bruce Makowsky and originally listed at $85 million, came fully loaded: a candy room valued at $200,000, a 2,500-bottle wine cellar, an 18-seat screening room, and a car lift to move vehicles into a gallery-style showroom, Forbes reported. Persson later spent millions more adding a recording studio and a private nightclub with a DJ booth, bar, and dance floor, according to the Journal.
Leaving Los Angeles—but not necessarily fleeing a tax
Whatever is motivating the sale, the listing landed at a politically awkward moment. California voters head to the polls today to decide on Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires who were California residents on Jan. 1, 2026. Two competing measures on the same ballot, Propositions 41 and 42, could nullify it if either draws more “yes” votes.
The measure has already reshaped where some of the state’s richest people say they live. Google cofounder Larry Page left California before the cutoff and spent $173.4 million on Miami mansions, while fellow cofounder Sergey Brin relocated to Nevada and has poured $102 million into fighting the tax. Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick says he moved to Austin on Dec. 18, 2025—about two weeks before it would have applied to him. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg told the company’s directors he intended to establish residence outside California, before Meta struck a deal to issue a new class of nonvoting stock that could help him cover a potential tax bill; as part of it, he committed to staying in California, or wherever Meta is headquartered, for eight years.
But there’s no public indication that Persson’s sale is tax-driven, and unloading the house wouldn’t obviously change his exposure if it were. The measure’s residency test looks back to Jan. 1, 2026, and its text excludes real estate that billionaires own directly. Neither Persson nor his agents have tied the listing to the vote.
From “incompetent or evil” to “a teensy tiny bit wrong”
The mansion isn’t the only thing Persson has had a change of heart about lately. Early this year, his full-throated warning against AI-generated code made headlines: He wrote on X that anyone advocating for the practice is “either incompetent or evil,” and he has long urged young developers to “Learn. Your. Craft.”
The conviction had a shelf life. In July, Persson told his followers he “just might give vibe coding a shot,” citing trouble hiring talented programmers, and asked which tools he should try. By September, he’d come around entirely. “I will admit, I am enjoying vibe coding,” he wrote. “I may have been a teensy tiny bit wrong.”
