Sarah Kauss is the CEO of water bottle company S'well. Her small idea has turned into one of the most successful female-run businesses. She joins Kristen Schoeler at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit to discuss how to build a brand and why S'well is doing so well.
In terms of advice on how to grow a small business, Kauss says to build a strong brand and then try to understand what your product and service can bring to other big companies and brands.
On what is next for S'well, Kauss says S'well is exploring new ways to further product innovation. As they move into new product categories and countries, Kauss does anticipate changing their marketing strategy. At this point, S'well has not spent any money on marketing and instead relies on consumers to be brand ambassadors. Kauss also says that more is spent on legal issues than she would like to deal with copycats.
S'well has not announced any numbers for 2017, but Kauss explains that the company has continued to grow since 2015 and the goals just continue to get higher with each year.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
