Zachary Crockett
Senior Writer, The Hustle

How a Florida couple “flipped” their way to a 6-figure income

Rob and Melissa Stephenson make a full-time living by scouring flea markets for discarded items — baby strollers, forklifts, prosthetic legs — and flipping...
Zachary Crockett • May 30, 2020

Silicon Valley’s favorite magician reimagines his act in the age of Zoom

Daniel Chan has stumped billionaires, CEOs, and engineers with his technology-driven tricks. Now, in the age of Zoom, he’s trying to pivot. ...
Zachary Crockett • May 10, 2020

The man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

When Gustavus, Alaska, was cut off from its grocery supply chain, one resident decided to take action. ...
Zachary Crockett • May 3, 2020

Everyone is baking — and entrepreneurs are rising up to meet the demand

A look at the numbers behind the latest quarantine craze, and the small businesses that are filling a gap in the market. ...
Zachary Crockett • April 18, 2020

small businesses

How small business owners survived the Great Recession

As COVID-19 rattles small businesses around the country, inspiration can be drawn from the stories of those who survived the last financial crisis. ...
Zachary Crockett • April 11, 2020

Meet the COVID-19 college graduates

On March 11, I opened my inbox to find an email from my soon-to-be-alma-mater, Pomona College: In light of COVID-19, I had a week...
Zachary Crockett • April 7, 2020

The end-of-the-world business is booming

  There’s an old fable that doomsday preppers are particularly fond of: An industrious ant spends an entire summer gathering grain, while his neighbor,...
Zachary Crockett • March 28, 2020

Amid a pandemic, Uber drivers choose between health and livelihood

  In the age of COVID-19 — of work-from-home quarantines, sweatpants, and Facetime cocktails — Mostafa Maklad’s routine is largely the same. His day...
Zachary Crockett • March 22, 2020

The economics of cruise ships

  Cruise ships are often called “monsters” of the sea. If you’ve ever seen one in action, you’ll understand why: A vessel like Royal...
Zachary Crockett • March 15, 2020

How a small candy company became Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

  If investing were a video game, you might suspect Warren Buffett of using some kind of cheat code. His holding company, Berkshire Hathaway,...
Zachary Crockett • March 8, 2020

How Mount Everest became a multimillion-dollar business

It is said that from the 29,029-foot summit of Mount Everest, you can see the curvature of the Earth. But for the hundreds of...
Zachary Crockett • February 23, 2020

The unpredictable economics of pawn shops

  You’re down on luck, your funds are running low, and you’re in dire need of a few hundred bucks in cash — ASAP....
Zachary Crockett • February 15, 2020

The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets

  Few things epitomize America more than the all-you-can-eat buffet. For a small fee, you’re granted unencumbered access to a wonderland of gluttony. It...
Zachary Crockett • January 25, 2020

Why it only costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

In America, the majority of fast-food restaurants aren’t owned by the corporation itself, but by franchisees —  individuals who pay for the right to...
Zachary Crockett • January 19, 2020

Can a corporation "own" a color?

  On a summer day in 2019, Daniel Schreiber opened his mailbox to find a threatening letter from one of the world’s largest telecom...
Zachary Crockett • January 12, 2020

The economics of unused gift cards

  The most desired item on wish lists this past holiday season wasn’t a pair of Airpods, a Nintendo Switch, or a Baby Yoda...
Zachary Crockett • January 4, 2020

Reminder: Your phone is tracking your every move (and the data isn’t so anonymous)

Anonymous cell phone location data isn’t so anonymous after all. Here’s what you can do about it. ...
Zachary Crockett • December 20, 2019

How much would it cost to buy all of the items in ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’?

If you’re looking to buy your lover all those turtle doves and gold rings, you better be ready to shell out $39k. ...
Zachary Crockett • December 19, 2019

The Baby Yoda black market is booming

Online platforms like Amazon and Etsy are rife with unofficial Baby Yoda merchandise. ...
Zachary Crockett • December 18, 2019

Millennials aren’t buying lottery tickets

Among the 121m hopefuls who buy lotto tickets annually, one group is woefully underrepresented: the young’uns. ...
Zachary Crockett • December 17, 2019

The man who made the “worst” video game in history

  On April 25, 2014, a bulldozer ripped into a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and unearthed a trove of 30-year-old Atari video games....
Zachary Crockett • December 14, 2019

What data on 40m rides tell us about how people tip Uber drivers

Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images To tip, or not to tip — that is the question. In a new NBER working...
Zachary Crockett • October 24, 2019

How one man went from a life prison sentence to a $100k+ engineering job

  For 22 years, Zachary Moore sat in a 6×9 foot prison cell. Today, he sits in an open-plan office in San Francisco, surveying...
Zachary Crockett • October 19, 2019

SCOOP: FlyCleaners, the large NYC laundry service, is leaving customers out to dry

FlyCleaners, an on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service with tens of thousands of paying customers, has left a swath of New Yorkers wondering what...
Zachary Crockett • August 8, 2019

Small business of the week: Essence Luxe Couture

At the age of 21, Akosua Asare developed alopecia, a condition where the immune system attacks hair follicles, leading to hair loss. Eventually, the...
Zachary Crockett • July 29, 2019

How Costco gained a cult following — by breaking every rule of retail

On first impression, Costco makes no sense. It is a place where you can buy, in the course of one trip, a 27-pound bucket...
Zachary Crockett • June 30, 2019

1 in 4 investment portfolios in the world contains Microsoft stock

For many investors, tech stocks are a staple of a well-balanced investment portfolio. But just how prevalent are some of the more established players?...
Zachary Crockett • June 27, 2019

The restaurant owner who asked for 1-star Yelp reviews

In 2014, chef Davide Cerretini advertised a special that would forever change his fate: Anyone who left his restaurant a 1-star review on Yelp...
Zachary Crockett • June 9, 2019

Finance

A new startup exchange got approval to challenge the stock exchange oligopoly

Earlier this month, a company called LTSE — Long-Term Stock Exchange — got SEC approval to be the country’s 14th national equity exchange. But...
Zachary Crockett • May 22, 2019

AI relies on human ‘labelers’ who make as little as $2.50 an hour

Artificial intelligence is driving some of the biggest technological advancements of our time, from self-driving cars to facial recognition. But as Axios reports, this...
Zachary Crockett • May 16, 2019

TRENDING ORIGINALS

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