Alexandra Wright-Gladstein helped bring light into computer chips at Ayar Labs. Then a stubborn problem in the employee retirement plan sent her into an entirely different business.
He began with unwanted apples, a homemade website and a rented van. Eight years later, the real product is a national machine for giving perishable food somewhere useful to go.

From baseball cards at eight to billions in clean-energy financing, Palmetto’s founder has spent 15 years turning climate conviction into infrastructure - and keeping unusually candid notes on the cost.