How Direct Lenders Are Competing With Banks for Small Business Borrowers

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

A commercial loan officer at a regional bank told me something surprisingly candid a couple of years ago, right before he left banking to join a fintech lender. He said his own bank had turned down a business he personally believed deserved financing at least three times in his final year there, purely because the application didn’t fit the bank’s rigid underwriting checklist, not because the business itself was actually a bad risk. He said watching that happen repeatedly is part of what finally pushed him to leave.

That story captures something that’s been happening across the entire small business lending landscape for the better part of a decade. Traditional banks, once the dominant source of small business capital, have been steadily losing ground to direct lenders, and understanding why reveals something important about what small business owners actually need from a financing relationship.

The Numbers Tell A Clear Story

According to Federal Reserve small business survey data, a substantial and growing share of small businesses now turn to online and alternative lenders as their first choice when seeking financing, a dramatic shift from just a decade ago when banks were the overwhelming default option for most business owners. This isn’t a temporary pandemic-era anomaly either. The trend has continued building steadily as more business owners experience direct lending firsthand and discover it actually works for situations banks have historically struggled to serve well.

Part of what’s driving this is straightforward economics on the bank side. Processing a small business loan application costs a bank roughly the same amount in staff time and underwriting resources whether the loan is for $20,000 or $2 million, which means banks have a structural incentive to prioritize larger loans that generate more revenue relative to the fixed cost of processing them. Smaller loans, exactly the size most small businesses actually need, have quietly become less profitable for banks to originate, and that economic reality has pushed many banks to deprioritize this segment even when they haven’t said so explicitly.

The Speed Gap Has Become Impossible To Ignore

Beyond economics, the sheer speed differential between traditional bank lending and direct lender financing has become a defining factor in where business owners choose to apply. A bank loan application, even a relatively simple one, typically involves weeks of document collection, underwriting review, and committee approval before funds actually arrive. Direct lenders using automated, bank account-based underwriting can often complete the entire process, from application to funded account, within a single day.

For a business owner facing a genuine time-sensitive need, an equipment failure, a seasonal inventory opportunity, a payroll gap, that speed differential isn’t a minor convenience. It’s often the entire deciding factor in whether financing actually solves the problem it was meant to address. A perfectly reasonable bank loan that arrives three weeks after a business needed the money has, in a very real sense, failed to solve the problem at all, regardless of how favorable its terms might have been on paper.

Documentation Requirements That No Longer Match Reality

Traditional bank underwriting was built around a documentation-heavy process, years of tax returns, detailed financial statements, and formal business plans that made sense when that was genuinely the best available way to assess a business’s health. Automated underwriting connected directly to a business bank account has made much of that documentation redundant, since real-time transaction data provides a more current and often more accurate picture of a business’s actual financial performance than historical paperwork ever could.

Business owners who have experienced both processes consistently describe the difference in stark terms. Assembling a bank loan package can take days of a business owner’s time, time that’s arguably better spent actually running the business. A direct lender application connecting to a bank account typically takes a couple of minutes, with the underwriting itself happening automatically in the background rather than requiring the business owner’s ongoing involvement throughout a multi-week review process.

Where Banks Still Genuinely Win

It would be inaccurate and unfair to suggest banks have lost their place entirely, because for certain situations they remain the better choice. Banks typically offer lower total cost financing for businesses that meet their qualification standards, reflecting lower risk pricing that direct lenders, taking on more accessible but inherently higher risk applications, generally can’t match. For a well-established business with strong credit, substantial collateral, and enough lead time to accommodate a bank’s slower process, a bank loan often remains the most cost-effective option available.

The businesses direct lenders have genuinely won over aren’t necessarily businesses that couldn’t get bank financing at all, though many are. They’re often businesses that could theoretically qualify for a bank loan eventually but simply can’t accommodate the bank’s timeline, or that have grown tired of a process that feels disconnected from how their business actually operates day to day.

The Relationship Question Deserves Honest Treatment

One argument traditional banking advocates raise consistently, and it’s a fair one, is that a long-term banking relationship carries value beyond any single transaction. A business owner with a decade-long relationship with a local bank has a loan officer who genuinely understands their business’s history, who might extend flexibility during a rough patch that a purely automated system wouldn’t offer, and who can facilitate a broader range of services beyond just lending.

This is a real advantage, and it’s worth being honest that direct lenders, by design, generally don’t replicate this kind of deep, personal relationship. What they offer instead is consistency and speed applied equally to every applicant regardless of whether they have an existing relationship with the lender or are applying for the very first time. For business owners who’ve never had the chance to build that kind of long-term banking relationship, whether because they’re new to business ownership or because a bank simply never prioritized their account, direct lending offers a path to capital that doesn’t require having spent years cultivating a relationship most business owners never had the opportunity to build in the first place.

What This Shift Actually Reflects

The deeper story here isn’t really about interest rates or technology, even though both matter. It’s about a fundamental mismatch between how traditional banking evaluates risk and how modern small businesses actually operate. A service business with strong recurring revenue but few physical assets, a business six months into a genuinely successful launch, an owner whose personal credit doesn’t reflect their current business performance, all of these represent business types that traditional bank underwriting was never really built to evaluate accurately.

Direct lenders, including Fundivi, have built their entire underwriting approach around exactly this gap, evaluating bank account cash flow rather than requiring the collateral and lengthy operating history that excludes so many otherwise healthy businesses from traditional bank financing. That’s ultimately what this whole shift represents, not banks becoming worse at what they do, but an entire category of business finally getting evaluated by a system built to actually understand how they operate.

What This Means Going Forward

The loan officer who left banking told me he doesn’t think traditional banks are going away, and he’s almost certainly right about that. What he does think, and what the data increasingly supports, is that banks will need to genuinely modernize their small business underwriting or continue ceding this segment to lenders who’ve already made that shift. Some banks are beginning to do exactly that, partnering with fintech underwriting platforms or building their own automated evaluation tools.

For small business owners navigating this landscape today, the practical takeaway isn’t that one type of lender is universally better than the other. It’s that understanding both options clearly, and matching your specific situation to whichever one actually fits it, has become a genuinely valuable skill in its own right. The business owner who only knows how to walk into a bank is operating with meaningfully fewer options than one who understands the full landscape now available to them.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, lending, legal, or business advice. Financing availability, qualification requirements, rates, fees, repayment terms, and underwriting standards vary by lender and applicant. References to banks, direct lenders, or financing methods are general in nature and do not constitute an endorsement or guarantee of approval, funding, or financial outcomes. Business owners should carefully review the terms, costs, and risks of any financing product and consult an appropriate professional when necessary.

Equity Compensation Strategy: How AE Tax Advisors Helps Tech Professionals Navigate RSUs, ISOs, and Deferred Comp

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

Tech professionals at major companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla receive significant portions of their compensation through equity rather than through W-2 cash. The equity components include Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), Incentive Stock Options (ISOs), Non-Qualified Stock Options (NSOs), Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs), and sometimes deferred compensation arrangements. The tax treatment of each is meaningfully different, and the planning opportunities each presents are substantial.

AE Tax Advisors has developed specialized expertise in equity compensation tax strategy. The firm’s client roster includes professionals at leading technology companies and other major employers across the country, and the planning work the firm performs on equity compensation is one of the practice’s core specialties.

The mechanics of equity compensation taxation involve several distinct categories worth understanding.

Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) are taxed as ordinary income at vesting. The fair market value of the shares on the vesting date is reported as W-2 income, with applicable federal and state taxes withheld typically through the sale of a portion of the vested shares. The tax treatment is relatively straightforward, but the planning opportunities involve managing cash flow around large vests, considering tax-loss harvesting against vested gains, and coordinating RSU vesting income with other tax-planning strategies. AE Tax Advisors works with clients to model RSU vests for the upcoming year and integrate them into the broader tax projection.

Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) have meaningfully different tax treatment. The exercise of an ISO does not create regular taxable income, but the spread between the exercise price and the fair market value at exercise is included in the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) calculation. ISOs that are held for at least one year after exercise and two years after grant qualify for long-term capital gains treatment on the entire appreciation from the exercise price. The interaction with AMT is one of the more complex planning areas in equity compensation, and AE Tax Advisors works through the exercise timing and AMT exposure modeling with clients holding ISO positions.

Non-Qualified Stock Options (NSOs) are taxed as ordinary income at exercise on the spread between exercise price and fair market value. The subsequent appreciation is taxed as capital gain at sale. NSOs offer less favorable tax treatment than ISOs but more flexibility in exercise timing, and the planning involves managing that timing to optimize the tax impact across years.

Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs) have specific qualifying treatment under IRC §423. ESPP shares purchased under qualifying plans receive favorable tax treatment if the holding period requirements are met, generally two years after the offering date and one year after the purchase date. AE Tax Advisors evaluates clients’ ESPP participation strategies to ensure the holding period requirements are met where favorable.

Deferred Compensation arrangements, common at higher executive levels and in certain technology company structures, defer income recognition into future years, often into retirement years when marginal rates may be lower. The planning around deferred compensation involves understanding the distribution structure, the §409A compliance requirements, the integration with other retirement income, and the multi-state tax implications if the executive moves states during the deferral period.

AE Tax Advisors integrates these equity compensation strategies into the broader tax-planning relationship the firm maintains with each client. The annual $7,800 advisory engagement includes equity compensation modeling, exercise and vest timing analysis, AMT planning for ISOs, deferred compensation coordination, and ongoing monitoring as equity events occur throughout the year.

The firm’s team of IRS Enrolled Agents and licensed CPAs, led by Christina Nortman, has worked with tech professionals across multiple companies, equity structures, and career stages. The virtual advisory model allows AE Tax Advisors to serve clients in all 50 states, which is especially important for tech professionals who often have multi-state exposure through remote work, company relocations, or property ownership across multiple jurisdictions.

The 3-Year Tax Lookback that begins every AE Tax Advisors engagement reviews whether prior equity events were optimally structured. It examines whether ISO exercises were properly tracked for AMT purposes, whether RSU sales were tax-loss harvested, whether ESPP holding periods were met, and whether deferred compensation arrangements were properly coordinated with other planning. The lookback often surfaces planning items the client had not previously identified.

For tech professionals whose compensation includes significant equity components, equity compensation tax planning is a substantive part of an overall financial strategy. AE Tax Advisors works in this area with tech professionals across companies and career stages, applying its equity compensation expertise within its broader high-income tax advisory practice.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, financial, or professional advice. While we strive for accuracy, we make no representations or warranties, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability of this information. Use of this information is at your own risk.

The Power of Visuals: How Event Decor Can Impact Your Brand

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

Your event space speaks before you do. The moment attendees walk in, the colors, textures, and layout set a mood. That mood shapes how they see your brand. You can have a flawless product or a tight pitch.

If the environment feels flat, your message loses its edge. Smart decor turns a room into a brand experience. It makes promises you can keep and gives people a reason to remember you long after they leave.

The Importance of Event Decor in Brand Perception

When planning an event, event decor shapes the atmosphere and mood, influencing how guests perceive your brand. A well-curated visual experience demonstrates professionalism, creativity, and a commitment to detail, all of which improve your brand’s image in the eyes of your audience.

Imagine walking into an event where the design aligns perfectly with your company’s identity. The colors, lighting, and decor elements reflect your brand’s character, making attendees feel connected to your mission. This creates a sense of familiarity and trust, factors in building lasting relationships with customers.

Versatile Decor That Works Outdoors and In

Not every event happens in a controlled ballroom. Outdoor festivals, trade show tents, and pop-up markets throw wind, sun, and uneven ground at you. Your decor has to survive and has to stay sharp.

Materials matter, and flexible, breathable materials have taken over. They handle real conditions without sacrificing image quality. A printed mesh banner allows wind to pass through tiny holes. The print quality remains photo-grade, so logos and text stay crisp from a distance.

Setup is simple with grommets or bungee cords. You can repurpose it for multiple events. Whether you line a fence, define a booth, or wrap a scaffold, the banner brings brand consistency to places traditional decor cannot. Your visual presence holds steady no matter the weather, and that reliability reflects well on your brand.

Effective Visual Strategies for Event Decor

Implementing strong visual strategies can elevate your event decor and amplify your brand’s message. Here are some elements to keep in mind:

  • Color Schemes
  • Lighting
  • Branding Elements
  • Interactive Displays

When you focus on these elements, you can design an event that looks stunning and communicates your brand’s values effectively.

Creating a Memorable Experience

A well-executed event decor strategy affects the narrative of your event. Create memorable experiences through your decor and reinforce your brand’s position in the market. Events become critical touchpoints for customer engagement. Businesses create memorable moments that will be shared within their networks.

With the rise of social media, beautifully decorated events encourage attendees to share their experiences online, increasing your brand’s visibility. Picture guests capturing moments against an aesthetically pleasing backdrop. They spread the word about your brand to their followers and introduce your company to potential new clients.

Turn Every Event Into a Memorable Experience

Event decor shapes first impressions, tells a clear story, and fuels social reach. Every visual choice you make either builds trust or chips away at it. Thoughtful, durable design pays off in attention, memory, and measurable business results.

The power is not in spending the most money. It is in using the right materials to turn any space into a place that feels unmistakably yours. If you are interested in learning more, check out our website.

Eleyet McConnell Turns a Lifetime of Hard Roads Into Rock and Roll

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

By: Chris Berlein

For Eleyet McConnell, success hasn’t arrived as a sudden flash of good fortune. It has accumulated through years of writing, performing, surviving, and refusing to abandon a musical vision when others didn’t necessarily understand it. Now, with The Journey continuing to reach listeners, the tender new single “Your Eyes” revealing another side of their artistry, and an extraordinary seven nominations at the 2026 Josie Music Awards, Angie and Chris McConnell are experiencing a moment that feels both exhilarating and deeply validating.

The nominations didn’t arrive all at once, which made the experience even more intense.

“They came in one by one, so it was a few weeks of anxiety, anticipation and a whole lot of celebration,” Angie recalls. Even now, she says, the recognition feels “really surreal.” For independent artists accustomed to hearing no far more often than yes, the nominations carry meaning beyond trophies.

“The music industry is so difficult, and the road is paved with gobs of us who have been told ‘no,’ ‘not good enough,’ ‘not this or that,’” Angie says. Recognition from the Josie Music Awards, she adds, provides a sense of validation and motivation to work even harder.

Chris is equally stunned. “Seven is a big number for nominations and really hard to wrap your brain around,” he says. “We are beyond honored to have been nominated once, let alone seven times.”

Among the honors, Angie treasures the songwriting recognition because Eleyet McConnell’s songs are rooted in lived experience. But her favorite nomination belongs to Chris: Musician of the Year – Bass.

It represents considerably more than musicianship.

Chris has played bass for more than 56 years, a journey encompassing the decidedly unglamorous realities that rarely appear in romanticized accounts of a musician’s life. He remembers broken relationships, divorce, sleeping on friends’ couches, in cars and buses, and surviving on supermarket samples while trying to provide for his children and maintain a regular job.

“I’ve been blessed,” Chris says. “Tough way to build character, but God always has a plan.”

Those experiences inevitably find their way into Eleyet McConnell’s music.

Their album The Journey deals with perseverance, love, healing and redemption because those aren’t abstract songwriting concepts to Angie and Chris. They’ve lived them.

“We both embraced songwriting as a way to work through those moments,” Angie explains. Some compositions remain so personal that she doubts they’ll ever perform them publicly. At other times, she and Chris exchanged lyrics through text messages, using songwriting to express difficult emotions that eventually helped facilitate important conversations in their relationship.

Chris describes their process more simply: “We write what we feel.”

That philosophy makes the story behind “Your Eyes” particularly fitting.

Chris jokingly calls it “the Walmart song.” While shopping, he spotted an old high-school heartbreak from a distance and wondered whether, if he approached her, they might simply resume their conversation as though all those intervening years had disappeared.

By the time he left the store, he had essentially written the song.

He sent it, and the story behind it, to Angie. Rather than recoiling at her husband writing about an old flame, Angie contributed a bridge.

“When she sang it to me, it was beyond anything I could have ever imagined,” Chris says. “Her delivery is what makes that song.”

Musically, “Your Eyes” stands apart from the harder-edged “The Ledge.” Piano drives the ballad while strings provide understated emotional depth. Angie says there was little studio evolution because simplicity had always been fundamental to its design. Kimmi Samson contributed the strings through producer Patrick Himes.

“Sometimes less is definitely more,” Angie says, “and this song proves that.”

That same instinctive quality characterizes Angie and Chris’ marriage and musical partnership. There is little separation between work and home because music exists throughout both.

“We work together, live together, perform together,” Angie says. Disagreements happen, particularly when musical discussions become passionate, but their rule is essentially to listen to each other and keep the song at the center.

Chris describes the relationship more poetically: “It’s yin and yang. We are not one without the other.”

He also credits Angie with grounding him. Before their relationship, he says, he was “a bullet shot from a gun ricocheting off the walls.” Their beginning wasn’t exactly serene; they jokingly describe those early days as “a Jerry Springer show, but what emerged was a partnership in which personal life and artistic identity became inseparable.

That authenticity also explains why classic-rock influences can be heard throughout their work without Eleyet McConnell becoming a nostalgia act. Chris says the couple maintains an extraordinarily diverse daily playlist. New music keeps inspiring them, while the sounds that shaped him decades ago remain embedded almost subconsciously in his playing.

“We never try to sound like anyone or any style,” he says. “It’s just what it is. It’s very organic.”

Some of their songs existed for years in their living room before the couple finally decided to record them professionally. Chris describes those compositions as their children, making their subsequent international reach, chart appearances and awards seem almost improbable.

And there are more children on the way.

Eleyet McConnell are already preparing material for a third album, this time expanding the collaborative process with longtime bandmates Kenny Barnett on drums and Brandon Ullery on guitar. Both musicians have appeared on the duo’s previous albums, but the new project will give them greater opportunities to co-write and influence the songs themselves.

“What we end up with isn’t always how we started,” Chris says. “That’s the best part of working with talented musicians.”

His description of songwriting could just as easily describe Eleyet McConnell’s career.

“You never know how it will end. It’s like raising a child. It can be rebellious. It can be kind. It can be troublesome, but in the end, it will be what it was meant to be.”

After seven Josie nominations, The Journey, “Your Eyes,” and more than half a century of musical perseverance, Eleyet McConnell seems increasingly comfortable allowing the music and the journey to tell them where to go next.

What “Plan to Win” Author Dr. Dave Jones Says the Hypothalamus Has to Do With Christian Leadership

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

By: Eva Keller

The standard argument for why Christian leaders should manage Fear, Lust, Anger, and Pride is theological. Dr. Dave Jones makes that argument in Plan to Win.

He also makes a different one, and the second argument may be the more useful one for a Christian CEO sitting in a board meeting at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday.

The hypothalamus, Dave writes, is the originating point for fear, lust, anger, and pride. Also for phobias, panic attacks, rage, and aggression.

Drawing on Henry Wright’s work in A More Excellent Way, Dave is making a claim that most faith-based leadership books do not bother to make. The four toxic motivators he calls FLAP are not only spiritual realities. They are neurobiological ones.

Why This Changes the Conversation

The standard framing of sin in leadership contexts places the burden entirely on character. You are afraid because your faith is weak.

You are angry because you lack self-control.

You are proud because you have not surrendered enough.

The solution is always more prayer, more surrender, more spiritual discipline.

Dave does not reject that framing. He adds a layer underneath it that makes it more actionable, not less.

When a Christian CEO understands that their cortisol spike after a bad quarter is a hypothalamic response, a physiological event and not only a spiritual failure, the problem shifts from “what is wrong with my faith” to “what is happening in my body right now, and what do I do about it.”

That shift is not a concession to secular psychology. It is a more precise account of how God made human beings, and therefore a more precise account of what Christian leaders are actually managing when they try to lead from vision rather than emotion.

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash.com

The Cycle Has a Physical Mechanism

Dave maps FLAP as a self-reinforcing loop. Fear leads to Anger when threats materialize. Anger fuels Pride as a defensive mechanism. Pride intensifies Lust for validation and control.

Lust deepens fear as leaders become attached to outcomes. In Dave’s account, each of those transitions has a neurobiological correlation.

Fear, as he describes it, floods the body with cortisol and activates the amygdala, narrowing the range of options the prefrontal cortex will consider. Lust, in the same framing, engages the brain’s reward pathways and creates a craving mechanism he compares to compulsive behavior.

Anger, he writes, activates the same stress-response systems as fear, but with an outward rather than inward orientation.

Pride, Dave argues, is the quietest of the four, and the most dangerous, because it hides behind the brain’s confirmation bias, filtering out the feedback that would correct it.

Understanding this sequence does not eliminate FLAP. Dave is explicit that the goal is management, not eradication.

But it changes the nature of the intervention. A leader who recognizes they are in a cortisol cascade after a setback can apply a different kind of discipline than one who simply tells themselves to trust God more. Both are necessary. Neuroscience makes the discipline more precise.

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash.com

The Distinction That Matters

This is what separates Dave’s FLAP framework from the traditional Seven Deadly Sins as a leadership tool. Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth are theological categories with deep biblical grounding.

They are not, as Dave frames it, neurobiological realities in the same way.

Try mapping Gluttony or Sloth to a physiological sequence in a board meeting. The translation does not work.

Fear, Lust, Anger, and Pride, by contrast, connect to physical signals a leader can learn to recognize in real time. The tight chest before a difficult conversation. The compulsive email checking for validation. The inability to hear a team member’s concern as information rather than a challenge.

The Practical Implication

For Christian CEOs, this framing offers a way to talk about spiritual formation in organizational terms without reducing it to either therapy or theology alone. Dave is arguing that the biology and the Scripture point at the same thing: a set of emotionally driven responses that originate in the body, distort decision-making, and require daily, disciplined management if vision is going to lead instead of FLAP.

The assessment Dave built at plantowintoday.com rests on this premise.

Seven questions.

The output is not a spiritual diagnosis. It is a current-state read on which toxic motivator is driving decisions right now. Not as a verdict. As a starting line.

That is the contribution Plan to Win makes that most Christian leadership books do not. It gives leaders a way to name what is happening in their bodies before it shows up in their decisions.

And naming it, Dave argues, is the beginning of managing it.

Dr. Dave Jones’ book, Plan to Win, is available for purchase on Amazon.

Why 3D Printing Software Matters More Than Ever in 2026

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

When people bought a 3D printer in the past, they often focused on speed, accuracy, and build volume. Those factors still matter, but software now has a greater influence. From model preparation and slicing to monitoring and job management, modern 3D printing software can reduce setup work. Choosing a printer in 2026 therefore means evaluating both the machine and the software ecosystem behind it.

Why 3D Printing Software Has Become Essential in 2026

Modern software connects tasks that were once handled separately, making the full printing process easier to manage.

Software Connects the Entire 3D Printing Workflow

Modern 3D printing involves more than downloading a model and pressing Print. A file must be imported, checked, oriented, assigned suitable settings, sliced into layers, and transferred to the printer.

Instead of switching between several tools, users can prepare the model, preview the toolpath, and send the finished file from one platform. This reduces repetitive work and makes the process easier to understand.

Software Helps Maximize 3D Printer Performance

A fast motion system or high-flow nozzle cannot reach its full potential if the slicer creates inefficient paths or applies unsuitable material settings. Software controls acceleration, cooling, wall order, infill, supports, and extrusion behavior.

These adjustments can shorten print time, reduce material waste, and improve surface quality. Within the Flashforge 3D Printer ecosystem, software-supported functions such as vibration compensation, flow calibration, remote monitoring, and multi-device management help turn hardware capability into a practical workflow.

Key Features Driving 3D Printing Software Trends in 2026

The leading software trends focus on automation, better visibility, and simpler control over complex settings.

Smarter Slicing and AI-Assisted Optimization

Modern slicers can provide tested profiles, generate supports, optimize travel paths, and recommend settings based on the selected material. AI-assisted tools may also identify risky areas or suggest a better model orientation.

These features reduce trial and error. Beginners can achieve more stable results, while experienced users save time on routine preparation.

Desktop Software Makes Printing More Efficient

Desktop software provides more control than a small printer screen or mobile interface. Users can organize files, adjust settings, inspect sliced layers, and identify potential issues before sending a job.

Creators, designers, and studios can pair compatible Flashforge printers with Flash Studio Desktop. It supports model preparation, remote control, and multi-device connectivity from one workspace.

How 3D Printing Software Benefits Different Users

Different users benefit from fewer manual steps and more predictable results.

Helping Beginners Start 3D Printing More Easily

For many first-time users, the greater challenge is understanding layer height, nozzle temperature, speed, cooling, and support settings.

Beginner-friendly software simplifies these decisions through clear menus, tested presets, visual previews, and automatic functions. A machine with automatic leveling becomes easier to use when supported by accurate profiles and an intuitive preparation process.

Improving Productivity for Designers and Professionals

Designers, engineers, schools, and studios often process several models, use different materials, repeat the same print, or manage multiple devices. Professional software can save project settings, fine-tune supports, control extrusion, and prepare repeatable production files.

Multi-printer management also reduces the time spent transferring files or checking machines individually. For teams using compatible devices, Flash Studio Desktop can centralize model preparation and printer management.

What to Consider When Choosing 3D Printing Software in 2026

A good platform should match both the printer’s capabilities and the user’s current skill level.

Compatibility With Your 3D Printer

Before choosing software, confirm that it supports your printer model, nozzle sizes, materials, and file formats. A feature-rich slicer may still produce inconsistent results without an accurate machine profile.

Compatibility is especially important for multi-color and multi-material printing, where software must coordinate material assignments, tool changes, calibration, and support settings.

Balance Between Simplicity and Advanced Control

The best software should be easy to start using without becoming restrictive as skills improve. Beginners benefit from tested presets and automatic recommendations, while professionals need access to speed, cooling, extrusion, support, and material controls.

Strong platforms keep routine settings simple while making advanced options available when required. This balance helps users grow without replacing their software.

The Future of 3D Printing Will Be Software-Driven

The 3D printing market in 2026 is no longer defined by hardware specifications alone. Intelligent slicing, automated calibration, remote monitoring, desktop management, and stronger device connectivity are changing how users operate a printer.

Software support should now be part of every printer comparison. A capable machine may offer impressive speed and build quality, but a complete software ecosystem determines how easily those capabilities can be used in everyday projects.

Combining reliable hardware with intuitive 3D printing software can reduce preparation time, improve consistency, and help more creators turn digital designs into finished physical objects.

The Power Recruiter Is Building a More Credible Standard for Recruitment

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

By: Angelica Burlaza

Recruitment has never had a shortage of people willing to do the job. What it has lacked is a consistent standard for how the job should actually be done. Most recruiters learn on the fly, absorbing habits from whoever trained them, with little consistency from one desk to the next. The Power Recruiter, a new online course founded by recruitment entrepreneur Maddi Carroll, is built on the premise that this gap is not merely an inefficiency. It is the reason the profession has struggled to earn trust.

Carroll already runs Power Recruitment and Consulting Pty Ltd, a Brisbane-based agency built on relationship-first placements across the white-collar construction and infrastructure sectors. Rather than keep her methods inside her own business, she built The Power Recruiter to train recruiters at every stage, whether they are new to the industry, moving over from another field, or already working the desk and looking to sharpen their approach.

Why the Model Resonates

That decision matters because the recruitment industry has a credibility problem it has mostly avoided addressing directly. Clients have grown used to inconsistent service depending on which recruiter they land with. Candidates have grown used to being treated as inventory rather than people. Carroll’s course does not try to paper over that with better marketing. It goes after the actual training gap that created the problem in the first place.

Carroll put it plainly. “Most recruiters are trained for churn, not the long game. Hit the target, bank the fee, move on,” she said. “I teach people to build relationships that pay them back for the next ten years, not just this one placement.”

That distinction, between recruiting for a single transaction and recruiting for a lasting relationship, is the foundation the entire course is built. It is also why The Power Recruiter positions itself less as a certification and more as the kind of qualification recruiting should have had from the start.

There is a broader business case underneath all of this as well. As competition for skilled talent tightens across industries, the quality of the recruiter a company works with matters more than it used to. A recruiter trained to think in terms of long-term fit rather than quick placements is, in practical terms, a better partner for any business trying to build a stable team. Carroll’s course treats that outcome as the natural byproduct of properly training recruiters, rather than as a separate selling point.

A More Credible Voice in Recruitment Training

What separates The Power Recruiter from a typical industry workshop is that Carroll has not stepped back from the work to teach it. She continues to recruit actively through Power Recruitment and Consulting, which means the course reflects what she is doing in live placements now, not theory pulled from years earlier in her career.

That distinction carries real weight in an industry where so much training comes from people who left the field years before they started teaching it. Carroll’s course is shaped by current practice, current client expectations, and the kind of judgment that only comes from staying active in the work.

The Power Recruiter’s social channels launched July 1, and the course is now live. Its bet is straightforward: the fastest way to change an industry’s reputation is to change who gets trained, and to make sure the person doing the training has never actually left the job.

BellaVita Luxury’s Gourmand Trend Series Wants Every Mood to Have Its Own Flavor

NY Weekly Staff on August 11, 2026

By: Jessa Marie Dollesin

Close your eyes and walk through a kitchen at five different hours of the day. Cherries split open under a knife around midnight. A banana leaf steams in the morning sun. Marshmallow catches just before it burns over a low flame. Coffee grounds hit hot water before anyone’s fully awake. Caramel turns from pale gold to something darker, right at the edge of too far.

None of these moments happened in a kitchen at all. BellaVita Luxury bottled them instead and calls the result its most indulgent fragrance collection to date. The brand’s own tagline says it plainly: Smell Like A Snack. It isn’t hedging. The Gourmand Trend Series is built around scents meant to feel “delicious,” “edible, comforting, and addictive,” and “impossible to forget,” designed to “create obsession, spark emotion, and become part of” a wearer’s identity rather than just draw a compliment and fade.

Five Bottles, Five Completely Different Rooms

Cherry Lust is “bold, seductive, confident,” built for “date nights, main-character moments, and anyone who loves attention.” Apple, raspberry, and strawberry crash in first, sharp and a little reckless, before coconut, jasmine, and rose take over in the middle, softening the edges without dulling them. By the time it settles into benzoin, marshmallow, and vanilla at the base, what’s left on skin reads like dark cherries and red lipstick, “after-dark luxury” in the brand’s own words. Bare Banana runs the opposite direction, “playful, happy, carefree,” meant to “bring sunshine into every room” it enters. Banana leaves and magnolia open bright and green, gardenia and ylang-ylang bloom in the middle, and musk and sandalwood settle it into golden hour, vacation energy, and “effortless cool-girl vibes.”

Dreamy Marshmallow is “soft, comforting, feminine,” the fragrance equivalent of a favorite sweater. Freesia, lemon, nectarine, and strawberry open airy and a little tart, then caramel and marshmallow melt in at the heart alongside orange blossom, before ambergris, musk, benzoin, and vanilla pull it down into clouds, “comfort luxury,” and “soft girl energy.” Steamy Coffee flips the register entirely, “rich, ambitious, addictive,” built for people who love “warm coffee-shop aesthetics and sophisticated scents.” Espresso and almond hit first, like the smell of a kitchen before sunrise; jasmine and vanilla orchid round out the middle; and cocoa, balsam, and sandalwood anchor the base in late-night ambition and power dressing. Caramel Crush closes the set “warm, creamy, indulgent,” golden caramel up top, honey and coconut through the middle, vanilla and musk underneath, closer to luxury desserts and soft elegance than anything sharp.

The five are sold together as what the brand calls “a perfect discovery set to find the gourmand fragrance of your choice,” inspired by, in its own words, “juicy cherries, creamy bananas, fluffy marshmallows, rich coffee, and warm caramel,” a fragrance wardrobe meant to shift with someone’s mood, occasion, and personality rather than lock them into one signature scent.

Betting That Dessert Can Smell Expensive

None of this happens by accident. BellaVita Luxury builds its fragrances in-house with a European perfumer on staff, describing itself as a lab-to-home brand rather than one that outsources formulation to a third party. Every fragrance in the collection sits at a 22 percent perfume oil concentration, well above what most mass market perfumes use, the difference between a scent that fades by lunch and one that’s still readable on skin six to eight hours later, built, as the brand puts it, to “attract attention and leave lasting impressions.” The oils come from perfumeries in France, Spain, and Italy, and every formula carries IFRA certification, the standard that governs what’s actually safe to wear on skin for that long.

The packaging leans into the same instinct as the scents themselves: vibrant, trend-driven, built around “social media aesthetics” and Gen Z fragrance trends, tuned for the fast-scrolling attention that drives TikTok in the first place. That technical backbone matters because gourmand fragrance carries a reputation problem. Scents built around food notes can read as cheap or juvenile if the oil concentration doesn’t hold up, fading into something closer to body spray than perfume within an hour. BellaVita Luxury is wagering that dark cherry, warm caramel, and steamed coffee can smell as expensive as anything built around traditional florals or woods, provided the craft underneath actually supports it, and that well-made fragrance shouldn’t need a luxury markup to earn the word “luxury” in the first place.

Why Mood Matters More Than the Menu

The risk in a launch like this is treating it as a novelty five-pack, the kind of set someone buys once out of curiosity and never reaches for twice. BellaVita Luxury seems to have built around that risk rather than into it. Each scent gets its own emotional identity rather than relying purely on food comparisons. Steamy Coffee isn’t pitched as “smells like a latte.” It’s pitched as the version of someone who’s already three things deep into a to-do list before nine in the morning. Cherry Lust isn’t just “smells like fruit.” It’s confidence walking into a room ahead of the rest of the outfit.

That distinction is what separates a fragrance wardrobe from a fragrance gimmick. A scent sold on flavor alone competes with candles and body mist. A scent sold on identity competes with the outfit, the playlist, and everything else that goes into deciding who someone wants to be on a given day. Whether the five personalities in this collection hold up beyond the first wear will depend on how long gourmand fragrance keeps its grip on TikTok and, more broadly, beauty culture, and whether shoppers reach for a second bottle once the initial curiosity fades. For now, BellaVita Luxury has put five very specific answers on the shelf, tagline and all, and left the choice entirely up to whoever’s mood needs one.

NYC and MTA Launch $800,000 Study to Cool Subway Platforms Using Thermal Energy at Chambers Street Station

NY Weekly Staff 2 on August 11, 2026

New York City, the State of New York, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced an $800,000 feasibility study on August 10 to test a Thermal Energy Network at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and Chambers Street subway station complex in Lower Manhattan, a project that would capture excess platform heat underground and redirect it to warm municipal buildings during winter months.

Key Takeaways

  • Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Governor Kathy Hochul, and MTA Chair Janno Lieber announced a joint partnership to study a Thermal Energy Network (TEN) at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall 4/5/6 and Chambers Street J/Z station complex.
  • The $800,000 pilot study is funded through congestion pricing revenue and would make the project the first thermal energy network installed in a U.S. transit system.
  • Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station recorded average summer platform temperatures of 96 degrees Fahrenheit in 2025, with some stations reaching 20 degrees above outdoor temperatures.
  • Geothermal boreholes drilled 500 to 600 feet underground beneath the abandoned center platform at Chambers Street would store excess heat for winter redistribution to nearby city buildings.
  • The feasibility study contract is expected to be awarded this fall, with design work projected to begin in early 2027 if results confirm geothermal viability.

Congestion Pricing Funds the Study Alongside a Full Station Overhaul

The thermal energy study is being layered onto a broader renovation of the Chambers Street J/Z station, one of the oldest active stations in the subway system. The station opened in 1913, and the comprehensive renewal project will rebuild aging structures, replace tiles, upgrade stairways, perform leak mitigation, and address ceiling damage caused by decades of water infiltration. The NYC Mayor’s Office confirmed that both the station overhaul and the thermal energy study are funded through congestion pricing revenues allocated under the MTA’s 2020 to 2024 Capital Plan. The MTA plans to award a contract for the broader station renovation by the end of 2026.

The timing of the renovation creates what city officials described as a unique opening for the TEN study. With construction crews already set to access the station’s infrastructure, the cost and disruption of testing geothermal technology can be folded into work that is already underway. The abandoned center platform at Chambers Street, currently unused by passengers, would serve as the testing ground for geothermal boreholes without requiring any disruption to active service areas.

The Technology Relies on Geothermal Boreholes and Radiant Cooling Panels

The proposed system would operate in two directions depending on the season. During summer months, radiant cooling technology installed on platform walls, ceilings, or floors at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall would absorb heat from the station environment by circulating chilled water through embedded panels. That captured heat would then be transferred through a network of pipes to geothermal boreholes drilled 500 to 600 feet underground beneath the Chambers Street center platform. The boreholes would store the excess thermal energy in the earth, and during winter months, the stored heat would be extracted and redistributed to nearby municipal office buildings through the same pipe network.

Radiant cooling, the method at the core of the proposed system, operates 25 to 35 percent more efficiently than conventional air conditioning, according to the city. Unlike forced-air systems that blow cooled air into a space, radiant panels lower perceived temperatures by absorbing heat directly from surfaces and occupants. Thermal Energy Networks using similar principles are already operational at hospitals and university campuses across the country, though none have been deployed inside a transit system.

Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Ranks Among the System’s Hottest Stations

The Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall 4/5/6 station recorded average summer platform temperatures of 96 degrees Fahrenheit during the 2025 season, making it one of the most heat-affected stations in the subway system. The station’s heat profile is driven in part by the 6 train terminal, where trains dwell at the platform and generate sustained thermal output. Across the system, some stations reach temperatures as much as 20 degrees higher than above-ground conditions during summer peaks.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority noted that while its short-term priority remains running reliable, air-conditioned train service to minimize time riders spend on platforms, the study represents a longer-term infrastructure approach to managing heat. MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber acknowledged the difficulty of cooling stations in a system that is more than a century old, with open entrances and ventilation shafts that make climate control a persistent engineering challenge. MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer described the initiative as an effort to convert excess heat from a liability into an asset for both riders and the city.

A Multi-Agency Partnership With a 2027 Design Timeline

The feasibility study will be conducted jointly by DCAS (the Department of Citywide Administrative Services), the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Operations, and the MTA. The study will assess how much platform cooling the system can realistically achieve and estimate the potential energy cost savings for city-owned buildings that would receive recycled heat during colder months.

The contract for the study is expected to be awarded in fall 2026. If the results confirm that the geothermal approach is viable at the Chambers Street site, design work on the thermal energy network would begin in early 2027. Mayor Mamdani framed the initiative as part of a broader climate resilience agenda that includes heat-resilient bus shelters, outdoor cooling centers, and the city’s Urban Forest Plan, which targets 30 percent tree canopy coverage citywide. The city is also constructing 130 solar installations on public school rooftops and accelerating the electrification of its municipal vehicle fleet, with the Sanitation Department, Parks Department, and DCAS enforcement fleets on track for full electrification by 2030.

 

FAQs

What Is a Thermal Energy Network?

A Thermal Energy Network, or TEN, is a system that uses underground pipes and geothermal boreholes to move and store heat between buildings and infrastructure. In this case, the system would capture excess heat from subway platforms during summer and store it underground, then extract and redistribute that heat to warm municipal buildings in winter.

When Will the Thermal Energy Network Be Operational?

The current phase is a feasibility study, with the contract expected to be awarded in fall 2026. If the study confirms the approach is viable, design work would begin in early 2027. No date has been announced for completion or activation of a working system.

Which Subway Stations Are Included in the Study?

The study focuses on the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall 4/5/6 and Chambers Street J/Z station complex in Lower Manhattan. Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall is one of the hottest stations in the system, and the unused center platform at Chambers Street provides a location to test geothermal boreholes without disrupting passenger service.

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