Latest news with #November2024
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Five Networking Groups Every Small Business Owner Should Consider in 2025
When a Sydney tech founder's payment infrastructure imploded faster than a social media trend due to a high dispute rate, she didn't panic-search 'crisis management consultants' or spiral into a doom-scroll. She tapped her Entrepreneurs' Organisation Forum, and was introduced to the right person with the right authority at her faceless payment provider company faster than you could say 'online meeting.' Forty-eight hours later, her crisis was ancient history; a testament to EO's on-demand lifeline for founders. Welcome to the age of strategic solitude-busting, where 45% of entrepreneurs report stress levels that make Wall Street traders look zen, and isolation has become as common as AI-generated headshots. With business failures hitting record highs (November 2024 saw 1,442 Australian companies flatline, the worst month in recorded history), the question isn't whether entrepreneurs need peer support, but whether they can afford to network with anything less than the A-list. The Loneliness Epidemic Recent sentiment analyses of thousands of online forums reveal founders oscillating between existential dread and Navy SEAL–level coping strategies. Yet 70% of new business opportunities still emerge from networking, making isolation not just emotionally devastating but financially suicidal. The stats paint a picture grimmer than a Succession season finale. Half of CEOs feel lonelier than a crypto evangelist at a climate summit, while 82% of entrepreneurs deem mentorship as essential as wifi. The remedy? Five networking powerhouses that have turned peer support from transactional glad-handing into transformational strategy. 1. Entrepreneurs' Organisation: The Led Zeppelin of Business Networks With nearly 20,000 members across 220 chapters, including 17 across Asia Pacific, EO has achieved global relevance without sacrificing intimate authenticity. This year's Global Leadership Conference in Hawaii drew 1,600 entrepreneurs from 60 countries, featuring globally-recognised luminaries from Deepak Chopra to Marcus Lemonis, making Davos look quaint. EO's signature Forums unite 8–12 founders monthly under stricter confidentiality than a Supreme Court leak investigation. 'In EO, you learn to ask the tough questions and listen for your own answers,' explains EO's Asia Pacific Chair, sounding more like she's describing enlightenment than networking. Beyond peer counsel, EO's partnerships with Harvard, MIT, and Bond University offer executive education that costs less than YPO's dues while delivering Ivy League credentials. Its upcoming 'EO Fun Japan 2025' in Osaka will coincide with the World Expo, proving that even global learning can be Instagram-worthy. 2. Young Presidents' Organisation: An Exclusive Club with an Expiration Date YPO operates like a velvet-rope nightclub, where the bouncer checks your P&L instead of your ID. With CEOs and Executives who must be under 45 prior to joining and represent companies generating $15 million or more annually, it's the ultimate achievement badge for overachievers. YPO's EDGE conference in Barcelona attracted 2,200 leaders to dissect fractured geopolitics, essential for CEOs managing complex supply chains. But YPO's age gate sparks expiration-date anxiety that makes midlife crises look cheerful. Members face an awkward transition to 'Gold' status at 46, trimming benefits and sparking membership whiplash. Its annual dues surpass EO, and with the age limit firmly in place, membership is tantamount to leasing a mega-bucks super car with a 10,000-kilometre cap. 3. Club of United Business: Australia's Soho House for Startups When Daniel Hakim launched CUB at 23, he blended festival cool with Gold Coast glamour, complete with marble baristas and luxury locker rooms. Nine years later, his empire boasts 23,000 members across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, with clubhouse openings timed to major international events. 'It's not your father's golf club,' Hakim has said previously, offering concierge-level networking for $9,900 AUD a year. But without EO's global lattice or YPO's legacy planning, CUB can feel like a luxury boutique, irresistible within Australia but limited for founders eyeing international scale. 4. Business Network International: An Impressive Network BNI has engineered networking into a super clever algorithm. Its 330,000+ members across 11,200 chapters generated $25.2 billion in member-to-member referrals in 2024, under a 'one profession per chapter' rule stricter than Olympic doping tests. Weekly meetings run like accountability boot camps, best for service-based entrepreneurs craving instant ROI rather than transformational growth. At about $2,500 USD annually, BNI delivers transactional networking with measurable dividends, but its transactional zeal can leave growth-hungry founders wanting deeper counsel. 5. The Executive Centre: Workspace with Serendipity on Tap TEC offers premium coworking from $400 USD per month, spanning 150+ global locations from Singapore to London. Its harbour-view lounges and barista-grade coffee foster chance encounters that can spark partnerships, but without curated peer forums or confidentiality protocols, TEC remains a workspace theatre, not a true advisory network. Robert How, TEC's Australia Country Director, touts double-digit revenue growth and expansion across financial districts. The Verdict: EO Reigns Supreme in 2025 In a world awash with AI-powered match-making apps and virtual business conferences, EO's decidedly human approach feels both revolutionary and timeless. While competitors focus on demographics, amenities, or referral volume, EO tackles the root cause of entrepreneurial failure (isolation) through confidential Forums that forge psychological safety nets stronger than any algorithm. It's not-for-profit structure channels every dollar back into member value instead of shareholder dividends, fostering peer environments where founders share vulnerabilities without commercial agendas. From Serengeti sunrise treks to Harvard case studies, EO blends professional rigour with personal renewal with a holistic model that others struggle to replicate. As entrepreneurs navigate AI disruption, supply-chain shocks, and global volatility, choosing the right network isn't about prestige or perks; it's about survival. EO's blend of global reach, founder-for-founder empathy, and transformational learning creates the lifeline that turns isolation into connection, one Forum at a time. In 2025, settling for anything less than EO isn't just short-sighted. It's entrepreneurial malpractice.
CNN
13-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Private equity wants in on your 401(k). What you need to know before investing
Chances are very good that your 401(k) does not currently offer you access to private equity investments, which, as the name implies, are investments in companies that are not publicly traded. The question is, will that change in the next few years? And, if it does, is it worth it for you to invest? Large company pension plans and university endowments — both of which have very long time horizons — have invested for years in private equity and private debt funds. But 401(k)s typically haven't offered those options to plan participants. In November 2024, only 2.4% of 401(k) sponsors said they added a private equity investment option to their plan, according to a weekly poll question from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. That may be because employers are afraid of potential lawsuits if they include those options, which typically charge investors more than investment funds in public companies. And under the Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA), employers have a fiduciary duty to ensure that investment options in your 401(k) are prudent and have reasonable fees, said Jerry Schlichter, founding partner of Schlichter Bogard, who pioneered lawsuits against plan sponsors for charging excess 401(k) fees. It also may be because private assets are riskier to invest in and information about them is opaque, since they're private. So there is less of a requirement to be transparent with investors about how a fund is doing on a regular basis. In addition, private capital options are considered illiquid investments because you can't take your money out whenever you want. And that may prove too constraining for retirement plan participants, who may need access to their 401(k) money for any number of reasons — including changing or losing a job, Schlichter said. There has been an increasing push to provide more private capital investment opportunities for retail investors and participants in workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s. On the regulatory front, according to Jaret Seiberg, a financial services policy analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group, the Trump administration is likely to make it easier to access so-called alternative investments, which include private equity, private real estate and hedge funds. That could result in an executive order from the president requiring government agencies to expand access to such investments as well as rulemaking or guidance from the Department of Labor — which enforces ERISA — 'to expand the ability of individuals to invest in 401(k) and IRA accounts in alternative investments,' Seiberg said in a daily research note. There are far fewer public companies today than there were 30 years ago, as more companies remain private. For that reason, some say, if investors want to own the whole market and have a truly diversified portfolio, where some asset classes move up when others move down, they should have access both to public and private companies. In a recent conversation with Morningstar, BlackRock chief operating officer Robert Goldstein noted that the performances of publicly traded stocks and bonds have become more correlated than they used to be, and 'many of the less correlated assets are only accessible through the private markets.' That may be. Or not. For average retail investors, it could be hard to tell because there currently isn't a centralized way to track the performance and underlying investments of private capital funds and directly compare them to that of the stock and bond funds and indexes they're used to. That's just one reason why other market watchers and investor advocates worry about expanding access to private capital for average retirement savers. Among those squarely in the camp of those who say employee and retiree nest eggs won't be helped — and could be harmed — by having exposure to private capital is Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy at Better Markets, a nonprofit seeking to promote the public interest in financial markets. 'Why is there a push to open up the private markets to 401(k)s now? It's not because workers want less liquid and harder-to-value assets in their 401(k)s. And it's not motivated by plan sponsors, who have long worried that exposing 401(k) plan participants to private market assets would violate their fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the investors,' Schiffrin said in a statement. 'It's because private market firms are finding it harder now to raise money. Their traditional sources of funding — institutional investors such as pensions and endowments — have evaporated.' Indeed, for plan sponsors, including private equity among their plan's investment options will require a lot more due diligence from them in terms of investigating the underlying investments in a given fund and examining the fee structure, Schlichter said. 'This is fraught with danger. A company that puts private equity in its 401(k) is undertaking a serious risk of breaching its fiduciary duty.' Credit ratings agency Moody's this week put out an analysis, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cautioned that the accelerated push to give private capital firms access to the multitrillion-dollar retirement investment industry holds risk for everyone. 'Competition for retail investor capital within private markets will intensify as alternative asset managers roll out new partnerships and special funds to address this potentially vast, still largely untapped market,' the analysts wrote. 'But rapid growth within this still relatively opaque market also carries systemic implications.' One example, they cited, is the potential for a liquidity crisis. 'Unlike institutional investors, retail investors expect ready access to their cash. To help, managers are launching products with periodic windows of liquidity. But in volatile markets, retail investors may run for the exits, which would exacerbate liquidity needs and the risk of potential mismatches between a product's available liquidity and what investors are expecting.' The promise of investing in private equity is that the additional expense and risk assumed by investors can be rewarded with potentially strong returns over time. While it's hard to easily and quickly track private equity performance on your own, there have been academic and industry studies on it, and the results have been mixed, said Jason Kephart, senior principal for multi-asset strategy ratings at Morningstar. So, while you will likely pay more and have less transparency into what you're investing in, having a stake in private capital is no guarantee that you will enjoy meaningfully better returns in your portfolio. As for the diversification argument, Kephart said, it's worth remembering that just as with public companies, private companies' performance will be affected by external forces such as economic downturns, interest rates, geopolitical concerns, tariffs and supply chain issues. 'Being private doesn't shield you from the world,' he noted. And, Kephart added, 'It's not like the public markets are broken. Public stocks and bonds have paid off pretty well for those who've stayed invested.'
CNN
13-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Private equity wants in on your 401(k). What you need to know before investing
Chances are very good that your 401(k) does not currently offer you access to private equity investments, which, as the name implies, are investments in companies that are not publicly traded. The question is, will that change in the next few years? And, if it does, is it worth it for you to invest? Large company pension plans and university endowments — both of which have very long time horizons — have invested for years in private equity and private debt funds. But 401(k)s typically haven't offered those options to plan participants. In November 2024, only 2.4% of 401(k) sponsors said they added a private equity investment option to their plan, according to a weekly poll question from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. That may be because employers are afraid of potential lawsuits if they include those options, which typically charge investors more than investment funds in public companies. And under the Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA), employers have a fiduciary duty to ensure that investment options in your 401(k) are prudent and have reasonable fees, said Jerry Schlichter, founding partner of Schlichter Bogard, who pioneered lawsuits against plan sponsors for charging excess 401(k) fees. It also may be because private assets are riskier to invest in and information about them is opaque, since they're private. So there is less of a requirement to be transparent with investors about how a fund is doing on a regular basis. In addition, private capital options are considered illiquid investments because you can't take your money out whenever you want. And that may prove too constraining for retirement plan participants, who may need access to their 401(k) money for any number of reasons — including changing or losing a job, Schlichter said. There has been an increasing push to provide more private capital investment opportunities for retail investors and participants in workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s. On the regulatory front, according to Jaret Seiberg, a financial services policy analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group, the Trump administration is likely to make it easier to access so-called alternative investments, which include private equity, private real estate and hedge funds. That could result in an executive order from the president requiring government agencies to expand access to such investments as well as rulemaking or guidance from the Department of Labor — which enforces ERISA — 'to expand the ability of individuals to invest in 401(k) and IRA accounts in alternative investments,' Seiberg said in a daily research note. There are far fewer public companies today than there were 30 years ago, as more companies remain private. For that reason, some say, if investors want to own the whole market and have a truly diversified portfolio, where some asset classes move up when others move down, they should have access both to public and private companies. In a recent conversation with Morningstar, BlackRock chief operating officer Robert Goldstein noted that the performances of publicly traded stocks and bonds have become more correlated than they used to be, and 'many of the less correlated assets are only accessible through the private markets.' That may be. Or not. For average retail investors, it could be hard to tell because there currently isn't a centralized way to track the performance and underlying investments of private capital funds and directly compare them to that of the stock and bond funds and indexes they're used to. That's just one reason why other market watchers and investor advocates worry about expanding access to private capital for average retirement savers. Among those squarely in the camp of those who say employee and retiree nest eggs won't be helped — and could be harmed — by having exposure to private capital is Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy at Better Markets, a nonprofit seeking to promote the public interest in financial markets. 'Why is there a push to open up the private markets to 401(k)s now? It's not because workers want less liquid and harder-to-value assets in their 401(k)s. And it's not motivated by plan sponsors, who have long worried that exposing 401(k) plan participants to private market assets would violate their fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the investors,' Schiffrin said in a statement. 'It's because private market firms are finding it harder now to raise money. Their traditional sources of funding — institutional investors such as pensions and endowments — have evaporated.' Indeed, for plan sponsors, including private equity among their plan's investment options will require a lot more due diligence from them in terms of investigating the underlying investments in a given fund and examining the fee structure, Schlichter said. 'This is fraught with danger. A company that puts private equity in its 401(k) is undertaking a serious risk of breaching its fiduciary duty.' Credit ratings agency Moody's this week put out an analysis, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cautioned that the accelerated push to give private capital firms access to the multitrillion-dollar retirement investment industry holds risk for everyone. 'Competition for retail investor capital within private markets will intensify as alternative asset managers roll out new partnerships and special funds to address this potentially vast, still largely untapped market,' the analysts wrote. 'But rapid growth within this still relatively opaque market also carries systemic implications.' One example, they cited, is the potential for a liquidity crisis. 'Unlike institutional investors, retail investors expect ready access to their cash. To help, managers are launching products with periodic windows of liquidity. But in volatile markets, retail investors may run for the exits, which would exacerbate liquidity needs and the risk of potential mismatches between a product's available liquidity and what investors are expecting.' The promise of investing in private equity is that the additional expense and risk assumed by investors can be rewarded with potentially strong returns over time. While it's hard to easily and quickly track private equity performance on your own, there have been academic and industry studies on it, and the results have been mixed, said Jason Kephart, senior principal for multi-asset strategy ratings at Morningstar. So, while you will likely pay more and have less transparency into what you're investing in, having a stake in private capital is no guarantee that you will enjoy meaningfully better returns in your portfolio. As for the diversification argument, Kephart said, it's worth remembering that just as with public companies, private companies' performance will be affected by external forces such as economic downturns, interest rates, geopolitical concerns, tariffs and supply chain issues. 'Being private doesn't shield you from the world,' he noted. And, Kephart added, 'It's not like the public markets are broken. Public stocks and bonds have paid off pretty well for those who've stayed invested.'
CNN
13-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Private equity wants in on your 401(k). What you need to know before investing
Chances are very good that your 401(k) does not currently offer you access to private equity investments, which, as the name implies, are investments in companies that are not publicly traded. The question is, will that change in the next few years? And, if it does, is it worth it for you to invest? Large company pension plans and university endowments — both of which have very long time horizons — have invested for years in private equity and private debt funds. But 401(k)s typically haven't offered those options to plan participants. In November 2024, only 2.4% of 401(k) sponsors said they added a private equity investment option to their plan, according to a weekly poll question from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. That may be because employers are afraid of potential lawsuits if they include those options, which typically charge investors more than investment funds in public companies. And under the Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA), employers have a fiduciary duty to ensure that investment options in your 401(k) are prudent and have reasonable fees, said Jerry Schlichter, founding partner of Schlichter Bogard, who pioneered lawsuits against plan sponsors for charging excess 401(k) fees. It also may be because private assets are riskier to invest in and information about them is opaque, since they're private. So there is less of a requirement to be transparent with investors about how a fund is doing on a regular basis. In addition, private capital options are considered illiquid investments because you can't take your money out whenever you want. And that may prove too constraining for retirement plan participants, who may need access to their 401(k) money for any number of reasons — including changing or losing a job, Schlichter said. There has been an increasing push to provide more private capital investment opportunities for retail investors and participants in workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s. On the regulatory front, according to Jaret Seiberg, a financial services policy analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group, the Trump administration is likely to make it easier to access so-called alternative investments, which include private equity, private real estate and hedge funds. That could result in an executive order from the president requiring government agencies to expand access to such investments as well as rulemaking or guidance from the Department of Labor — which enforces ERISA — 'to expand the ability of individuals to invest in 401(k) and IRA accounts in alternative investments,' Seiberg said in a daily research note. There are far fewer public companies today than there were 30 years ago, as more companies remain private. For that reason, some say, if investors want to own the whole market and have a truly diversified portfolio, where some asset classes move up when others move down, they should have access both to public and private companies. In a recent conversation with Morningstar, BlackRock chief operating officer Robert Goldstein noted that the performances of publicly traded stocks and bonds have become more correlated than they used to be, and 'many of the less correlated assets are only accessible through the private markets.' That may be. Or not. For average retail investors, it could be hard to tell because there currently isn't a centralized way to track the performance and underlying investments of private capital funds and directly compare them to that of the stock and bond funds and indexes they're used to. That's just one reason why other market watchers and investor advocates worry about expanding access to private capital for average retirement savers. Among those squarely in the camp of those who say employee and retiree nest eggs won't be helped — and could be harmed — by having exposure to private capital is Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy at Better Markets, a nonprofit seeking to promote the public interest in financial markets. 'Why is there a push to open up the private markets to 401(k)s now? It's not because workers want less liquid and harder-to-value assets in their 401(k)s. And it's not motivated by plan sponsors, who have long worried that exposing 401(k) plan participants to private market assets would violate their fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the investors,' Schiffrin said in a statement. 'It's because private market firms are finding it harder now to raise money. Their traditional sources of funding — institutional investors such as pensions and endowments — have evaporated.' Indeed, for plan sponsors, including private equity among their plan's investment options will require a lot more due diligence from them in terms of investigating the underlying investments in a given fund and examining the fee structure, Schlichter said. 'This is fraught with danger. A company that puts private equity in its 401(k) is undertaking a serious risk of breaching its fiduciary duty.' Credit ratings agency Moody's this week put out an analysis, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cautioned that the accelerated push to give private capital firms access to the multitrillion-dollar retirement investment industry holds risk for everyone. 'Competition for retail investor capital within private markets will intensify as alternative asset managers roll out new partnerships and special funds to address this potentially vast, still largely untapped market,' the analysts wrote. 'But rapid growth within this still relatively opaque market also carries systemic implications.' One example, they cited, is the potential for a liquidity crisis. 'Unlike institutional investors, retail investors expect ready access to their cash. To help, managers are launching products with periodic windows of liquidity. But in volatile markets, retail investors may run for the exits, which would exacerbate liquidity needs and the risk of potential mismatches between a product's available liquidity and what investors are expecting.' The promise of investing in private equity is that the additional expense and risk assumed by investors can be rewarded with potentially strong returns over time. While it's hard to easily and quickly track private equity performance on your own, there have been academic and industry studies on it, and the results have been mixed, said Jason Kephart, senior principal for multi-asset strategy ratings at Morningstar. So, while you will likely pay more and have less transparency into what you're investing in, having a stake in private capital is no guarantee that you will enjoy meaningfully better returns in your portfolio. As for the diversification argument, Kephart said, it's worth remembering that just as with public companies, private companies' performance will be affected by external forces such as economic downturns, interest rates, geopolitical concerns, tariffs and supply chain issues. 'Being private doesn't shield you from the world,' he noted. And, Kephart added, 'It's not like the public markets are broken. Public stocks and bonds have paid off pretty well for those who've stayed invested.'
Forbes
18-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ Is An Outrageous Moveable Electric Feast: First Take
Attendees view the Cadillac Escalade IQ 1000E4 full-size electric luxury SUV during the AutoMobility ... More LA 2024 auto show at the Los Angeles Convention Center on November 21, 2024. US auto giants signaled November 20, 2024 that they could further slow the ramp-up of electric vehicle production as Detroit awaits the arrival of a Trump administration eager to reverse key Biden climate initiatives. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images) Cadillac has a new, more elegant take on the shamelessly big EV – the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ. The Tesla Cybertruck and GMC Hummer SUV now have some company in the bigger-than-life EV department. The new electric version of the Escalade – a first for the iconic Cadillac nameplate – is a gilded beast, tricked out with every luxury feature you could desire. I'm not used to this much luxury in a car (but I could easily get used to it). I'm driving the Escalade IQ Luxury 2 for a week. The following is a brief first-take review. As a yardstick, I'll compare it to two other giant high-profile electric vehicles, the Cybertruck and GMC Hummer EV. Before the IQ arrived, I had just finished a test drive of the Cadillac Optiq, a compact crossover EV at the other end of the size/weight spectrum. So, I expected a step down in speed and torque. Nope. Despite the 9,000 pound+ weight and three rows of seats, the IQ keeps up with the much smaller (5,000-pound) Optiq. That's with the acceleration features toggled on (Velocity MAX and sport mode). That was a surprise considering its size. Cadillac says the IQ does 0-60 in under 5 seconds. I believe it now. It produces 750 hp and 785 lb.-ft. of torque with Velocity Max. The IQ is rated at 450 miles of range. I have never test driven an EV with this kind of range. It changes everything. No more ABCs (always-be-charging) – a state of mind that afflicts every EV driver. And, when you do need a charge, the charging rates are very fast based on my testing at Tesla Superchargers. GM estimates 100 miles of range in about 10 minutes at a public DC Fast Charging station. So far, I've been charging at between 300 and 350 miles, so I haven't gotten the rates that GM publishes. (With EV charging, when the battery's charge exceeds 70-80 percent, charging rates drop off.) But even when I charged from 350 to the max of 450, it was fast. As fast as the rates on a Lucid EV I drove last year. 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ getting a fast charge at a Tesla Supercharger. The Escalade IQ I have came with a Tesla NACS adapter. I've been charging exclusively at Tesla Supercharger stations. Pure plug-and-play, i.e., you plug in and it just works. As a rule, I avoid Electrify America (when I can) based on years of frustration. A 55-inch curved LED display makes navigating information easy. Curved Pillar-to-Pillar LED Display: A 55-inch curved LED display makes navigating information much easier than other EVs I've tested. AKG Studio Reference Audio System: The Escalade IQ offers an available 36-speaker AKG Studio Reference audio system. Rear-Seat Entertainment: Dual 12.6-inch displays with streaming to keep rear passengers entertained. Air Ride Adaptive Suspension & Magnetic Ride Control: this adjusts the vehicle's height and damping for handling various driving conditions. And Four-Wheel Steering improves maneuverability at low speeds and stability at high speeds. I've tested the most recent Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD) updates 3 times in the past two months on the new Tesla Model Y 'Juniper" and once on the Cybertruck. Tesla's FSD is amazing. It's basically a robotaxi = the driver is the passenger. The problem is, it's not flawless. That always makes me a little nervous – and I've had few mishaps with FSD in the past. I like the middle ground that GM has settled on with Super Cruise. GM leaves the local driving to you while offering true hands-free driving on the highway. Once you're on the highway, Super Cruise will take over the driving – steering, acceleration, braking, and lane changes. In my testing of the IQ's Super Cruise on Los Angeles highways, it does 90 percent of the driving on 118, 405, and 5. Think of Super Cruise as a tedium reliever. Let's say you're taking a long trip that involves hours of yawn-inducing highway driving. That's where Super Cruise takes over. It does the dull driving for you. I know people who have resisted any kind of driver assist until I explain to them what it's for. Then they actually try it and are immediate converts. The Escalade IQ Sport 1 starts at about $130,000, while the Luxury 2 that I'm driving is just shy of $158,000.
