Fast Company

Overview

Fast Company is an American business magazine and media brand published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, covering innovation, technology, leadership, creativity, and design (Fast Company). Founded in November 1995 by former Harvard Business Review editors Alan Webber and Bill Taylor with publisher Mortimer Zuckerman, it was sold at the height of the dot-com boom to Gruner + Jahr, then acquired in 2005 by Morningstar chief Joe Mansueto’s Mansueto Ventures (Fast Company; Communiqué PR; The Legacy Lab; Poynter). It is best known for its annual Most Innovative Companies ranking, published since 2008 (Fast Company).

The magazine’s stated mission is to “think expansively, lead with purpose, embrace change, and shape the future of business” (Fast Company). Its early identity was unusually community-driven for a business title: the website featured the Company of Friends, where readers could connect with the magazine’s creators and each other, and it hosted live events long before conferences became a media-business staple (Fast Company). The title’s modern era began under editor-in-chief Robert Safian, who joined in 2007, led it to the 2014 ASME Magazine of the Year win, and stepped down after a 12-year run in January 2018, succeeded first by Stephanie Mehta and then, from July 2022, by Brendan Vaughan (MediaPost; Media Voices; Leading Authorities). The New York–based publication sits alongside its sister title, Inc., under Mansueto Ventures (Campaign Middle East).

History and ownership

Fast Company launched in November 1995, when Webber and Taylor — pitched as “Harvard Business Review meets Rolling Stone” — set out to remake business journalism from the top down to the bottom up, with backing from publisher Mortimer Zuckerman (Fast Company; Fast Company; Communiqué PR). At the peak of the dot-com boom the title was sold to Gruner + Jahr; former editor Robert Safian has described the price as the second-largest amount ever paid for a U.S. magazine (The Legacy Lab). Five years later the bust had destroyed most of that value: Gruner + Jahr put both Fast Company and Inc. up for sale, and Morningstar chief Joe Mansueto bought them through Mansueto Ventures — the New York Post reported a $40 million deal (Poynter).

Safian rebuilt the brand around a simple editorial doctrine — that business can and should be a vehicle for progress — deliberately avoiding Wall Street coverage where it could not compete with established papers (The Legacy Lab). Stephanie Mehta took over as editor-in-chief in March 2018 and was promoted to CEO of Mansueto Ventures in January 2022; Brendan Vaughan became editor-in-chief in July 2022 (MediaPost; Media Voices; Leading Authorities). The business also expanded abroad: in March 2022, Dubai-based Vibe Projects launched a licensed Middle East edition with Mansueto Ventures, run by publisher Ravi Raman with 60% original regional content and its own awards and events (Campaign Middle East).

The brand’s toughest week came in September 2022, when attackers breached its content management system and pushed two “obscene and racist” notifications through Apple News about a minute apart; the company shut down FastCompany.com, Inc.com, and Mansueto.com entirely for eight days while it investigated, later saying the attackers had exploited weak, reused passwords and that no customer or advertiser data was compromised (Reuters; 9to5Mac). In 2025, Mansueto Ventures laid off 13 staffers — about 7% of its workforce (Talking Biz News).

The franchise business

Rankings are Fast Company’s signature product, and each runs on published judging criteria. Most Innovative Companies (launched 2008) judges organizations on innovation, impact, timeliness, and relevance; World Changing Ideas (2017) evaluates projects on ingenuity, design, scalability, and impact; Innovation by Design (2011) — billed as the world’s leading design awards program — assesses creative solutions that improve human life and culture (Fast Company). Safian has called these lists the magazine’s tools for defining what makes a “fast company” in the current era (The Legacy Lab).

Franchise	Launched	Judging criteria
Most Innovative Companies	2008	Innovation, Impact, Timeliness, Relevance
World Changing Ideas	2017	Ingenuity, Design, Scalability, Impact
Innovation by Design	2011	Novelty, Visuals, Immediacy, Impact
Next Big Things in Tech	2021	Inventive use of new tech, early traction, potential impact
Best Workplaces for Innovators	2019	Innovation culture, employee empowerment, resources, results
Brands That Matter	2021	Purpose, community relevance, cultural connection
Queer 50	2020	Leadership and impact of LGBTQ+ professionals

All launch years and criteria are taken from Fast Company’s own lists page (Fast Company). The franchise model travels too: the Middle East edition runs localized versions of four of these franchises (Campaign Middle East).

The 2022 scorecard and Fast Company’s partner-publishing model

One of Fast Company’s notable editorial plays is publishing partner journalism under its own brand. On September 16, 2022, it published Capital & Main’s article “This scorecard rated top companies on their support for democracy. Most failed,” with an explicit header — “This article is from Capital & Main, an award-winning publication that reports from California on economic, political, and social issues” — and copyright retained by Capital & Main (Fast Company).

The article covers Accountable.US’s American Democracy Scorecard, which graded the nation’s top 100 corporations against 14 democracy criteria: two-thirds received failing marks (Fast Company). AT&T was the lowest scorer, followed by Verizon, with Charter Communications and Comcast also in the bottom ten — making telecommunications the lowest-ranked industry (Fast Company). The data points were stark: 33 of the 50 companies that had paused political giving to election objectors after January 6 had resumed it; Fortune 100 companies gave $6.2 million to state legislators backing restrictive voting laws, $988,059 to lawmakers supporting 2020 election audits, $19.2 million to federal lawmakers who opposed forming the January 6 commission, and $5.7 million to members of Congress who voted to overturn the election (Fast Company). Home Depot emerged as the top corporate donor to federal lawmakers who voted to overturn the election, contributing more than $350,000 (Fast Company). Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig wrote directly to CEOs urging them to align actions with stated values, while the group planned a six-figure digital media effort targeting executives, elected officials, and business-school students (Fast Company).

FAQ

Who owns Fast Company? Mansueto Ventures LLC owns and publishes Fast Company, along with its sister title Inc. Joe Mansueto bought both magazines from Gruner + Jahr in 2005; the New York Post reported a $40 million deal, and the privately held publisher has owned the two titles ever since (Poynter).

Who is Fast Company’s current editor-in-chief? Brendan Vaughan, who took the role in July 2022. His predecessors were Stephanie Mehta (2018–2022), who became CEO of Mansueto Ventures in January 2022, and Robert Safian (2007–2018), who founded the advisory firm Flux Group after stepping down (MediaPost; Media Voices).

What is the Most Innovative Companies list? An annual ranking Fast Company has published since 2008, evaluating organizations on four criteria: innovation, impact, timeliness, and relevance. It sits alongside sister franchises World Changing Ideas (2017) and Innovation by Design (2011), each with its own published judging criteria (Fast Company).

What happened in the September 2022 cyberattack? Attackers breached Fast Company’s content management system and sent two “obscene and racist” push notifications through Apple News about a minute apart. The company shut down FastCompany.com, Inc.com, and Mansueto.com for eight days; it later said the attackers had exploited weak, reused passwords and that no customer or advertiser data was compromised (Reuters; 9to5Mac).

Where is Fast Company based? Fast Company’s global edition is headquartered in New York, operating under Mansueto Ventures LLC alongside Inc. A licensed Middle East edition is published from Dubai by Vibe Projects in partnership with Mansueto Ventures, distributing across the GCC, Egypt, and Lebanon (Campaign Middle East).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not state a dollar figure for the 2000 sale to Gruner + Jahr, because secondary accounts disagree ($550 million is the commonly repeated figure; some accounts quote Zuckerman describing $365 million) and the 2000 announcement text was not retrievable in full; it uses only former editor Robert Safian’s verified characterization of the price. It attributes the “$40 million deal” figure for the 2005 purchase to the New York Post’s reporting rather than presenting it as a settled fact, since some histories state $35 million. It does not claim a current print frequency, because sources conflict and none could be verified against a fully-read source. It does not name a current Mansueto Ventures CEO beyond the January 2022 data point. Vaughan’s July 2022 start as editor-in-chief rests on a speakers-bureau biography (tier3), corroborated by contemporaneous succession coverage — it is supporting detail, not a load-bearing claim. This profile covers the U.S. publication, not its licensed regional editions.