• Supermodel turned businesswoman Ashley Graham spoke at Business Insider's The Long Play on Thursday.
• Graham has invested in startups and launched her own ventures, including Lucci sparkling wine.
• She said that raising money for the alcohol brand was "very, very hard and humbling."

Ten years after making history as the first plus-size model on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Ashley Graham has built a business portfolio spanning skincare and clothing to baby care and alcohol.

The 38-year-old supermodel turned businesswoman spoke at Business Insider's The Long Play event in New York City on Thursday to discuss her breaking barriers in fashion and navigating the difficult world of investment and entrepreneurship.

"I realized quickly that my body is my business," she told Business Insider's Leena Rao. "So how can I scale this?"

That crossover appeal has helped her build a massive social media audience — nearly 30 million followers across platforms — with whom she connects and brings along as she expands her ventures.

Among her latest projects is Lucci, a sparkling Italian Lambrusco wine brand she co-founded in February. Graham said Lucci was started from the ground up and was the first time she had to ask investors to come in.

"Asking people for money is very, very hard, and humbling," she said, adding later that it's been a "great learning curve" as it was the first time she had to answer to investors for the 'why' behind decisions.

From swimsuit model to leading a brand empire

In 2016, Graham appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit issue, becoming the first plus-size model to do so.

The following year, she was named one of TIME's most influential people of the year, had a Barbie doll modeled after her, and released her first book, "A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like."

Forbes listed her as one of the highest-paid models in 2017, with an estimated income of $5.5 million; she was the first plus-size model to break the top 10. Her namesake JCPenney collection, which launched in October 2025, is made exclusively for customers who wear size 14 and up.

Building beyond the runway

After the SI cover launched her to international fame, Graham said she monetized on the viral moment by releasing swimsuit and lingerie lines. Today, she still regularly releases collaborations with intimate brands like Knix, for which she serves as Global Ambassador and investor.

"When your body is your brand, you're always talking about it," she said.

She's also become an investor: Graham has backed the period-care brand Rif Care, the infant-formula company Bobbie, and the sustainable skincare brand Fig.1 Beauty. In 2022, she joined Fig.1 as both an investor and a partner, saying she wanted involvement beyond a typical celebrity endorsement.

As the years have passed, Graham said she's learned from past mistakes, learned how to say no, and has leaned into being very intentional about building teams around her that she can trust.

Graham also said she was surprised by "just how ruthless [VC] can be," as well as by how much success there can be.

Her most recent exit as an investor was with Wonderbelly, a clean antacid startup, which was acquired by Procter & Gamble in January.

Balancing a business with raising 3 children

Graham has managed to balance that growing career with motherhood. She and her husband Justin Ervin, whom she wed in 2010, welcomed their first child in 2020, followed by twin boys in 2022.

In 2024, she walked the Victoria's Secret runway for the first time. In making the decision to join the fashion show, she said she asked the company about its plans to expand its size range.

"I don't want to just come on as a token," she said. "I don't want to be the one-trick pony."

During the years she was having her children, she said, her investments also took on a family focus, leaning into brands she "felt like they were in [her] zeitgeist at the moment," including babycare and women-led brands. Now, her businesses are growing with her kids.

At Business Insider's event, she teased about her next business venture launching next summer: A home company partly inspired by her children.

• DoorDash says its planned acquisition of Instacart will create new opportunities for delivery workers.
• The $17 billion deal would preserve both apps, DoorDash said.
• DoorDash also plans to start listing restaurants on the Instacart app.

Gig workers could see changes to how they make deliveries if DoorDash's $17 billion deal for Instacart goes through.

The companies announced the acquisition on Thursday after several years of considering a deal. It would give DoorDash, long one of the dominant names in restaurant delivery, a much stronger position in grocery delivery.

The acquisition would also bring together millions of gig workers who make deliveries for both companies.

Here's what we know so far about how the deal would affect delivery workers:

DoorDash plans to keep the Instacart app

If the deal wins federal approval, DoorDash doesn't plan to fold Instacart's brand into its own.

That means that the apps will continue to function on a stand-alone basis, DoorDash executives said on a call on Thursday to discuss the deal.

"I think Instacart has built a great brand, and it is a very unique brand where their audience is very loyal to that brand," DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on the call.

Gig workers will be able to take both restaurant and grocery orders

DoorDash plans to cross-list merchants on the two different apps, CFO Ravi Inukonda said.

Restaurants represent one obvious opportunity, he said. "We are going to be able to list our restaurant platform on Instacart, which is going to drive top-line growth," Inukonda said.

Access to more kinds of orders means that gig workers will have "more choice over when and how they earn, whether that's grocery orders on a quiet day, restaurant orders at peak times, or both," the company said in its deal announcement.

DoorDash says the deal could mean 'greater earning opportunities'

Many of Instacart's grocery partners are looking to compete with bigger companies, Xu said on the call. Amazon and Walmart are both expanding their delivery networks, especially for same-day delivery and fresh food, and many smaller chains will turn to the combined company to offer delivery.

That could mean "faster delivery times, more affordable prices for everyone, greater earning opportunities for shoppers," Xu said, referring to gig workers who shop and deliver orders.

Whether those opportunities result in more pay for workers remains to be seen.

Instacart workers make about $13 an hour, while those working for DoorDash average about $11 an hour, according to gig worker pay data from analytics company Gridwise published in March. Both rates were lower than rival delivery services, such as Amazon Flex and Uber Eats.

Do you have a story idea about DoorDash and/or Instacart? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Gen Zers have started calling Diet Coke a "fridge cigarette" thanks to a viral TikTok.
• Coca-Cola's CEO appeared unimpressed when asked about the nickname in an interview this week.
• "The most important thing to us is that we don't position Diet Coke in that way," he said.

If you've ever cracked open a bubbly, icy-cold "fridge cigarette," Coca-Cola's CEO would like a word.

The beverage giant's CEO, Henrique Braun, was asked about the phrase — a popular slang term for a can of Diet Coke — in a Tuesday interview with Yahoo Finance, and appeared unimpressed.

He first answered by promoting the company's growth, before being pressed for his thoughts on the nickname.

"The consumers call it the way they want to call it," Braun said. "The most important thing to us is that we don't position Diet Coke in that way."

"It's a great-tasting product, which connects with the consumer in a very unique way."

Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Merriam-Webster defines "fridge cigarette" as "a cold, refreshing, and addictive soft drink," noting that it's especially used to refer to Diet Coke.

The phrase first gained traction with Gen Z through a viral TikTok video in 2025, which has nearly 4 million views. It showed a woman opening a can of the soda, with the text: "Overheard someone call a Diet Coke a 'fridge cigarette' and nothing's been more true to me since."

It makes sense that Braun would rather avoid any comparisons to cigarettes, especially given some previous bad media for Diet Coke.

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in the soda, made headlines in 2023 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified it as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

However, this classification only means there is limited evidence in humans and less-than-sufficient evidence in animals. Health bodies and regulators globally have maintained their acceptable daily intake levels of aspartame. An adult weighing 150 lbs would have to drink at least 17 cans of Diet Coke a day to exceed the safe amount.

Diet Coke contains more caffeine, the use of which can lead to dependence, than regular Coca-Cola.

To most people, "fridge cigarette" instead evokes the relief from drinking a soda. An excuse to step away from work for a moment and indulge with a gratifying treat.

Rachel Reno, who posted the viral TikTok, told The New York Times in 2025, "I feel like it's one of those things that doesn't need a lot of explanation."

She added that people who understand it know that "the crack of the can is like the spark of a lighter," and then after the first sip, "all the worries and cares in the world go away."

Braun's interview came the same day as Coca-Cola's quarterly earnings, which narrowly beat estimates with $13.4 billion of revenue.

The CEO told investors on an earnings call that Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero grew by double digits. Coca-Cola's share price is up 33% since the start of the year.

• New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized DoorDash's $17 billion plan to acquire Instacart.
• Mamdani said the deal could lead to higher prices and worse working conditions.
• The companies say the deal will lead to lower prices and give gig workers more chances to earn money.

Zohran Mamdani is skeptical of DoorDash's $17 billion deal for Instacart.

The New York City mayor denounced the proposed acquisition in a post on X on Thursday, hours after the company announced it.

"Corporate consolidation means higher prices, harsher exploitation, and greater economic inequality for New Yorkers," he wrote.

"We've stood up to these giants before," he added. "That doesn't stop now."

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on Thursday that the deal would lead to lower prices and faster delivery times for customers, as well as "more earnings" for the gig workers who make deliveries on the apps.

Mamdani also referenced the City's settlement with DoorDash last month, in which the delivery service agreed to pay $131.5 million to end an investigation into how it paid delivery workers in the city.

The settlement includes returning some of the money to workers. Mamdani and the City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection have taken aim at delivery companies multiple times over the past year, including by enforcing a law requiring the companies to offer customers the option to tip at checkout.

Samuel A.A. Levine, the Department's commissioner, said that the deal "continues a troubling trend of mega-corporations consolidating while working to divide workers and consumers."

"Whether or not this merger proceeds, we will fully enforce delivery workers' rights," Levine added.

Do you have a story idea about Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• DoorDash has agreed to acquire Instacart.
• The $17 billion deal is expected to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028.
• It will give DoorDash a leg up over Uber and Amazon in the world of grocery delivery.

Two of the biggest names in food delivery are coming together.

DoorDash plans to acquire Instacart in a deal worth about $17 billion, the companies said Thursday. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028.

The acquisition would combine DoorDash's historical dominance in restaurant delivery with Instacart's roster of grocery partnerships, creating one company to deliver much of customers' weekly dining needs.

"Together, we can accelerate innovation across the grocery industry and make online grocery more seamless and affordable for the millions of households we serve," said Chris Rogers, the CEO of Instacart.

This isn't the first time that DoorDash and Instacart have considered a deal, Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's founder, said in a statement Thursday.

"Tony and I have explored bringing Instacart and DoorDash together on and off over the years," he said.

"We kept coming back to it because the industrial logic has always been clear," Mehta added, referring to the opportunity to sell customers more of the 21 meals they eat each week.

DoorDash has been growing its grocery business since the pandemic, which pushed many shoppers out of stores and toward delivery services as they stayed home more. Since then, the company has partnered with dozens of grocers, creating a selection that rivals Amazon's with less infrastructure, CEO Tony Xu said earlier this year.

Instacart, meanwhile, has focused on grocery delivery since its inception in 2012. The startup delivered orders from Whole Foods before Amazon bought the chain in 2017. It now works with thousands of retailers in North America and sells retail technology, from digital price tags to smart shopping carts.

In a joint announcement, the companies said the deal would mean Instacart customers could shop at more than 50,000 additional stores, and that DashPass and Instacart+ members would pay one membership fee instead of two.

The deal, which will be at least 75% cash, values Instacart at $65.00 per share, representing a 26% premium over its closing price on October 22.

Taking on Amazon and Uber

The combined company will be a more formidable presence in the competitive grocery delivery industry.

Amazon has spent years trying to increase sales in its grocery business, including a rollout of same-day perishable food deliveries to more parts of the US over the past year. And Walmart is also building its own delivery infrastructure, including its own network of gig-worker couriers and expanding into restaurant delivery.

Combining DoorDash and Instacart would give other grocers a better shot at taking on companies like Amazon and Walmart, DoorDash said.

"A lot of what we talk about with grocers is: How can we together help them compete against the largest companies in the world?" DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on a call Thursday.

Uber has also grown its restaurant and grocery delivery business through Uber Eats. The company has recently moved deeper into premium ride-hailing options, such as black car services, as well as travel through a hotel-booking partnership with Expedia.

Both DoorDash and Instacart have relied on gig workers to pick orders and make deliveries. As independent contractors, most don't receive many of the same benefits as full-time workers, such as health insurance or contributions to retirement accounts.

Do you have a story idea about DoorDash and/or Instacart? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.