The Profile: Argentina’s richest man & the startups designing the perfect baby

I announce the subject of my next original profile, which publishes this Wednesday!

Good morning, friends!

For the last few months, I’ve been inside rooms we rarely see, listening to conversations we’re never meant to hear, and interviewing people who almost never speak to journalists.

I interviewed more than 20 people for this profile on New York City’s most powerful woman: Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City. The Partnership is a coalition of 350 leaders — Fortune 500 CEOs, tech founders, and real estate heavyweights — whose companies employ more than 1.5 million New Yorkers.

Wylde, who turns 80 in June, is one of the most connected and influential people in the city. She is in regular contact with figures like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, hedge fund manager John Paulson, and Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman — leaders who quietly shape New York’s economic and political future behind closed doors.

(Photo Credit: Stephen Yang for The Profile)

I first met Kathy in 2023, shortly after my husband and I moved back to New York City from Miami. We had lunch together to talk about where the city needed the most help. She mentioned an article I’d written earlier that year titled, “A Love Letter to New York City,” and our conversation stayed with me. As I kept seeing her name surface in the news, I kept thinking: Kathy might be one of the most powerful people in New York City, yet so few residents know who she is.

I began thinking about this profile back in February. At the time, I was juggling several other projects, and it didn’t feel urgent. Then Kathy announced her retirement, and I stepped on the gas. Even though I had just had my twins two weeks prior, I needed to be the one to tell her story.

What followed was months of reporting. I interviewed more than 20 people across business, politics, and civic life, including CEOs, a governor, and some of the most powerful financiers in the country. Below is a list of some of my sources for this piece:

• New York Governor Kathy Hochul

• JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty

• Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla

• Ex-Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein

• Etsy CEO Josh Silverman

• Warby Parker CEO Neil Blumenthal

• MTA CEO Janno Lieber

I felt real pressure around this piece because Wylde has never had a profile that goes much deeper than her professional résumé. I wanted to understand who she is beneath the surface, which wasn’t easy. Wylde isn’t used to the spotlight being solely on her, and she rarely speaks about her personal life. I filled in the gaps by speaking with her husband and those who have known her longest.

I wanted to do her story justice. She’s exactly the kind of person I love to profile: full of contradictions, layers, and multitudes. She doesn’t fit neatly into any box. And I love the challenge of explaining how her paradoxes make perfect sense.

If you care about how power actually works — or how cities are held together by people most residents never see — this profile is for you. And if you know someone who would enjoy it, I hope you’ll forward this before it publishes on Wednesday, Dec. 17, and encourage them to subscribe here.

✨ I also want to take a moment to thank The Profile’s premium members. Because of your support, I can spend months reporting a single story, talking to dozens of sources, and prioritizing depth over speed — something that’s become increasingly rare in traditional media. Early access is my way of saying thank you for funding the work itself, so premium subscribers will receive the profile first, and then it will be unlocked for everyone else. (Become a premium member to get it in your inbox first-thing Wednesday morning.)

Here’s how you can help:

• Share the article when it comes out this Wednesday, Dec. 17.

• Post your favorite takeaway on social media (tag me @polinapompliano— I’d love to hear what resonates)

• Forward this newsletter to a friend and ask them to sign up for The Profile today and get the profile in their inbox on Wednesday morning.

— Polina

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PROFILES.

— Argentina’s richest man
— The company that won the delivery wars
— The startups designing the perfect baby
— The company focused on AI safety

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

Argentina’s richest man: Marcos Galperin, the $10 billion co-founder of MercadoLibre, lives an unusually low-key life in Montevideo, where he jogs on the beach, shops at the farmers market, and moves through the city without bodyguards or fanfare. Now, after building Latin America’s most valuable tech company, he’s handing over the CEO role, insisting that “real power is choosing when to step away.” (Bloomberg; alternate link)

“Meritocracy is the way to run a business and to run a country, and it’s a basis of the success that western civilization has had.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The company that won the delivery wars: Tony Xu built DoorDash by sweating the tiniest details— parking spots, forgotten desserts, and the “last 100 feet,” and turned a scrappy Stanford idea into a $13 billion-a-year delivery powerhouse. After surviving near-death cash crunches and outmaneuvering Uber and Grubhub, DoorDash now controls 60% of the U.S. market. Xu is pushing far beyond takeout into groceries, global expansion, software, ads, and even delivery robots. He may be one of the greatest operators of his generation. (FORTUNE)

“We’re operationally grind-y, for lack of a better business term.”

The startups designing the perfect baby: Prospective parents in Silicon Valley are getting close to choosing their baby’s genetic future. Fueled by billions in new investment, startups now promise to screen embryos for everything from disease risk to height, longevity, and even hints of IQ. Supporters call it a revolution in preventing suffering, while critics warn it’s inching toward designer babies in a regulatory vacuum. Either way, the Bay Area is quietly turning family planning into a data-driven frontier. (FORTUNE)

“It doesn’t guarantee that your child is going to have a perfect, healthy life.”

The company focused on AI safety: Anthropic has quietly become the enterprise favorite in AI — now valued at $183 billion and racing toward a $10 billion run rate, with ambitions to hit $70 billion by 2028. Its edge comes from turning “safety” into a selling point, winning trust from businesses and governments while spending far less than OpenAI or Google. But the company is scaling at breakneck speed amid political pushback, copyright lawsuits, and intensifying price competition. The Amodei siblings now face a defining question: Can Anthropic keep its momentum before the AI arms race overwhelms it? (FORTUNE)

“We didn’t have any idea about how we would make money.”

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