Happy Friday y'all! Some fun news to wake up to: INCO just hit #1 best seller on amazon!!!

The links

1. Facebook's little red book

2. Find any company's suppliers

3. Gatorade's sweat patch

4. Marriage proposal planners are a thing?

5. Cmon Joe

Little morning pick-me-up: rabbit saving a cat.

Idea of the week: tomagatchi 2.0. Becoming America's doll is big biz. All the top toy co's spend major R&D tinkering on doll concepts. It's how we got Barbie, Bratts, LOL, American doll etc. Super convinced the next major doll trend will be digital. Kids carry around their ipads like dolls anyway! Spending A LOT of time exploring here :)

One more thing: Javi and I are slowwwwly starting to work with other inventors to help them bring their ideas from 0 -> 1. Emphasis on slow cuz we're only a 2 person team and giving big time TLC :) BUT wanted to mention here - if you've got a toy or game idea that you'd love help bringing to life, HMU! peter@hunchstudios.com

Happy Friday everyone! Let's jump into it:

The links

1. Talking to people in their dreams

2. 8 reasons why "NFTs" are a big deal

3. What 1 quadrillion sour patch kids looks like

4. Turning sketches into beautiful imagery

5. Scented Duraflame logs = good/bad idea?

Bonus: Fake Tom Cruise looks really real

Becoming a billionaire: is overrated. They just give away the money anyways.

Idea of the week: chicken wings are great biz. Top 3 delivery category behind pizza and chinese. BUT! Big miss across the board: air fried wings. ~Same flavor/texture as normal wings, but w/o all the oil (aka much healthier!). Someone should start a delivery-only chain called "Air Fried" that sells air fried wings. Lean into the "same taste you love, better for you" prop w/ punchy branding and would crush.

Morning y'all! P crazy what's going on down in TX. To anyone on this list who lives there, hope you're staying safe. xo

The links

1. Expiration dates are BS

2. New app lets you invest in yes-no q's

3. Major breakthrough for lung cancer

4. Cyber fashion is becoming a thing

5. Making $3.9M in 9 min selling digital art

Latest wormhole: play-doh is one of the most successful kids' toys of all time. But its origins are even more interesting.

Idea of the week: vantablack is one of the world's darkest substances - so dark, it absorbs ~100% of all visible light. Today it's used in telescopes, cameras, and the military (camo). I'd love to see some consumer products made from this - for ex. kids' posters of space/show kids how light can't escape from black holes.

Morning! Sorry for the delay on getting this one out - Tori and I went off grid in one of those getaway house things. No service or shitty nyc air :) Suuuper recommend it.

The links

1. Maps are misleading

2. Storytelling 101 from the creators of South Park

3. Mind control is around the corner (5 min vid)

4. If you bought BTC instead of __, you'd have…

5. This is hysterical

Trick from Naval: how to get rid of jealousy.

The DTC strike zone: Javi and I had been tinkering on a personal care product for ~1 year and sent it to the idea graveyard after finding it would be too low-margin + low frequency to build into a meaningful business. This sheet would've saved us a tonnnnn of time and effort. Gold mine for any founder thinking thru what ideas to pursue.

Morning y'all - been running this screenshot group experiment for ~1 week. I plan on doing a short write-up on it soon, but will say: v interesting to see how these things play out in expectations vs IRL :)

The links

1. Anonymous startup giving away $1M

2. Moving things to pay for college

3. Work from home x Chick-fil-a

4. Digital collectibles are heating up

5. Spinach can now send emails!?

Worth bookmarking: This doc of business theories and frameworks. Some parts use too many fancy or smart words, but overall thought-provoking.

Idea of the week: Hims for migraines. This one feels inevitable. Snazzy DTC brand, 100% online. Instead of going into the docs office, schedule a telehealth visit -> get migraine meds in <30 min + from the comfort of your home. If you or someone you know works on this, plz: make sure the site is set to 'dark mode.'

WOOF! Still too many Q's on the r/WSB x Robinhood sitch as of this AM to comment thoughtfully, but the backstory is worth a read.

The links

1. Thread of animal photobombs :)

2. Holding future president URLs for ransom

3. A new type of insurance (skip to last section)

4. Why mushrooms make mario bigger (22s clip)

5. Godzilla v. Kong looks EPIC

Exploring a hunch: For me, screenshots = content I want to make sure I revisit. Provocative tweets, inspiring quotes, clever memes. If something gets screenshotted, it's passed some type of automated "interesting/entertaining" filter in my mind. But, for the most part, these just rot away in my photo graveyard. Why? Why isn't there a place where people can share screenshots w/o the expectation of crafting the perfect tweet or IG post? Screenshots don't need editing! They speak for themselves.

SO!!: gonna try something out. If you're an active screenshotter, I'd love to include you in a small IG group chat! ~8-10 ppl to avoid notification overload, so will prioritize first ppl who reply. Reply to this email if interested!

Morning fam! Fun news outta the INCOHEARENT camp - we officially passed the 1M units milestone! And (even better): couple days ago, someone PROPOSED using the game!!! 🤯

The links

1. Robots are here

2. Ramen, but DTC-ified

3. How to think for yourself

4. For the side hustlers

5. How to create a viral youtube vid even if you have zero followers

Idea of the week: a new-age MBA. There are tons of platforms listing 100s of active businesses for sale. Real, revenue-generating companies. A new MBA program should buy a bunch of these businesses, then group students in 2-3 person teams to build/operate the business. Layer in weekly seminars, classes, + speakers. 12-18 month program. Best case, the biz crushes! Worst case, students learned how to sell, market, operate etc. IMO this would beat out any MBA program on price/value/experience by a decent margin.

Morning y'all! If you're new to this email - great to have you. You can catch up on previous letters here.

The links

1. "Startup accelerator" for tv shows

2. Why experiments make ppl uneasy

3. Astrology is underrated

4. Coolest things I learned in 2020

5. Making $Ms on snap's tiktok competitor

Idea of the week: kickstarter for audience. Right now, sites like kickstarter/ indiegogo are focused on getting creators paid before taking the leap into creating their product full-time. But $$ is only a piece of the pie - there should be something that helps creators kickstart their audience. Maybe a site where you can put up a short trailer teasing a concept that would live on youtube, but you'd only start if it gets 1000 "pre-subscribers." People could sift thru diff ideas, "pre-sub" by adding their phone #, and if the campaign succeeds, get texted a link to the creators YT channel. Lower commitment than paying up and helping creators build a "minimum viable audience" before taking the leap?

Morning y'all - answer to last week's riddle: he's playing Monopoly :) Let's jump in

The links

1. What would a Tesla Bike look like?

2. 100 tips for a better life

3. Creating images from text (woah)

4. Fastest route is not always a straight line

5. IG as a handheld device

Longer, must read: this piece recaps the biggest breakthroughs in life extension, cancer cures, decarbonization, and space over the last few years. Impossible to read and leave w/o getting pumped about the next decade.

Idea of the week: Alibaba for Mexico. 10,000s of US co's outsource production to China. Cheap costs, quality output. But turnaround is a major pain. Ex: 7-10 days of production + 30-35 days shipping sea freight = 1.5 months w/o new product. "Alibaba for Mexico" would let co's easily find cost-competitive suppliers that are closer to home = MUCH faster turnaround (proximity to US), HAPPIER customers, and LOWER emissions (truck it over the border instead of shipping it across the world!).

If you're new to this email - great to have you. You can catch up on previous letters here.

Happy New Year fam!! Let's jump right in:

The links

1. The next big thing in 2021 is...

2. Why Square wants to buy Tidal

3. Opportunities in education (related: Syllabus 2.0)

4. Every good product needs a good hook

5. The future of ACL tear treatment

Riddle of the week: A man pushes a wheelbarrow past a hotel and breathes a sigh of relief, why? Feel free to ask me any yes/no question and I'll answer :)

My 2020 reflection: We're in an all-day-every-day rat race to keep up with what's new. OBSESSED with refreshing our IG feeds, scrolling thru tiktok, getting to inbox zero. We're passively aware of the hard truth: that this constant state of consumption is bad for our health. But more practically - it's the greatest anchor on individual progress. If we spend 3 hours/day on social * 365 days = ~46 DAYS lost in our phones EVERY YEAR. What is the opportunity cost of this?

Let's try this in 2021: tune out from daily news and unsub from daily newsletters. If something is truly MUST KNOW, it will find it's way to us, otherwise all these do is STEAL our time. Time we can be investing in our health, relationships, thinking, writing, creating. So, give it a try - let's win back an hour or two of our days and see what we can do with it!

If there's anything I can do to be helpful to you - explore an idea, be a soundboard, just listen- I'd love to.

To 2021! 🥂

Afternoon! Getting this one out a couple days early before we all check out :) If you're new to this email - great to have you. You can catch up on previous letters here.

The links

1. How to turn a subreddit into a $MM biz

2. The future of sustainable plastic bags?

3. How to go viral on twitter

4. New messaging app emulates IRL convos

5. Apple coulda/shoulda bought Tesla

Idea of the week: i'm not sure what % of the US this holds true for, but a meaningful % of Amercians seek out US made products. But right now it's a janky process - browse Amazon and try to find where the product is made, or browse the aisles in a store and take a peep at the tag to figure it out. There should be an Amazon for US made products that takes this guess/check outta the process and delivers on the same key expectations (fast delivery etc). This would also double as an interesting climate solution - instead of buying products that need to get shipped from around the world, total miles (emissions) from an American producer to American buyer is much less.

Have an awesome holidays y'all - catch you in the new year!

Morning! If you're new to this email - welcome to the fam! Great to have you here. You can catch up on previous letters here.

The links

1. VR fitness looks ... awesome?

2. Free $10M/yr startup idea

3. The latest MSCHF drop

4. Online shopping with friends

5. List of good 2020 news stories

Idea of the week: I was checking out online and for the first time saw a "verify your military/ veteran status and get 10% off" button. If you click it, it pulls up this authentication form on govx - turns out govx is like an AARP membership for active/former military families. These programs work when (a) the size of the group is significant (AARP is for ages 50+; has 38M members) and (b) broadly appreciated by the general public. I think creating an AARP for restaurant workers could work, and now more than ever given what COVID has done.

Morning! If you're new to this email - welcome to the fam! Great to have you here. You can catch up on previous letters here.
The links

1. Cash app made an apparel line

2. Airbnb founders rejected 7x early on

3. David Dobrik's 100k puzzle

4. Tons of opportunity in social

5. Drunk shopping is a $45B/yr industry? (51 more random facts)

Idea of the week: delivering services within games. We're already seeing companies like Roblox and Fortnite experiment with things like concerts. But there's waaaay more potential here - could games accommodate 1-to-1 services? After my parents divorced, I remember seeing a fam therapist - dull building, a foreign place to me with someone I didn't know. What if instead, a therapist could provide child therapy services within fortnite - an environment the patient feels comfortable in? The therapist would lose out on observing body language, but could be a fantastic way to break the ice/build trust in the first 1-2 meetings. What other services could exist within games?

Happy Friday y'all! If you're new to this email - welcome to the fam! Great to have you here. You can catch up on previous letters here.

The links

1. The first grocery store that comes to you

2. How to know if your idea is good

3. Yuval Harari on lies vs fiction

4. Disney is creating robot actors

5. Some good q's to guarantee great dinner convos

Lesson of the week: you have to be willing to go back down the mountain (45s vid)

Idea of the week: 9 or 10 years ago, my older step brother Jeff sat with his grandpa and interviewed him about his life. 7 1-hour conversations exploring each major chapter - growing up as a jew during WWII, immigrating to the US from Germany, starting a family, etc. Last week, Jeff blew off the cobwebs on the flash drive and worked with our In Good Hands producer to turn the artifact into a consumable story, which he now plans to gift to his dad and two aunts during the holidays. This whole process has sparked a broader thought around the value of legacy and old memories - could you productize this "life story as service" for other families?

Morning y'all! Hit the streets at 5:30 this AM for a covid test - still in line 4 hours later. People out here like they're getting the new iphone! Crazy. Any way - getting this one out before t-day. Special 10-linker edition. Have a good one!

The links

1. The best inventions of 2020 (time)

2. Bezos' first Amazon job posting

3. Opportunity: a course about how to do email

4. Best things to increase longevity

5. Pet delivery specialists are in high demand

6. Fun 2006 FB story

7. The next retail wave: luxury health

8. Utah's first wildlife overpass

9. The AstraZeneca vaccine is some real life superhero shit

10. Netflix has pulled ‘Chappelle’s Show’ at Dave's request (why)

The full video: highly recommend watching the full Chappelle video. It's 18 min, and worth every second.

X, but without water: a FAQ I get is how I come up w/ new ideas. One approach is to look at a trend and extrapolate. For ex: take Tru Earth's laundry strips. Detergent is ~all water and shipped in single use plastic jugs = heavy, takes up space, bad for planet. So they made a water-less version that's 95% lighter, cheaper to ship, + better for planet. Same story w/ Blueland, except for cleaning sprays. There is a laundry list (hehe) of products that could be made and shipped cheaper + more eco-friendly if you reinvent w/o water. You can try applying this same type of thinking to other trends.

Hey y'all! I've been running this lil newsletter experiment for 6 months now. Quick q for you: what do you like and what can I do better?

The links

1. This is how you pay in Shanghai

2. OJ was invented by a marketer

3. This is super wacky and interesting

4. Why conspiracy theories are on the rise

5. 2020 was for tiktok houses, 2021 is for ...

Bring back AIM: a browser extension that reinvents AIM chatrooms, but in the corner of your screen. Add usernames, send links to friends throughout the day, pulls in real-time status for URL you're on like "peter is on twitter" "tori is on fabfitfun" "mike is on youtube" (-@hipcityreg)

Thought of the week: there's so much great content published every day. Too much, frankly. I've got like 20+ youtube vids in my "Watch Later," a bajillion unread newsletters, however many pods I haven't listened to yet. Unlike most email where you can quick skim, getting to "inbox zero" with "leisure content" is becoming an impossible task. It's part of the inspiration behind this experiment, but more broadly, why I'm suuuuper bullish on curation businesses. Do you sub to anyone doing this really well or in an interesting way right now?

Happy Friday everyone! No prelude today. Let's jump right in:

The links

1. 2013 email from Napster founder to Spotify founder

2. Amateurs vs pros

3. Amazon antitrust is mostly overhyped and misled

4. Why are people still sleeping on roblox

5. Becoming the youngest owner in NBA history (great thread)

Thoughts of the week: Mint, but for your "carbon budget." I feel deeply convinced more people will start tracking their carbon like we track our carbs. What I'm less sure of is when and how this will manifest -- is it an updated "nutrition" label on products that show their associated footprint? A standalone app like myfitnesspal or fitbit that tracks your footprint in the background based on spending? Or will it bleed into existing apps we interact w/ everyday -- ie our mobile banking app, or inside quickbooks? Hmmm

Happy Friday y'all! We just dropped a special ep w/ returning guests Corey Nobile and Nick Oliveri, cofounders @Impact Snacks. We riff on a bunch of potential biz ideas- some good inspo for new projects! Tune in here.

The links

1. The data of long-lived institutions

2. Bee fact of the day

3. Tesla launches $250 Tequila, runs out in hours

4. Helsinki's "city as a service" (cities should try this more)

5. Investing is the new multiplayer sport (scroll down to "New Platforms and Asset Classes")

Takeaway of the week: The best way to win vs your enemies is to ignore them and quietly continue to succeed. As George Bernard Shaw says, “Never wrestle a pig. You’ll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it.”

Fun fact of the week: the Olympic Games included an art competition until 1948

Idea of the week: every year I subscribe to Showtime when Homeland // Billions drop their new season. I stay subscribed as they publish over the next ~10 weeks, then end my subscription. My hunch is many people sub to a streaming channel for 1-2 shows they really love. What if there was a service that let ppl subscribe to a single show (instead entire channel), and split the rev with the channel? Of course, this is big driver of sign up volume, so the big Q is what % of people don't sign up for services because they only want one show. Hmmm

Happy Friday everyone! I interviewed the CEO of Returnity this week - here's my sparknotes on why what they're doing is super interesting (+ v hard). Tons of inspo for new ideas in that ep (listen here).

The links

1. How Chick-fil-a stacks up vs the comp

2. This new bookstore (wow)

3. Ryan Smith's story before buying the Utah Jazz

4. Religious trading cards (hmmm)

5. How Apple Music fell behind (and how they can win)

Fan-controlled football: this is a crazy idea. New football league launching that'll let viewers call players for each team. Coming Feb 2021. 

Idea of the week: "buy one give one" models are everywhere in CPG. tentree does buy 1 shirt, they'll plant 10 trees. toms did something similar with shoes. Ecosia is a search engine that'll plant 1 tree after every ~40 searches (they make money on ads). I wonder if you could try a similar model in newsletters... Open rate is one of the key metrics when selling ads in email, so maybe: incentivizing subscribers to open = high open rate = valuable placement for sponsors? Hmmm

Happy Friday y'all! We just launched our newest pack outta the INCO franchise - an official "Family" Edition!! Perf for younger sibs/cousins (or older members who are easily offended :) Check the V.O on the amazon video too... lol

The links

1. 12 Frameworks (see: pg 25-6; 30-2)

2. Useless superpowers (comments are fun)

3. Nokia is putting 4G on the moon

4. The startup powering influencer biz behind the scenes 

5. The business of fame (scroll to digital trading cards)

Clip of the week: Borat x Dobrik is hysterical. 6 min vid. 

Random thought: my fave watch category on youtube is live music. It's interesting to see which channels have stuck - Colors, Tiny Desk, BBC Live lounge. They've each carved out their unique lane in performance delivery. Colbert tested a short series called UNREHEARSED w/ Jon Batiste that was great. I'd love to see an independent channel double down on this concept - bring two artists together to perform some pre-chosen set list and go at it w/o rehearsal. "FIRST TAKE"