Happy Friday everyone! We're almost thru week 2 of the Wheel of Odds launch - so far so good. Haven't managed to crack the FYP yet, but we ain't stopping til we do!

The links

1. Lunchables, but healthy!

2. Shohei is already the face of the MLB

3. Startup ideas made by a robot

4. The proper way to load toilet paper

5. Solving low testosterone levels

People don't have: short attention spans. They finish 3 hour Rogan interviews. Binge 14 hour shows. They have short consideration spans.

Morning fam -- first off: damn, Y'ALL SHOWED OUT!! Thank you so much to every one of you who snagged a copy. ICYMI: We just released our newest game, Wheel of Odds. Here's an extended clip from the (infamous) toe-sucking dare

The links

1. Toy versions of iconic failed startups

2. I refuse to believe this

3. Is this good news for us?

4. How to build houses more efficiently

5. The future of video editing (woah)

Idea of the week: Creator Popularity as a service. Brands are always looking for the next, great creators before they pop off. Much cheaper and, if you find the right partner, incredibly high ROI. The token example is: imagine partnering with the D'amelio's on some long-term deal before they became *The D'amelio's*. I wish there was something like Google Trends for creators where I could get some automated email - or see a dashboard - of all the creators who, for ex, 10x'd or 100x'd their followers over a given time period.

Morning! Quick update: inventory just hit amazon - as soon as the listing goes live, I'll let you know!! In the meantime, let's jump in...

The links

1. Paint that purifies your air

2. Bake blue muffins, measure your gut health

3. 3D kitties

4. Thread of interesting charts

5. Being a good bullshitter as a signal of IQ

This week I learned: Thomas Edison invented (mainstreamed) the word "hello." It existed, but was pronounced differently and used as an expression of surprise. When he was working on the phone, they needed a loud greeting for operators. He thought the word “hello” was easy to yell, so everyone using phones adopted it. Rest is history!

Idea of the week: There's a saying that goes something like: first-time founders focus on product, second-time founders focus on distribution. Can't sell product if you can't reach customers! Hence the idea: the Airbnb Distributor. Airbnb hosts buy a bunch of things to improve the guest experience - games, towels, beach chairs etc. If [co] aggregated hosts into one buying group, brands would JUMP at the opportunity to get their product into 1000s of homes. Hosts would get discounted items (= more, cheaper amenities), guests have better experiences and leave good reviews. Win-win-win :)

Goooood morning! Any day now before the big drop :) In the meantime, I'm away with the fam for the 4th. Also - I tried Cometeer for the first time, the flash frozen coffee thing. It's good, but not sure I'm in long-term for $2/pop.

The links

1. Start constrained, then expand

2. Michael Kors living his best life

3. Request for Knowledge, as a service

4. Twisted Toys

5. How Sriracha went from 0 to 100

Idea of the week: Restaurants as a warehousing network. The premise: could you convince restaurant owners to give brands a little bit of storage space in exchange for additional free rev? A ton of purchasing doesn't happen because they need something for a party tonight, not in 2 days. If we, for ex, could stock 50-100 games in a bunch of restaurants across major cities and get product --> party same-hour, would be a game changer.

Morning! T-minus ~1 week before we drop our first game outside the INCO franchise. Can't wait to show y'all :)

The links

1. An instant cure for hiccups

2. Which countries make NYT headlines

3. Airbnb for your backyard

4. Why the price of coca cola didn't change

5. Internet in a box

What I'm thinking about: Toys R Us 2.0. Today, toys + games are nothing more than a couple aisles in a Target or Walmart superstore. But - if you have kids or younger sibs, these are ~the only aisles they care about! The second those automatic doors crack open enough, it's a mad dash to this corner of the Big Box. There's latent demand for a reincarnated Toys R Us, but it should probably look a lot less like a grocery store, and more like Disney // Dave & Busters.

Morning y'all and welcome to all the new readers! Pumped to have you here :) Each letter = 5 interesting links I found this week + 1 thought to get your wheels turning. If you were fwded this, you can sub to future emails here.

The links

1. A template for new cities

2. 65M followers and counting

3. Using algorithms for good

4. Necessity is the mother of invention?

5. Thread of industry secrets

Shout out Worcester: UMass Memorial is the first in the US to perform surgery with new tech that uses fiber optic cable imaging instead of x-ray radiation. Less radiation = safer for the patient and care team.

Shower thoughts: I recently stumbled across the "Financial Modeling World Cup" - a competition where people put their excel skills to the test. It seems silly at first glance, but it's very interesting. Just like sports in the traditional sense, Excel is a global skill that takes many years to master. And with millions of "recreational players," it also means there is a global audience who would be entertained by "pros" who excel at Excel. Which begs a more interesting Q: what other skills could become its own professional sport?

That's all! Have a great weekend :)

Morning y'all! Last weekend's shoot went great. One big learning re: managing costs - snacks are OVERRATED. Hardly touched over 10+ hours. So next time: less snacks, more pizza + booze.

The links

1. How hard did Steve Jobs work? (great story)

2. Create your next imperfect site

3. Video games that help kids

4. 3 reasons why someone downloads an app

5. Airbnb founder's first startup

Random bet: hot coffee will be pushed to the brink of nonexistence within the next 20 years. The writing's on the wall: as of last year, iced outsold hot drinks for the first time @ starbs (even in winter). If you look at how gen z drinks coffee, it's iced and only iced. Anecdotally, I can't remember the last time I had hot coffee - and it feels like this is already a large, growing minority among millennial coffee drinkers.

Long iced, short hot! Which leads me to thought #2 - it probably means there's a unique retail play to be made here. Smaller store footprints, fewer SKUs, iced-only menus. Hmmmm

Morning! This week has been all-things prep for the big shoot tmrw - we have 9 groups cycling in/out of the studio for playtests with our new games dropping this summer :) PUMPED to see first reax and (in just a few weeks) show y'all what we've been working on for the past year!!

The links

1. Masterclass, for sports

2. AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch

3. This is oddly satisfying

4. Supersonic flights are HERE (sound on!)

5. Airbnb for home-cooked meals

Over the last 6 months: I've tried two things to improve sleep - (a) hard stop on caffeine at noon + (b) hit play on a pod. Caffeine is a duh, but late night pod is underrated - it's like bedtime stories for adults.

My next focus area: cutting out vegetable oils. I linked to that piece before, but short of it is: appears to be a silent killer in most foods we eat. I wrote to the author for the sparknotes and here they are: (a) coconut + olive oils = best bets from health POV. (b) Avoid soybean, corn, grape seed, sunflower, + cottonseed oils at all costs. (c) Limit consumption of canola, rice bran, peanut, + "high-oleic" oils.

Note: diet is kinda like religion where you have groups of people with strong beliefs around some sort of truth. So should go without saying- do some digging before believing anything.

Morning! To my NYC fam - we're hosting a video shoot party next Saturday, June 5th from 11a-6p for two games we're dropping this summer. If you // any of your bffs are around for an hour or so and wanna be a part of it, reply to this email! Mimosas, food, and drinks will be provided :)

The links

1. Pregnancy health as a service

2. The app of the summer?

3. Back when Jack had 90 followers

4. Pay with your palm

5. Naomi Osaka is a boss

Advice: from the author of Atomic Habits on how to fix your content diet (2 min vid).

Idea of the week: Local LinkedIn. I heard this one from the "my first million" podcast. The gist of it is: linkedin is a network based on professional relevance - what if a newer, better version was based on professional and geographical relevance? A bunch of startups have tried to "unbundle" linkedin by creating networks based on a demographic (ie. Chief or Girlboss), but w/o much success. IRL is gonna roar back in a big way, so could be an interesting time to explore what a local linkedin could look like.

Gooooood morning! I'm back in Worcester for the weekend - the fam doesn't know this, but my older bro is flying here from San Ant for a lil surprise visit. None of us have seen him since pre-covid so I'll be locked in, ready to capture the best reax when he walks in :)

The links

1. Lessons from creator of Amazon Prime

2. New app lets you control someone else's life

3. The rebrand of H.E.R.

4. Making passive income by publishing books

5. A (way) better Zoom

Fave read of the week: Founding vs Inheriting by Balaji.

Reasons to be optimistic: every year - for decades now - millions of people are lifted out of extreme poverty. But, this doesn't make the news - it doesn't outrage, which means it doesn't get click$. Another reminder: avoid the daily news treadmill. You'll feel much better :)

Morning y'all! Stressful week for the kid- we had an unexpected speed bump for two projects set to drop this summer. Curveball in the last inning, but! great learning experience. I can't wait to show y'all what we've been working on for the past year - worth all the grays :) OK enough babbling, let's jump into it ...

The links

1. Founder of ETH donates $1B to India Covid Relief

2. The power of Shepard tones

3. Sustainable company swag

4. The economics of movie product placement

5. How to start a new country

Bookmarked: thread of GOAT business podcast eps.

What I've been thinking about: the very last Q&A in this interview: If congress passed legislation issuing a nationwide ban on giving advice, with violators incurring large fines or prison time, what advice would be worth ignoring this law for? Ben's answer is spot on - highly recommend.

Good morning :) No preamble today. Let's get into it:

The links

1. Using AI to dub films into any language (v cool)

2. Gary V's NFT proj sets the new bar

3. What should we regulate more?

4. The Will Smith machine at work

5. Link in bio as the new billboard

Longer read: why going to the doctor sucks and the advent of healthcare hospitality

TIL: Starbucks didn't invent the Frappuccino. It was the creation of Boston's "Coffee Connection" which Starbucks acquired in 1994 for $23M. By 1996, Starbs did $52M in Frappuccino sales (and have done much more since then :)

Random thoughts: there's a saying that goes something like "a lie told often enough becomes the truth." A great example of this is advice - the more we hear something as good advice, the less skeptical we become of it being good advice. Some examples: going to college, owning a home, icing injuries, stretching, using antiperspirants. There's a long list of things that most people accept as "obviously true or good" that may not be obviously true or good. The broader takeaway is we should be more like the default-curious, kid version of ourselves: "but why, but why, but why!"

Morning! No preamble this week :) Let's get to it:

The links

1. Gay burgers

2. A+ billboard

3. Banana bruises as art

4. Esports now a D1 sport

5. Clubhouse is being used for political debate

Cleverrrrr: accept the most browser cookies, win 100 lbs of coooookies.

TIL: the first webcam was created to monitor levels of a coffee pot 🤯

Idea of the week: Amazing Race, for your city. This one's self-explanatory, but imagine all the mechanics of an escape room - hidden clues, several rooms, set of clear objectives, access to hints if needed - scaled up into a city-wide race. Make it a half day event, 100 teams, $200/team. Once you figure out what worked/didn't work, rinse + repeat across other cities.

Goooooood morning fam! Yesterday was Earth Day - which for most brands meant great opp to greenwash! A tonnnn of brands launched Earth Day discounts or "limited drops" (aka BUY MORE) - buncha Earth-loving FAKERS! The true homies - like Bite - did Earth Day right by taking their store offline.

The links

1. Startup idea: create a new city

2. Taylor Swift for the win

3. Domino's now delivers with driverless cars

4. Victoria Paris and the future of vlogging

5. Drone entertainment is cool

Random thought: So I'm watching this show right, and this guy (who happens to be bald) is product testing a bunch of merch. He's a pretty picky guy, but he starts complaining about the hat being too itchy and it got me thinking: who designed the hat? Did the OG designer have hair? If they did, how did this carry through into the product (ie. materials chosen)? This isn't just a "hats for bald people" request for product, but rather a broader observation re: how products can overlook groups of people who don't resemble the owner's lived experience. It's why diversity at the decision-making level is critical - if we're going to make laws, design algorithms, create products, we need to include different people at day 0 so we don't run into itchy hat-esque issues.

Morning everyone! Let's jump right in:

The links

1. Find someone's filter bubble

2. How to write and sell a best-selling book

3. Thread of lifehacks

4. First GMO mosquitos to be released

5. Q&A with @waitbutwhy

TIL: vegetable oils are in ~everything and play a much larger role in modern diseases than most people realize. If you want to dig deeper, read this piece.

Idea of the week: Millions of people drive their car along the ~same paths every day. This feels like an untapped money-making opportunity. The core thinking here is more like airbnb, not uber: making unproductive assets more productive. Uber is a taxi replacement - on-demand drivers going wherever riders are and to wherever they choose. Vs. this use case, which is designed for the casual driver - ie. home<>work - to make extra money en route. Can call it: OMW.

Happy Friday everyone! Tori took me out for a lil bday Omakase this week - apparently it's customary to eat sushi with your hands and in one bite! 🤯 Had no idea. Pretty awesome experience, def recommend if you're looking to go boujee for a night :)

The links

1. The future capital of Mars

2. Paying 10k bitcoin for pizza (OG forum)

3. Male birth control (+5 more healthcare ideas)

4. Get paid $1000 to watch James Bond movies

5. Artificial intelligence is still stupid

Favorite new follow: Nicole McLaughlin. As Pharrell says best, Nicole "reconstructs everyday elements into familiar objects, reminding you to see everything in your orbit a little differently.” Check her out.

Idea of the week: automate tax deductions from lottery tix. I had this eureka moment last wknd after hanging with fam who are full blown lotto addicts. There's a bunch of IRS rules that dictate how much you're able to write off from gambling losses. This could be solved with a simple app that uses your camera to take a photo of the ticket (win/loss $) then takes care of the rest.

Yello! No fluff up here this week :) Onto the good stuff ...

The links

1. Major deal news outta the music world

2. MSCHF statement re: Nike lawsuit

3. 16 greatest investments ever

4. How Earth will look in 250 million years

5. The big brands behind Costco products

This week I learned: the Mormon Church is loaded $$$$$!

Idea of the week: Impossible™ Cheese. How is this not a thing yet?? Cheese is awesome and waaay more indispensable than burgers. It's a hard food science problem, but whoever nails this will be handsomely rewarded.

Hey everyone! Fun week over @ Hunch Studios - we just released our collab w/ Demi Lovato! This one was a longggg time coming, but so hyped w/ how it came out. Check it + lmk what you think! 🤪

The links
1. IG account making $10M+ selling cookies

2. NFTs are old news, enter the DAO

3. Another fun MSCHF drop

4. Bill Gates reddit AMA

5. The next Pokemon?

Today I learned: Bank of America was "Bank of Italy" for its first 26 yrs of existence; it was started to serve Italians in the North Beach neighborhood of SF.

Idea of the week: pop culture-ify ERRthang. Check this lucky charms candle - unboxing looks like a bowl of your fave cereal, then the charms melt into wax. There's a whole set of opps around elevating a commodity product with some pop culture phenom.

Morning y'all, no fluff up here today :) Let's jump in:

The links

1. Free startup ideas

2. What's next in NFTs

3. Spending $$ on pets makes you happy

4. How gov't can move faster (smart)

5. Gold or chocolate

Epic thread: why clubhouse will fail.

Problem I've been thinking about: ~40% of all food produced in the US goes to waste, + households are responsible for the largest portion of this. There's a whole set of opps to prevent waste before it happens, but I'm interested in other low hanging fruit: composting. Composting turns food waste into a valuable asset (soil), but ~no one composts! how can we get more people to compost?

Morning! Got to watch a SpaceX launch for the first time down in FL yesterday 🤯 So when I saw this story about the early days on the brink of bankruptcy, I had to share.

The links

1. Tim Urban on life paths

2. Stockton's basic income experiment

3. Write simply

4. Why are there no public toilets in the US?

5. New FB patent for sports highlights

Video: Beeple reacting to his work selling for $69M

Idea of the week: I recently learned about the story of Dr. Joe Dispenza - run over by an SUV, broke 6 vertebrae, "guaranteed paralysis" without surgery. Opted out of surgery and had full recovery with no lasting issues. It sparked a broader tv/film idea around the "power of the mind." Call it "The Placebo Effect" - exploring the stories of people who've ie. recovered from terminal cancers, run marathons in Antarctica without shoes or a shirt, using nothing but the power of the mind.