Substance over sizzle. I make no promises about the cadence of this email. I do promise it will be worth your time and mine. -Dave
Mmmmmyyyyyy Little Buttercup…
After failing to meet its Congressionally mandated recruiting goal for FY22, the U.S. Army welcomed the Air Force and Navy to the party this year since all 3 service branches are on track to miss America’s national security personnel goal by the largest margin in American history. Don’t forget; American taxpayers pay in advance for each military service branch to field a specific number of troops. Do the Three Amigos still have military service eligibility? Asking for a country…
Slick Shoes!
In 2016, Nike introduced the Vaporfly 4% “super shoe”. Since then, adidas and others have introduced similar versions of sneakers with carbon fiber plates and thick foam soles (Wired). If we cared about breaking the world record in the marathon, this might be something worthwhile. Instead, we are left wondering, “Where oh where, are Nike’s slick shoes?” Entire generations have been waiting eagerly since their debut on the 1985 classic, Goonies.
So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
Saudi Arabia and Russia announced they will respectively extend oil supply cuts (Bloomberg). For those holding structured notes that pay a lovely interest depending on the price of WTI, or Brent, in a year, perhaps it’s time to channel your inner Lloyd Christmas?
Make Me Smarter, Dave!
If you’re not listening to Chris Hutchins’ All The Hacks podcast, you’re missing out.
Moonshots…
Austin’s Prime Movers Lab is the kind of venture capital firm whose portfolio is chock-full of the kinds of companies (energy fusion! democratizing space! brain plug-ins!) a father might invent while improvising a bedtime story for toddlers. Which leads me to think we have finally found the firm to approach with an iconic pitch, “We’re brothers from Vermont and we have an emerging maple syrup conglomerate!”
My next billion dollar company…
After Wondercraft AI debuted its podcast builder that leverages AI voices to let anyone go from idea to published podcast in minutes, perhaps it’s only logical to create a company perfectly built for podcasts delivered by robots. Let’s call it Audience AI, or something like that. So, for every podcast created by robots, we will provide a massive audience of robots that generate likes, comments, tweets and -retweets. Advertisers will love it! “Look at this new podcast that just got 16 trillion listeners!”
Mic. Drop.