đ Good morning. Were you just complaining about your upcoming work trip on the opposite coast? Iguanas are rolling their beady little eyes. Ancient iguanas sailed ~5k miles from North America to Fiji some 34m years ago, according to a new study. The brave little guys clung to rafts of vegetation, a possible explanation for why Fijiâs iguanas are the only lizards of their kind outside of the Western Hemisphere.
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NEWS FLASH
đ¤ Thatâs a big deal: Alphabet, Googleâs parent company, is acquiring cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32B. The all-cash deal â said to be worth ~$23B last summer before talks disintegrated â would be Alphabetâs largest and the biggest deal for any company so far in 2025. The investment would help Alphabet expand its cloud-computing business and win more customers, particularly during the AI boom when more companies are in need of secure computing power.
đŁď¸ The Road Runner was never foiled by Wile E. Coyoteâs fake paintings of roads and tunnels. A Tesla did not fare as well. YouTuber Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer, set up a wall painted to look like a road with a child-sized mannequin behind it. A car with lidar sensors from Luminar detected the ruse and braked, while Teslaâs Autopilot crashed straight through the wall and mannequin at 40 mph. The video is kind of a plug for lidar, as Gizmodo notes, a more expensive system that Tesla has rejected over computer vision.
đŞ Snacks? In this economy? Forty-two percent of US consumers are forgoing chips and cookies due to surging prices, per a survey from market research firm NIQ. Food companies are feeling the lull, with PepsiCo (parent of Frito-Lay), Campbell (Goldfish), and JM Smucker (Hostess) all noting 2%-5% dips in snack purchases last quarter. Not only have snack prices jumped more than other grocery store items, snacks have also been hit by shrinkflation. Consumers are now ditching snacks altogether or switching from name brands to cheaper private-label options.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
BYD, Chinaâs largest EV maker, unveiled an ultrafast EV charging system that it says can provide a full charge within 5-8 minutes â comparable to the amount of time needed to fill up a fuel tank. The company plans to build 4k+ flash chargers around China.
Chick-fil-A is the latest fast-food chain to hop on the sugary beverage bandwagon to win over customers looking for a little treat. The chain is testing two new frozen desserts â Icedream Spin and Icedream Float â for a limited time at select locations.
No one likes this: Roku TV owners recently reported a Moana 2 ad that played before theyâd reached the deviceâs home screen. Roku â a brand that already goes hard with ads â told Ars Technica it was a test. Comments on Rokuâs community forum indicate viewers were peeved, with some threatening to dump their Roku TVs if it continued.
CLIMB THE LADDER
The friend of your friend of your friend is⌠probably a legend?
Eva used it to cold email her way to Virgin Group founder Richard Bransonâs team. Itâs a classic way to break the ice on outreach and multiply your network.
Six (or less) slick little intros may be all it takes.
How fast-food restaurants became more even more productive
Economists have found that fast-food restaurants are enjoying a newfound surge in productivity after ~30 years of stagnation, perNPR.
Between 1992 and 2019, productivity remained the same for restaurants while other sectors grew. Yet since the pandemic, fast-food restaurants have enjoyed ~15% more sales per employee â a figure that hasnât dropped even as things have normalized.
A new study used mobile phone data to track visits to 100k limited-service (fast-food) restaurants across the US between January 2019 and December 2022. It found a significant increase in customers who spent 10 minutes or less at the restaurant.
Placer.ai research also found that Taco Bell customers who visited for 10 minutes or less rose from 58.4% in 2019 to 62.9% in 2023, with similar increases at Wendyâs and Chick-fil-A.
These customers are typically getting takeout or picking up delivery orders â something consumers adopted during the pandemic and never gave up.
These customers get in, get out, use fewer amenities, and make fewer messes, allowing restaurants to serve a larger volume of customers and spend less time cleaning.
Restaurants have also made changes to accommodate such customers, including mobile apps, takeout shelves, and prioritizing drive-thrus.
Whatâs next?
Robots, probably. As chains pivot to faster service, theyâve also invested in technology. Examples include kiosks for in-store orders, AI for drive-thrus, and automated machines that make salsa, guacamole, and fries.
Another example: Potbelly is perfecting a digital kitchen that will send orders to the backline based on how long they take to make, perRestaurant Business.
Thus far, these efforts havenât replaced human workers and may actually benefit them in the long run. Chad Syverson, one of the studyâs authors, told NPR that without wage data he canât be sure, but in many markets, âWage and productivity tend to move together.â
That said, other experts suggest workers may need to take action to ensure that happens. Unlike making guac, that hasnât been automated.
Itâs green, itâs big, and itâs covered in graffiti. Whatâs behind New York Cityâs sidewalk sheds?
On the pod: Why Amazon canât catch up to Temu and Shein.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Number of visitors to Alaskaâs Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in 2024, making it last yearâs least-visited US national park.
The National Park Service reported 331.9m visitors across 400+ sites in 2024, besting 2016âs record high of 330.9m visits. The most popular parks are no surprise, with Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and Yosemite rounding out the top six.
The least-visited parks are often more difficult to access, with rougher terrain and fewer amenities. Case in point: Gates of the Arctic contains no roads, trails, campsites, or cell service. NPS warns that visitors should be âPROFICIENTâ (all caps!) in outdoor survival skills or hire a guide.
HOW YOU HUSTLE
We donât need to tell you â our readers are amazing. So amazing, in fact, that it was worth dedicating some real estate to. Hereâs our weekly spotlight on a Hustler doing something big.
The elevator pitch: âLilaque offers the first soy-based, odor-free, DIY gel nail polish so you can love the planet while you love your nails.â
Why?: âCurrently, all existing gel nail polishes and most other nail products are formulated from synthetic ingredients derived from fossil fuels. Our formula contains mostly ingredients derived from vegetable oils for a more sustainably sourced, odor-free formula that is typically easier to remove than salon gel.â
One truly innovative thing: âWeâve developed the first and only soy-based gel nail polish and just launched 3D-printed, plant-based press-on nails!â
Advice to fellow founders: âListen to your gut. Thereâs a lot of âconventional wisdomâ out there that just makes no sense for your business⌠Talk to a lot of people and listen to what they have to say. Put the puzzle pieces together, do what makes sense for your business in this moment, and ignore or file away the rest for later.â
Want to be featured here? Tell us how youâre hustling.
AROUND THE WEB
đ˛ On this day: in 1931, Nevada legalized gambling as a way to bounce back from the Great Depression.
đď¸ Newsletter: Over 60k executives trust Semafor Business for the policies, power brokers, and deals shaping Wall Street. Get timely analysis delivered twice weekly to your inbox â subscribe for free here.
Ever wonder how to make cheese stick to a pizza? If so, the answer youâre looking for probably doesnât involve glue â something you surely donât need to be reminded of â but Perplexity knows that.
In a new ad featuring âSquid Gameâ actor Lee Jung-jae, the AI search company takes a sizzling jab at rival Google (which it cleverly refers to as âPoogleâ) by recalling the tech giantâs viral AI Overview flop last year, when it suggested mixing âabout 1/8 cup of Elmerâs glue in the sauceâ in a very literal response to the query. Perplexityâs recipe might not involve glue, but it sure does call for extra sauce.
SHOWER THOUGHT
If society collapses, Amazon warehouses will be fought over fiercely for being giant real-life loot boxes.SOURCE
Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman, with help from Singdhi Sokpo and Kaylee Jenzen. Editing by: Ben âMeep meepâ Berkley.
