👋 Keep your guard up — you never know when you’re about to get duped. Unfortunately, thousands of people learned that the hard way when they showed up for a Dublin Halloween parade that didn’t exist. Attendees lured by fake Facebook pages and AI-generated promotions were met with an empty street instead of an over-the-top event.
🎧 On the pod:On Apple Intelligence, Meta’s entry into the crowded AI search market, and more.
NEWS FLASH
🍷 Finally, a problem we could solve: Global wine consumption dropped from 247m hectoliters in 2017 to 221m in 2023 — a difference of ~3.5B bottles of wine. With younger consumers drinking less or turning to nonalcoholic beverages, and inflation raising the price of already expensive wine, vineyards are left with grapes on the vine and too much unsold product. Its impact remains to be determined, but there was a “Come Over October” international marketing campaign that countered “Sober October,” advising shoppers to invite friends over for a glass of wine.
👀 The AI surveillance intensifies: Corsight AI is offering a new feature to help retailers detect “sweethearting,” or when employees give discounts or freebies to customers they know. It uses facial recognition to track how customers and employees interact over time, such as how close a customer stands to an employee or if they always check out with the same cashier. Retail experts, naturally, have concerns, especially in an industry where employees are encouraged to build rapport with customers.
🐿️ Peanut, an internet-famous squirrel with 600k+ Instagram followers, was euthanized by New York officials. Mark Longo rescued Peanut after his mother was killed by a car seven years ago. The squirrel lived in Longo’s home, eating waffles and wearing tiny hats, and inspired Longo to open an animal refuge. But the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation claimed that Peanut — and a rescued raccoon named Fred — created a potential rabies risk and noted both animals were euthanized to test for the disease.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Apple will acquire Pixelmator, a Lithuania-based company, pending regulatory approval. The image editor app is a popular Adobe Photoshop rival that retails for ~$50, no subscription required.
Humane has struggled to sell its poorly reviewed AI Pin. Now, it’s recalling a wireless charging case, sold separately, due to a fire risk posed by its battery. The recall affects ~10.5k units.
TGI Fridays Inc.filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect 39 of its remaining 163 restaurants not operated by franchisees. The chain said it never recovered financially from the pandemic.
PARTY LIKE IT’S 2030
How AI is driving sales efficiency
If you, as a sales rep, are not under pressure to spice up your workflow with AI, then let us be the ones to drive it home.
It’s getting powerful — enough to let you take a longer lunch — and the people who spend less time squinting at spreadsheets and more time talking to prospects are already winning.
So we asked 750+ sales leaders about:
Which AI tools are saving reps time
How leaders are achieving peak efficiency
Their sentiments on AI adoption and job security
It’s true — we’ll probably be using completely different tools by 2030. Still, it’s best you start experimenting now.
The fertility business touches ~100k US births every year.
It’s not without its issues, though. Egg freezing is most effective when completed under age 30, but younger women are less likely to be able to afford the costly process. Once a woman can afford to freeze her eggs, it’s sometimes too late.
Plus, some women dealing with infertility or other health issues aren’t able to freeze their eggs at all and need a donor.
That’s where Cofertility comes in
The Los Angeles-based startup is looking to tackle the common obstacles of egg freezing with a new kind of model, perForbes.
Cofertility lets women freeze their eggs and store them for up to 10 years for free if they agree to donate half of those retrieved.
The company doesn’t own any IVF clinics; instead, it works with them to create a database of 150-200 egg donors for aspiring parents to sort through.
Donors can opt to remain anonymous to potential parents.
While the price is not small — six eggs cost $21k and 12 cost $37.2k — the fees cover the donor’s harvesting procedure and 10 years of egg storage, legal contracts, and eggs from a second donor should the first not produce a baby.
Think those numbers sound steep? Egg donation is just a fraction of the ~$8B US fertility industry.
More equitable eggs
Cofertility’s process is different from the traditional model, which compensates donors for their eggs — and which is often tiered based on donor characteristics (if they are Ivy League-educated, for example).
As a solution, Cofertility doesn’t base prices on donor attributes, and removes the direct exchange of compensation.
“The compensation piece is actually very off-putting to a lot of women,” founder Lauren Makler toldThe Hustle. “In turn, intended parents who need a donor have fewer options.”
Sure, an Oscar win is cool, but what about when a movie flops? We sat down with a film critic to discuss what happens when a Hollywood film fails.
You know a strong email subject line matters — you’re here, after all — so check out 160 killer subject lines from around the internet for a healthy dose of inspiration.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Length of Sleep No More’s run at the McKittrick Hotel in New York City. Punchdrunk’s inventive take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth will see its final performance on Jan. 5 — nearly a year after its original closing date and numerous extensions. Sleep No More is one of the most successful examples of immersive theater, welcoming 2m+ visitors, some of whom have returned hundreds of times to explore the show’s many pathways.
AROUND THE WEB
🐒 On this day: In 1960, primatologist Jane Goodall witnessed chimps making and using tools for the first time while studying a group of ~150 chimps in Northern Tanzania.
🍸 That’s interesting: Seven Election Day recipes for you to make tomorrow.
👀 My First Million: Musician Mike Posner chats about his hustle, fame, loss, and reinvention.
🏋️ Useful: Enter your fitness goals to generate a weightlifting routine.
