In today’s issue we discuss how Brock Purdy thinks The Rent Is Too Damn High in San Francisco, Birkenstock’s IPO drops like a leed shoe, “Hey Alexa, order me a Chat GPTaco”, you had me at Horse Racing NFTs, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie could make her $90 million this weekend alone, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is launching a Starlink Direct To Cell service with T-Mobile.

Business

Have you ever had a hankering to wear really ugly shoes while day trading? Well now you can, with the launch of Birkenstock’s IPO on Wednesday, October 11, 2023. The company launched at $41 after the IPO had priced at $46, indicating low demand (which I could have told you based on the appearance of the shoes). The offering raised $1.48 billion for the company, which is the good news, but the bad news is the stock closed at $40.20, down 12.61%.

After a slump in 2022 the stock market is starting to come out of hibernation. We’ve had a couple of successful IPOs recently including ARM and Instacart, so I’m not too worried about Birkenstock’s IPO slumping. They may have just priced their offering on the high side in a cash grab. We have a couple of very exciting companies looking to go public including Stripe and Reddit. I feel like tech is in the air this Fall season.

From Birkenstock to Instacart: IPOs are in a rut

Tech

“Hey Alexa, order me a Chat GPTaco.” That’s what you could soon shout out if the recent trend of restaurants using AI to make new menu items continues.

We’re all familiar with how “restaurants are experimenting with the technology to take orders, forecast inventory, and dictate staffing needs. Some brands are even launching pilot programs to replace staff with robots.” The latest trend is using AI “to design menu options and flavors, an experiment that is becoming increasingly popular. Both national and local restaurants are testing AI-inspired recipes.”

Even bartenders aren’t safe from AI these days, with the launch of BarGPT to go along with your Chat GPTaco.

In case you were wondering what's in the Chat GPTaco it includes “flank steak, blackened shrimp, red chile aioli, chimichurri, crispy potatoes, grilled onion, queso fresco, jalapeño, and cilantro on a corn tortilla. The taco became the restaurant's best-selling and best-rated taco in 2023.”

Little known fact about me, unless you follow me on LinkedIn and X, I’m a big fan of Mexican food. Did you know that:

• Americans consume over 4.5 billion tacos annually.

• The word “taco” translates to “light meal” or “snack” in English (which I can tell you I’ve never sat down to eat tacos and had a “light meal” - it’s never happened!)

• Soft shell tacos are preferred by 64% of Americans, while 36% prefer hard shell tacos (in other news 64% of Americans are wrong - hard shell tacos are the best!)

• Taco Bell is the top-selling taco chain in the United States, with a 32% market share (I’m guilty of contributing to this.)

• The first taco was actually invented somewhere between 1,000 and 500 B.C. (there’s a religious joke to be made here, but not by me.)

Restaurants owners are using AI to make new menu items, like the 'Chat GPTaco' from a Dallas chain that became a hit with customers

Crypto

I know what you’re already thinking. “Crypto and NFTs are dead” and “We’re in Crypto Winter”. I know, and you’re not wrong, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still exciting and increasingly profitable companies working on cutting edge blockchain projects.

Trust me when I tell you this is not a sponsored post - I’m just excited that two of my favorite things (crypto and horse racing) have come together in a new game called Game of Silks, which “describes itself as a “blockchain gaming platform that mirrors the real world of thoroughbred horse racing.””

I have a friend, actually the Best Man at my wedding, who got me into Bitcoin back when it was only a few hundred dollars (man I wish I had bought a lot more!). He called the crypto rally perfectly, and was the first and only person I’ve ever known to set up a Bitcoin mining operation. By the time Crypto Winter hit he had changed his focus to building predictive models to handicap horse racing. He runs a YouTube channel and X/Twitter, so I wanted to give him a shout out. I sent him this link the other day, and knew I had to discuss it in today’s newsletter.

The company Game of Silks just raised $5M to build out a Blockchain Fantasy Sports Platform “that mirrors the real world of horse racing” by using NFTs to track “different attributes of a horse as it exists in the real world from the day the horse is born.”

According to this article “This fundraising comes at a time when Web3 funding is declining, after falling for the seventh consecutive quarter since Q4, 2021.”

Why am I excited about this horse racing game instead of the dozens of other platforms out there? In a single word: Partnerships! Game of Silks has partnered with industry juggernauts including NYRA, NYRA BETS, Saratoga Race Track, Belmont Race Track, Aqueduct, and FOX Sports’ Americas Best Racing.

So taking the advice of my good friend I’m not going to sleep on this new trend combining NFTs and horse racing.

Game of Silks Secures $5M Seed Round for Blockchain Fantasy Sports Platform

Space

Is there anything that Elon Musk can’t conquer? First is was online payments with one of his first companies called X.com (before he bought Twitter and recently renamed it X, but that’s another story), then he created Tesla to crush gas-powered vehicles, then since he became a Billionaire he figured why not put all his money on the line and create a rocket company and name it SpaceX (there’s that X again). Now it sounds like he has cell phone providers as his next target.

SpaceX’s website says “Direct to Cell works with existing LTE phones wherever you can see the sky. No changes to hardware, firmware, or special apps are required, providing seamless access to text, voice, and data.”

Right now the only partner cell phone company listed for the U.S. is T-Mobile that says “New service aims to connect vast majority of smartphones already on T-Mobile’s network to Starlink satellites.”

I never like to bet against Elon Musk, and I wouldn’t put it past him to ultimately skip the regional cell phone companies and just offer service direct-to-consumers. They could roll out this text service in 2024, and then voice and IOT service in 2025, with existing cell phone companies as they’ve detailed in this article. Then they could go and launch their mobile virtual network operator by piggybacking on terrestrial networks like T-Mobile while providing cell phone coverage directly from space in areas that when cell phone coverage is practically non-existent, like in the desert, or out to sea, or where I live near a county airport and I can’t even get a 4G signal in my house! (good thing I’m not bitter)

SpaceX details Starlink-for-phones plan, launching in 2024

Entertainment

Another Kansas City Chiefs game, another Taylor Swift appearance. Last night the Chiefs played the Denver Broncos, and there she was in the VIP luxury box alongside her new bestie Brittney Mahomes. It was also the opening night of her Eras Tour movie in 8,500 theaters worldwide, with estimates that opening-weekend could bring in $150 million, of which Taylor Swift makes a reported 60% of the revenue. That could come out to $90 million just from this weekend!

Genius Movie Marketing? Taylor Swift Makes A Big Show At Chiefs-Broncos Game For Travis Kelce As ‘The Eras Tour’ Concert Pic Opens

Real Estate

Who hasn’t been on a business trip, and had a killer 7-hour layover? This guy! It’s the worst. Yea, you can eat once or twice during that time, then maybe take a 30 minute nap, but you’ve still got 5+ hours to kill.

Enter co-working spaces in airports. Genius right! I mean, there have been airport lounges for ages if you’re a member of their space club (complete with secret identity cards and probably a decoder right), but finding a place to work in an airport ranks right up there with solving world hunger when you’re on a business trip. Finally a slew of new co-working companies including Minute Suites, Jabbrrbox, Beehive, and JustCo and here to save us from the depths of airport purgatory.

Airports are joining the work-from-anywhere party

Sports

The rent is too damn high! I agree with Jimmy McMillan when he ran for Mayor of New York City in the 2013 election and made his song his "Rent Is Too Damn High" anthem.

It sounds like San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy might be a member of Jimmy McMillan’s political party Rent Is Too Damn High because while he’s making nearly $1 million a year as the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers he splits the rent with his roommate (a member of his team). He’s also notoriously frugal, and drives an older Toyota Sequoia which isn’t a shabby vehicle but it’s not Lambo like a lot of hot new athletes buy after being drafted. A smart and lethal QB - watch out NFL!

San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy makes nearly $1 million a year—but splits rent with a roommate and drives a Toyota SUV

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris