💸 AI startups are loaded

Ryan Reynolds: movie star, philanthropist, former People’s Sexiest Man Alive, and… exceptional at business?

In 2019, Reynolds acquired a 25%+ stake in Mint Mobile, a prepaid phone plan company that uses T-Mobile’s wireless network. Earlier this week, T-Mobile announced plans to buy Mint in a $1.35B deal.

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert touted the benefits of Mint’s “marketing formula,” which largely centers around Reynolds, who also appeared with Sievert in a video announcing the acquisition.

Reynolds’ involvement is the key

Reynolds co-founded production studio Maximum Effort with former 20th Century Fox exec George Dewey in 2018, which:

• Is building a production studio in Canada
• Will launch its own network on FuboTV, in which Maximum Effort owns a stake

This has allowed Reynolds’ companies to produce not only films, but funny, engaging, and topical ads.

Case in point: Davos Brands’ Aviation Gin, in which Reynolds acquired a stake in 2018.

• Following Peloton’s uncomfortable holiday ad about a woman who receives a bike from her husband, Aviation’s parody featuring the same actress downing a martini went viral.

In 2020, Diageo acquired Aviation in a $610m deal, per Food & Wine. In 2022, Reynolds opened an Aviation distillery in Portland, Oregon, that ends with an escape room set in Reynolds’ “office.”

But wait, there’s more

In 2020, Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenney took over Wrexham AFC, a fifth-tier Welsh football team they hoped to revive.

Per Huddle Up’s Joe Pompliano, they invested $2.5m in the team, signed a 25-year local stadium lease, and Reynolds’ studio produced a docuseries about the process.

Wrexham has since enjoyed myriad sponsorship deals, a nearly 3x increase in season ticket sales, and a boom in social media followers.

Now, Reynolds is looking to conjure the same magic with the Ottawa Senators, a Canadian hockey team. If successful, he intends to build the team a new rink and produce another series about that process.

When we asked ChatGPT to write an intro about an AI gold rush, it told us to put on our “virtual cowboy hat”… and well, it’s hard to argue with the driving force of a multibillion-dollar boom.

Already, in 2023, VC firms have plowed $3.6B into 269 AI companies in the US.

In the past month, Cohere has reportedly been in talks to raise money at a $6B+ valuation, and Stability AI was said to be seeking a $4B valuation. Last week, Anthropic, after raising $400m and notching a $4.1B valuation, raised another $300m. This week, Adept raised $350m at a $1B+ valuation.

At least 50 companies being incubated at Y Combinator are focused on the space. Mobius AI, founded by four AI researchers at Google barely with an idea, was recently valued at ~$100m just a week after launch.

What’s that phrase about gold rushes? Sell shovels?

Many AI startups may struggle to outgun Big Tech’s armies of engineers and widespread distribution.

• For instance, the AI-powered presentation maker Tome raised $43m last month. This week, both Google and Microsoft announced competing features.

Sam Lessin, a venture capitalist at Slow Ventures, told The New York Times, “The absolute vast majority of the [AI] spoils will go to the incumbents” and that the best way to invest in AI is through Big Tech stocks.

BTW: Yes, there is a $58m AI-focused “hacker house” in San Francisco. That’ll buy a whole lot of virtual cowboy hats.

In case you missed ‘em, here’s this week’s best…

• Tweet: What to know if you’re ever on the receiving end of a “per my last email.”
• Blog: Maps, matrices, stools, and loops. If you thought those were some of the best decision-making tools for business owners, you’d be correct.
• Chart: The chance you’ll regret looking at this chart visualizing the growing number of orders for breaded chicken sandwiches is low.
• Story: There’s a lot of buzz about AI replacing lower-rank workers. But what about… automating the CEO?
• Video: In this short clip from the pod, Morgan Housel lives up to his name and joins Zack and Rob to explain why it’s never been a worse time to buy one.