👋 Good morning. And happy April Fools’ Day. This piece of news is thankfully not a prank: Cadbury unveiled a 121-pound, nearly 27.5-inch-tall Mega version of its classic chocolate Mini Egg. The supersized creation took two days to craft by hand and is currently on display at Cadbury World in the UK. Food for thought: An adult weighing 165 pounds would need to eat 75k milligrams — or 7,084 Hershey's Kisses — to die from chocolate. Just FYI.
NEWS FLASH
🎀 I’m a Barbie girl in a… barren convention center? That sure feels off. As did the Mattel-sanctioned Barbie Dream Fest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where fans expecting a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse, 1980s roller disco, and space-themed exhibition were instead met with 2D cardboard cutouts, a roped-off concrete rink, and a pretty sad-looking disco ball. Tickets, which started at $149 and went up to $449, are now being refunded — though the words “Fyre Festival” are being thrown around.
🏋️ Nice gains: Playlist, parent company of ClassPass, Booker, and Mindbody, has merged with EGYM, which makes smart gym equipment, AI workout plans, and corporate wellness app Wellpass. The move, which values the fitness behemoth at $7.5B, connects users across 30+ countries and 100k+ businesses and venues that customers can book through one of the apps, or which offer EGYM equipment.
💰 Show them the money: While startups typically offer lower salaries but bigger equity packages, AI startups are doing the opposite, per The Wall Street Journal. Recruiters say such companies are using their venture capital to court candidates with generous base pay, leaving the top 5% to 10% of applicants flush with offers while everyone else struggles. The most in-demand roles include software engineers, sales reps, product managers and marketers, and engineers who teach customers how to use AI.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
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Does AI micromanage? Let’s find out: 15% of Americans say they’re willing to work for an AI boss, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
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Space: still really freaking cool. NASA’s Perseverance rover — the four-wheeled robot exploring Mars — discovered ruby-like crystals embedded in Martian rocks, suggesting Mars could be home to precious minerals.
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Pedaling faster: Also, a Rivian spinoff, hit a $1B valuation and is partnering with DoorDash to use its electric bikes for autonomous last-mile deliveries.
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Great news for stalkers: Instagram’s testing a paid subscription that lets users browse stories anonymously and see how many times people replayed their own stories, among other perks.
WRITE BETTER COPY
Million-dollar copywriting lessons
Before podcasting ever made them famous, writing made them rich. One of Sam Parr (The Hustle, Hampton) and Shaan Puri’s (Milk Road, Stealth Co) best-kept secrets is storytelling instincts.
This Copywriting Crash Course chops up their systems and skills to help you think differently.
Finesse every word:
- The anatomy of captivating stories
- The framework behind two $10m+ newsletters
- Panoptic content brief template
- 3 steps to more persuasive copy
- 14 ChatGPT prompts that expedite editing
Don’t give up on this part of your brain.
THE BIG IDEA
Four eyes on the future
Motivating a kid to wear glasses isn't always easy — take it from a once reluctantly bespectacled 5-year-old.
But one young girl in the UK found the motivation to not only don a pair of specs, but created innovative, color-changing glasses that help her and others with dyslexia read more easily and comfortably, per BBC.
A reading rainbow
Struggling with headaches and difficulty reading due to dyslexia, 11-year-old Millie designed Rainbow Glasses.
- A prototype of the glasses was created by manufacturing firm Thales, which features lenses that turn red, blue, or green using LEDs.
- Users can select the hue that best alleviates visual stress and makes reading more comfortable.
- Millie's design won gold at the UK's annual Primary Engineer MacRobert Medal, beating 70k+ entries.
- She now plans to secure funding to get Rainbow Glasses on shelves.
While some organizations, such as the Irlen Institute, promote the use of colored lenses for dyslexia and other conditions, many medical authorities have found little scientific evidence to support their use as a treatment.
Through the looking glass
Dyslexia affects roughly 1 in 14 people globally, so it's not surprising that Millie isn't the only entrepreneur looking to help those with the learning disability.
- French startup Lili for Life unveiled a monitor that uses flickering light to stabilize visual perception and reduce reading effort.
- Boston startup EarlyBird Education developed a mobile game that can help identify signs of dyslexia before a child has even learned to read.
- Santa Monica-based Polygon uses remote assessments for early detection of dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
- An Idaho high schooler recently won $10k in funding for ReadBuddy AI, software that helps readers pronounce words and curates personalized content.
An entrepreneurial superpower
Multiple studies have shown that a high percentage of entrepreneurs are dyslexic, and many suggest that dyslexia offers a competitive edge thanks to big-picture thinking and resilient problem-solving, among other skills.
Richard Branson, who considers dyslexia his superpower, even launched the University of Dyslexic Thinking to demonstrate how dyslexia can fuel innovation and success across industries.
It seems Millie is in good company.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Don’t miss this one: Starter Story founder Pat Walls on selling his company and how dumb iPhone apps still mint big money.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Views racked up by “Fruit Love Island,” an AI-generated TikTok series, launched this month, about sexy fruit with names like Grapenzo the grape and Cherrita the cherry, who flirt, fight, and cheat just like the contestants on the human reality show “Love Island.”
If you’re thinking, “What in the AI slop?”, just know you’re far from alone. Apparently, as many people were disturbed by the horny produce as were intrigued — the show’s creator has seemingly deleted the TikTok account, which amassed 3m+ followers in just nine days, reportedly rage-quitting after several videos were reported by users and removed from the platform.
HOW YOU HUSTLE
We don’t need to tell you — our readers are amazing. We wanted to dedicate some real estate to a Hustler building something big.
Who: Zac Wolf
What: The Danger Booth
The elevator pitch: “We offer a solution to provide employees, guests, or whoever access to high-quality headshots at scale. Our headshot lounge is able to instantly send users four high-quality headshots in under 90 seconds total."
The problem they’re solving: “So many folks are still using low quality and/or outdated headshots and in the world of remote work headshots are more important than ever.”
Origin story: “It all began as a more traditional photobooth company that was just an extension of my wedding photography work. After a few years, a client had reached out to me about a need for 40 headshots in an hour and I came up with the idea to use the photobooth instead of a more traditional camera on a tripod.”
What are you working on? Tell us here.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1985, Nike released its first Air Jordan sneakers, selling $126m worth in one year.
🌐 That’s cool: Interactive lessons on the history of the internet.
📰 Newsletter: Like charts and data storytelling? Subscribe to Chartr.
🧳 Useful: The New York Times’ picks for best travel apps for trips abroad.
🐈 Aww: Very meticulous tail washing.
SHOWER THOUGHT
Squirrels and guinea pigs both figured out how to solve the rat charisma problem, but in different ways. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Danny Jensen, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Sara "Color me impressed" Friedman.
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