🤯 Whoa, it’s June. That means you’re in for a treat this afternoon. On the first of each month, keep an eye out for a special edition of The Hustle. Yesterday marked our last regular Sunday newsletter, but remember, we’re still all-in on long-form journalism — the kind of story you open “just to skim” and look up 20 minutes later. That’s going nowhere. It’ll just hit at a different time, in a different package.
As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and giving us a reason to keep chasing down great stories.
NEWS FLASH
💰 A big pay day for a small group: Typical CEO compensation rose 5.9% in 2025 to $17.7m, according to an Associated Press survey. At half of the companies in the survey, it would take an employee at the middle of their company’s salary scale 200 years to make what their CEO brought home in one — up from 192 years in the previous year’s survey. While it’s always good to strive for more, perhaps abandon any dreams of matching the CEO of Welltower Inc.’s salary: Shankh Mitra, who plans to remain CEO until 2035, takes home $821.1m annually, 6,569x the typical employee.
📉 Are labubus over? An analysis of Labubu maker Pop Mart’s website traffic found it dropped significantly after the holidays. This could mean that shoppers are instead visiting the brand's brick-and-mortar stores, of which there are now 65 in the US, but Business Insider spoke to several toy retailers who agree the bubble has burst. That said, they also believe the craze’s impact on toys — specifically, a boom in those sold in blind packaging and aimed at adults — is far from over.
👋 Need a hand? LinkerBot is a Chinese startup that manufactures robot hands, dexterous enough to play the piano, sew, and use tools. They currently start at $600 each, but founder Zhou Yong told Wired that he expects the starting price to fall to $200 in three to five years, when everyone has “10 robots on average.” In 2025, the company shipped 10k hands, accounting for 80% of global demand, to humanoid robot makers, researchers, and other customers.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
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Luxury is calling: Vertu unveiled the Alphafold, a luxury foldable phone that starts at ~$6.9k and is made with premium materials like calf skin, alligator skin, 24-karat gold, and real diamonds.
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Claude on top: With a $65B raise bringing its valuation to $900B, Anthropic is now the world’s most valuable AI startup. It also revealed Claude Opus 4.8, which it claims is more “honest” than its predecessors.
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Hands off! Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin warned people not to touch — and to report — debris from its rocket that exploded during an engine-firing test on Thursday. Pieces of the rocket might continue washing ashore in the coming weeks.
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Vibe your dream home: Drafted, a startup that uses AI to turn home ideas into floor plans and layouts, has raised $16m. Since its website launched five months ago, users — including homebuyers, architects, and developers — have generated 300k+ designs.
VIRAL ON LINKEDIN
Commit 1 hour a week to mastering LinkedIn videos
We’re so serious. Because being cringe can bring you more cash — and there’s no better spot to sweet-talk those B2B leads.
Turn LinkedIn views into revenue, and do it with AI. We highlighted how to speed through research, stop scrollers, increase conversions, and even avoid being on camera.
THE BIG IDEA
A jewelry business with its own gold mine
Quick: picture a California gold prospector.
If you imagined an old-timer with a scraggly beard and floppy hat, you're not entirely wrong — but it's time to update that image.
Bracken Jewelers, a family-run shop in Los Angeles, upends expectations by selling jewelry made from gold they've mined in the Sierra Nevada foothills, per KCRW.
The Bracken family not only debunks the old-timey prospector aesthetic, but also uses more sustainable methods than industrial-scale mining.
The shop is one of many working to retain customers amid volatile gold prices that would make Yosemite Sam blush.
A family affair
Bracken Jewelers' gold expedition began when founder Todd Bracken, while working at his father's Illinois jewelry store, unearthed a story of a man hunting for gold northwest of LA.
After moving to LA, Bracken bought a gold pan and found gold on his first outing. He opened Bracken Jewelers in 1984, where he sells vintage pieces alongside gold jewelry made from his fully permitted Northern California mine.
The small-scale operation abides by California's strict mining laws, ensuring waterways and people are protected. Their process uses water and gravity, rather than commonly used cyanide or mercury, which leave behind toxic sludge.
Rebecca Bracken, Todd's daughter, documents the family's fully traceable operation — another industry rarity — on social media.
- Bracken Jewelers gold is 20 karats — roughly the natural state of California river gold — with a warm greenish gold hue.
- It's stamped with a grizzly bear hallmark to authenticate its California Gold composition.
- Prices range from a gold heart pendant for $850 to an $8.4k ingot.
Gold rush 2.0
Gold spiked to a historic high of $5.6k in January — thanks to inflation, geopolitical instability, and economic uncertainty — and now hovers around $4.5k/ounce.
While soaring prices have ignited a gold rush 2.0, they've also forced many jewelers to pivot, helping customers achieve the gold look without spending a fortune.
- Bye.Gones.NYC features vintage and upcycled jewelry.
- Trash Lobster offers gold plating of silver jewelry to give the appearance of gold for less.
- Code Name Orange Juice clones vintage designs and recreates them using recycled gold.
- Spur Jewelry refashions heirloom jewelry to create new, custom designs.
So, thankfully you can enjoy the new gold rush — with or without a floppy hat.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Cool sunnies! But you might’ve overpaid. Here’s why your $200 pair of sunglasses likely cost the company behind Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Prada ~$40 to make.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Number of days that artificial human embryos spent aboard China’s Tiangong space station in May. The embryo-like structures, which aren’t able to develop beyond the embryo stage but can mimic the way embryos form in early pregnancy, could help researchers better understand the risks of conceiving in space and whether it's possible, as both public and private companies work toward colonizing other planets, per Fast Company.
The next big barrier? Figuring out how to actually get it on in zero gravity, which, given the laws of motion, would require some sort of restraint, like a sleeping bag. Just the thing to get you in the mood.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1974, Dr. Henry J. Heimlich published the Heimlich maneuver, his technique for intervening when someone is choking by thrusting inward and upward on their abdomen.
🛒 Useful: A site for finding Goodwill stores in wealthy neighborhoods.
🎨 That’s interesting: Storied Colors tells the story of how different colors came to be.
📰 Newsletter: Get a daily dose of financial news and fresh takes with Snacks.
😍 Aww: A kitten and an even smaller kitten.
SHOWER THOUGHT
One slow customer can instantly change which checkout line was the right choice. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Danny Jensen, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Sara "Going for gold" Friedman.
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