🦷  3D-printed smiles

👋  Good morning. If all that doomscrolling has you thinking that everybody hates their jobs, the data says otherwise. Nearly 79% of shift workers say they end their workday feeling positive, according to a Deputy survey. Just 5.9% report feeling unhappy, the lowest level in the survey’s four-year history. Looking for an industry sure to leave a smile on your face? Turn to gambling, apparently: The subsector led rankings with a 100% positive rating among respondents.

NEWS FLASH 

🤖  Robots get schooled: Startup Apptronik opened a 90k-square-foot “Robot Park” in Austin, Texas, to train its Apollo robots on tasks like sorting toys and moving boxes. The humanoid startup, now valued at $5.5B, runs the facility seven days a week with robots practicing tasks alongside human operators who guide and monitor their movements.

🍹  New spritz in town: Aperol might be getting unseated by the Hugo spritz — made with Prosecco, elderflower liqueur, and soda water — with Google searches for how to make one at home surging 2,200% in the past month and surpassing Aperol spritz searches in more than a dozen states. Other drinks that have recently seen spiking Google searches include Sancerre, horchata, and einspänner, among others.

📈  Keeping score: Arena, maker of the popular crowdsourced AI leaderboard generated from 10m+ user evaluations, quietly reached a $100m annualized revenue run rate. Originally a UC Berkeley research project, the platform launched its commercial service eight months ago selling performance analytics to AI labs and enterprises.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Brewing protein: Protein Brewery is scaling up production of its fermentation-derived protein, made by feeding sugar to fungi in a zero-waste process that uses up to 30x less water and 20x less land per kilogram than conventional protein sources.
  
• Stuck without an umbrella? Don’t blame your weather app. NOAA staffing cuts caused the National Weather Service to reduce weather balloon launches, leaving meteorologists with less real-time atmospheric data for accurate forecasts. 
  
• Meds in minutes: Startup Queue raised $12.6m to build automated pharmacy kiosks that can dispense 250 of the most commonly prescribed medications, easing pharmacist shortages and cutting costs by up to 96%.
  
• Cool thing of the week: A man used a 1998 Game Boy Camera attached to a telescope at California’s Mount Wilson Observatory to photograph Jupiter 444m miles from Earth. 
  

UNSEXY BIZ IDEAS

Boring ways to rake in cash

Some things are always in demand: Tree removal. Mold removal. Junk removal. Check, check, check.

But it’s not all hauling the unseemly. Seize 30+ unsexy business ideas to discover your unexpected calling. Your slow-and-steady cash cow. It’s somewhere on this list.

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THE BIG IDEA

Free dentures to those in need, thanks to 3D printing

These days, you can 3D print just about everything, from clothing to houses, and even — yikes — skin.

But there's one application sure to bring a smile to your face: 3D-printed dentures for those who can't afford them.

A 22-year-old engineer in Tennessee is helping low-income Americans get their smile back with free 3D-printed dentures, per CNN.

Affordable pearly whites?

Dentures can help restore confidence, improve chewing and speech, and even lower mortality risk. They can also affect job prospects — 28% of US adults say the appearance of their teeth conflicts with their ability to interview.

• 26% of adults 65 or older have eight or fewer teeth; 15% have lost all of their teeth.
  
• The cost of dentures — ranging from $452 to $6.5k — can be prohibitive for lower-income individuals who often need them the most.
  
• The labor-intensive process often requires repeat visits and wait time of up to three months.
  
• Around 27% of the US population doesn't have dental insurance, and Medicare doesn't cover dentures.

Seeing the future of dentures in 3D

In an effort to fill the gap, entrepreneurs are working to make high-quality dentures more affordable, convenient, and faster than traditional ones.

• Denture Care Shop creates 3D-printed dentures that cost $199 to $299.
  
• Spanish startup FabGRAB uses 3D printing and a special resin to quickly create hyperrealistic dentures at scale.
  
• Novenda Technologies' 3D printing platform can print multiple materials at once, making the process faster and more affordable.

In Tennessee, engineer Connor Gibson taught himself to 3D print dentures for low-income Americans, and took the show on the road:

• Gibson works with Remote Area Medical (RAM), which provides free dental, vision, and medical care through volunteer mobile clinics throughout the US.
  
• Using two 3D printers, he's outfitted thousands of people with free dentures.
  
• He developed RAM’s Mobile Digital Denture Lab — the first of its kind — enabling the non-profit to access more patients and outfit them in a weekend instead of months, while reducing costs.

As dentistry continues to face a workforce shortage, 3D printing could help to ensure patients have access to affordable dentures. And considering the restorative dentistry market is expected to grow from $18.7B to $28.5B by 2032, there's plenty of room for growth.

It's certainly something to smile about.

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Sure bet: Prediction markets are exploding. Can anything stop them?

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

How much FIFA’s corporate partners are paying, in total, for 2026 World Cup marketing rights — which is why the soccer world’s governing body has ordered all participating stadiums to hide every inch of branding related to non-official sponsors, from the giant logos that loom over fields to the tiniest ones found on bathroom signage.

While the excessive measures were meant to ensure nothing diverted fans’ attention away from the orgs bankrolling FIFA’s games, they’ve somehow managed to do the opposite, per The Wall Street Journal, with stadium sponsors like Heinz, Levi’s, and Gillette using the debranding directive to fuel marketing campaigns that poke fun at it — a rare case of corporate giants banding together to stick it to the even bigger man.

HOW YOU HUSTLE

Y’all are always up to cool things. Here’s our weekly feature on a Hustle reader building something big.

Who: Christina Zhang

What: OOZ Birch Water

The elevator pitch: “OOZ is a premium hydration brand and one of the first to bring 100% organic birch sap to the US as a ready to drink beverage. We are modernizing an ancient spring tradition for today’s consumer through crisp, lightly sweet, single ingredient hydration bottled in glass.”

The problem they’re solving: “Consumers want cleaner hydration, but many functional beverages rely on added sugar, artificial flavors, acids, powders, or overly complicated ingredient lists. OOZ offers a simpler option.”

One truly innovative thing they’re doing: “Birch sap can only be harvested during a short spring window, and we work with partners focused on sustainable tapping practices and forest regeneration. Our goal is to build a category that is not only exciting for consumers, but also respectful of the forests it comes from.”

What are you working on? Tell us here.

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 1979, the first Sony Walkman went on sale.

💬  Game: Guess what modern words meant centuries ago.

🙂  Feelin’ happy?: Share your good mood.

😎  For funsies: A retro vibe-scanning machine.

🐸  Aww: Hey, dude.

SHOWER THOUGHT

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Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Danny Jensen, and Singdhi Sokpo.

Editing by: Sara "Tooth be told" Friedman.

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