👋 Good morning. Watching an Olympic figure skater nail a double axel while you try to grab the chip bag from the coffee table using only your toes is already humbling. But on top of the peak physicality, the athletes have something else you don’t: really sick matching outfits. All ~300 members of Team USA (plus 780 staff members) will be decked out for the Winter Olympics in Italy in custom-tailored 10-piece outfits designed by Ralph Lauren. Totally love that hoodie you've got on, though.
STARTING UP
New tech turns water into oxygen mid-dive
❌ The problem: Modern diving still relies on heavy, pressurized oxygen tanks that add cost, risk, and logistical limits to every dive. (And we look real silly in a scuba mask.)
đź’ˇ The pitch: Founded in 2025 by an electrical engineer and certified diver, DAIVIN! is building tankless dive gear that uses electrolysis to turn H2O into breathable oxygen on demand. Divers wear a lightweight vest and battery belt, with dive time limited by battery life rather than tank supply.
🚀 The outlook: DAIVIN! is part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2026 cohort and, once it tackles the ocean, has its eyes on extreme environments — from mountaintops to outer space. We'll be on the ground breathing normal air but have fun, guys.
NEWS FLASH
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If TikTok isn’t distracting enough, Atma Sciences’ Gizmo lets users post interactive media. Essentially, each post is a mini-app that creators can vibe code via AI prompts. Your phone’s screen time report just rolled its eyes.
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No objection: Lawhive, a UK startup that uses a mix of human lawyers and AI to handle routine legal services for individuals and small businesses, has raised $60m to further expand in the US. Plus, plenty of inspo for a weird “Suits” spinoff.
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Not bad: The average 10-person Super Bowl spread will cost US hosts ~$140, just a 1.6% increase from last year, per Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute data. US grocery costs, in general, are up 2.4%. Just no double dipping.
- Game on: Crunchyroll, like many other streamers, is playing games. It plans to announce an original slate of “tailor-made games for anime fans” later this year. The news comes alongside a $2 price hike across all subscription tiers.
MAKE MORE MONEY
Start that side hustle — AI edition
Hey. Don’t let the AI flood fool you into falling behind.
Here are 200+ ways to start making money with AI. With options ranging from content creation, to app development, to translation services and more, we’re pretty sure you’ll find a niche that fits.
Begin today, so that you’re reaping all of the benefits later.
THE BIG IDEA
Why strangers are raising kids together
Dream of starting a family but still hung up on finding The One to do it with?
Well, you could swipe endlessly on Hinge or Tinder until your ovaries shrivel up — or you could just cut to the chase by taking the romance out of the equation.
Instead of letting one major life decision hinge on another, a growing number of baby-feverish singles are embracing platonic coparenting: when two or more people decide to have a child together (whether that involves adoption, natural or self-insemination, or surrogacy, etc.), minus the romance.
Making babies (not love)
The concept isn’t new — it’s been practiced by the LGBTQ+ community for years — but interest in the alternative family model, which first surged during the pandemic, is growing thanks to a host of new apps and websites that are helping connect strangers with the same dream of parenthood, per The New York Times.
- Modamily, a pioneering platform founded in 2011, screens users and offers tools and guidance to help users match with others who align with their values and expectations. It’s grown its user base 200%+ since 2020, from 30k to 100k in 2025.
- LetsBeParents went from 1.2k monthly active users in 2023, its first year, to 10k today.
- CoParents now has 150k registered users, up 76% since 2020.
Others include UK-based PollenTree, Danish startup aParently, and LGBTQ+-focused Pride Angel.
Beyond childrearing
The rise of platonic coparenting represents a greater cultural shift in the way people are approaching major life decisions that usually fall within the realm of romantic relationships.
- Friends are buying homes together and opening shared bank accounts, and “mommunes” — single mothers living and raising their kids together — have flourished in recent years.
It’s been fueled, in large part, by some harsh economic realities (e.g., the housing crisis and rising cost of living), per Self, which have made tradition an afterthought.
- Respondents in a 2015 study listed sharing the financial burden of raising kids as one motivation for seeking a coparent online — fair, considering the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 in the US was nearly $400k in 2023.
Concerning yourself with traditional social norms? Not in this economy.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
What’s your freedom number? Don’t even know what we’re talking about? Take a listen.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Size of the world’s smallest, fully programmable, autonomous robots, created by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, per The Wall Street Journal. For reference, that makes them teenier than a grain of salt.
They operate in liquid, require minimal energy, and are powered by light, with potential applications including, but not limited to, manufacturing and medical procedures. Producing the nanobots costs ~$10 a piece but, given the right commercial producer, scientists say they could eventually cost as little as one cent.
Of course, there’s finally something you could buy with a penny, just as the useless coin disappears.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1937, author John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men was published.
🍴 That’s interesting: In Maine, there’s a farm-to-table restaurant that's actually on a farm.
đź“° Newsletter: Semafor Technology traces the ideas transforming the future of tech.
🎤 Opportunity: Want to take the stage in front of thousands of business leaders at INBOUND? Sure you do. Apply to speak here and we’ll see you Sept. 16-18 in Boston.
🛎️ Aww: Who’s there?
SHOWER THOUGHT
Hair dressers go through more schooling than cops. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Sara "Any takers for the 4am bottle?" Friedman.
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