👶  Baby's first rebrand

👋  Hey there. On the hunt for a new job? Bored of not making high-stakes, real-time calls on historic space missions? NASA has just the role for you: The agency is hiring for flight directors to oversee everything from astronaut spacewalk training sessions and International Space Station projects to upcoming Artemis missions. Since NASA plans to get humans back on the moon for the first time in 50+ years and establish a permanent lunar base, it feels like a good way to beef up your resume.

NEWS FLASH 

🪄  Turning fantasy into real estate: Tech consultant Justin Kersey ditched his day job to fulfill a fantasy: building fantasy-themed vacation rentals inspired by Harry Potter. Full of fantastical details like potion cabinets, sorting hats, and fairy villages, each cottage cost $700k to build. The properties rent for $200 to $700/night and average 90% occupancy — Kersey expects the three cottages to gross $375k this year. Muggles are welcome but no guarantees of a house-elf cleaning up after your stay.

🎉  Life of the party: Organizing IRL? Luma has become the go-to event platform for startups and tech companies, nudging out bigwigs like Eventbrite. Founded in the pandemic's early Zoom days, Luma raised $3m in seed funding and grew 3x this year, reaching eight-figure annual recurring revenue. Now featuring in-person events and city-focused pages, the platform allows organizers to vet attendees and offers a discoverability boost for startups. From bunny picnics to Mayor Mamdani rallies, Luma has it covered.

🚫  The doctor ain’t in: Utah became the first state to allow AI to replace doctors and prescribe medicine without human oversight. Luckily, startup Nolla Health isn’t conducting open-heart surgery — it uses AI-powered software to analyze patients’ skin, diagnose acne problems, and recommend a medication from a list of eight approved treatments. The state will allow Nolla’s AI-generated prescriptions to be submitted directly to pharmacies, bypassing laws that require licensed humans to prescribe meds.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Not so fast, four eyes: Norway is set to impose a temporary ban on smart glasses in public places, including beaches, parks, schools, and changing rooms (good call). 
  
• Legalize it: California legalized balcony solar panels that could help renters save ~$500/year. Plug-in models range from $300 to $2.2k, and the market is expected to grow. 
  
  
• Get that bread: Pastry subscription company Wildgrain will cross $100m in revenue this year with just 22 employees outsourcing baking to 60+ commercial bakeries during their slow hours. 
  
• Ready to launch: Stoke Space raised ~$1B to develop its fully reusable rocket, Nova, and to scale up its testing facility and the rocket itself to carry larger payloads. 
  

SMARTEN UP

Your CRM should already know

Most CRMs are just expensive filing cabinets. You log the call. You research the lead. You write the follow-up. You move the deal. Rinse, repeat, burn out.

HubSpot Smart CRM is designed to handle the busywork before you even open your laptop.

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• Calls: Logged and summarized the moment they end.
• Leads: Researched with a first outreach drafted, automatically.
• Deals: Next steps flagged before you have to ask.
• Workflows: Repetitive tasks automated — no code required.

It's not the CRM you have to manage. It's the one that may just manage itself.

See it work

THE BIG IDEA

From what babies wear to who they are: Carter's big shift

A well-dressed baby never goes unnoticed. Strangers gush… and offer unsolicited advice.

Of course, your nugget is the cutest little one around — yes, I mean you — but let’s be honest, those compliments are also thanks to the outfits you choose.

And there’s a good chance one of those outfits came from Carter’s — the brand held a 21% share of the US baby apparel market, ages 0-2, as of 2025.

Shopper Erin Kay Van Pay told The Hustle that the reasonable prices helped with other expenses. “Affordability for my children is priceless.”

So, why is this 161-year-old company with 20k+ brick-and-mortar stores and wholesale locations shifting its message?

The big shift

Carter’s cites a 2023 Pew survey to help explain what’s going on — 44% of US parents are trying to raise their kids differently than they were raised, 43% say they want to raise their kids similarly to how they were raised — shaping Carter’s rebrand beyond clothes to celebrating the child's individuality.

The rebrand also includes a logo change, changing the apostrophe to a star, and a 60-second film called ‘Watch Them Glow’ on Disney+, Roku, and Hulu through the end of 2026.

Why now?

• Growth in Gen Z customer demographic
  
• Decrease in toddler share, per CFO, offsetting gains in baby and kid
  
• Adjusted operating income fell ~39% in 2025, to $176m

Market trends

• Researchers project US childrenswear growing 1% to 4% a year
  
• Carter's CFO saw price resistance from shoppers last quarter
  
• In a Mintel survey, 42% of shoppers named comfort a top factor when buying kids' clothing, 36% price, and 28% style or self-expression.

What Carter’s expects

CEO Sharon Price John said its heritage and market command bring “both an opportunity and a responsibility.”

• Q3 2026 adjusted operating income expected near $50m, up from $39m
  
• Sales are expected to grow 2% to 3% in 2026, with a decrease in adjusted earnings per share
  
• Store, product and packaging changes arrive in 2027
  

"Our role isn't to create that light for them,” CMO Sarah Crockett said in a press release. “It's to recognize it, encourage it and give it room to shine."

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Ditch the 9-5: This former big-tech worker did, and now he’s the founder of a mobile app that brings in $155k in revenue with zero paid marketing.  

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Annual cost of an all-access membership for PS, the company behind all four private airport terminals in the US, including two that recently opened in Miami and Dallas, per Bloomberg. Who they’re for: travelers rich enough to drop thousands of dollars to bypass the headache of the main terminal in favor of a more comfortable and convenient experience — complete with spa treatments, gourmet food, and direct-to-plane chauffeur service — but not rich enough to fly private (womp womp).

The bougie cohort is reportedly big enough that other operators are now planning their own private terminals, with new locations slated to open in Washington, DC, and San Francisco next.

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 1927, "The Jazz Singer" debuted. Though remembered as Hollywood’s first “talkie,” the film only had two minutes of synchronized dialogue.

🎵  That’s interesting: What wild lemurs and opera singers have in common.

🏈  Watch: Tom Brady shares how his mindset and habits fuel elite performance.

🔨  Game: Whack-a-Mole minus the physical strain of actually whacking anything.

🐮  Aww: Too cute at two hours old.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Eyelids likely evolved thin specifically so humans can be woken up by the sun. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, Danny Jensen, and Bill Meincke.

Editing by: Sara "Big baby" Friedman.

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