👋 Good morning. If you turn red anytime you speak in a Zoom meeting, we found your kindred spirit. Nugget was given the 2026 Introvert Award by Alaska’s Tongass National Forest for his shy fishing tendencies. The small black bear would hide under rocks and wait downstream so as not to cut others in the fishing line. Relatable.
NEWS FLASH
🐬 Eee-eee-eee! That’s dolphin for “this is cool.” Denise Herzing, the founder of the Wild Dolphin Project, is working with AI researchers from Georgia Tech and Google DeepMind to find patterns in decades of video and audio footage of dolphins. The project is even testing two-way communication with underwater wearables that play dolphin sounds to describe objects like seaweed and scarves. Sadly, you can’t yet invite dolphins to dinner — distinguishing mimicking from understanding will be challenging and researchers still have a lot to learn about dolphin culture.
🚙 Born-again Teslas: A Wisconsin startup is giving old and wrecked Teslas a new lease on life by converting them into shiny new, customizable EVs. The Hoffman Badger utilizes hardware and software from Model 3s and Model Ys installed on a new chassis with 8-inch ground clearance. The vehicle is custom-designed with recycled parts to create anything from a camper van to a pickup or whatever your heart desires. Pricing estimates range from roughly $26.4k to $77k.
🎤 Funny business: Making jokes about your business generally isn't a promising sign, unless making jokes is your business. Pete "Smack" McEntegart, a former investment banker, columnist, and startup co-founder, launched a stand-up comedy career backed by Wefunder. Investors receive 10% of gross revenues through 2029, after which investment converts to equity at a $1m pre-money valuation. Smack promises to keep the jokes clean, targeting cruise ships and corporate gigs, and hopes his VOD comedy special will build momentum.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
- The aliens are in for a treat: A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything has been approved for a screening in space for astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
- Up in the air: Zipline raised $1.5B in new funding, more than doubling the drone delivery startup’s valuation to $21.5B, as Uber Eats and an expanded 300-site Walmart partnership push autonomous delivery toward reality.
- Town and gown: A GoDaddy report reveals small college towns are experiencing an entrepreneurial boom, including 30+ communities with a 10%+ increase in microbusinesses. Eighty percent of the towns were outside traditional startup hubs.
- Who's the boss? Startups are promoting AI agents to the C-suite to fill senior roles with executive titles. The "superagents" are creating pitch decks, brand videos, and even taking press interviews. But do you still have to laugh at their jokes?
SAVE TIME & MONEY
Tool stacks used by top founders
Late Checkout founder Greg Isenberg likes:
- Perplexity Comet (to replace Google Chrome)
- Shortcut AI (for financial tracking and analysis)
- Wispr Flow (for “typing” 45 WPM → 220 WPM)
But Tiny founder Andrew Wilkinson prefers:
- A healthy dose of Lindy and Claude, for just about everything, from social post content to tax-time assistance.
See how 10+ founders are saving time and money with AI tools that do the heavy lifting.
THE BIG IDEA
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The startup sending an extra set of hands to busy families
There's an adage that when you become a parent, you meet time.
Time seems to speed up: a year feels like a month, a month like a day, and a day like a minute. With work, commuting, sleep, laundry, meals, dishes, cleaning, and school drop-offs and pick-ups, the cycle repeats itself. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, household chores take about two hours each day.
Mitra Raman, CEO and co-founder of Rosie, wishes she could use that time to connect more with her child.
Rosie is a Seattle-based membership service that sends pros to help families with childcare and household chores.
“One day I looked over at my son playing with our babysitter while I was making dinner and thought, 'I wish we could switch,’” said Raman. “We don’t just need childcare. We need an extra set of hands for everything that keeps a home running.”
First steps
In 2025, Raman — who has experience in engineering, Amazon, Ro, Pave, and Glossier — and her lifelong friend, Karthika Shankar, built Rosie to give families flexible help for the week ahead.
Around January 2026, the founders started their beta program, with Raman and Shankar as the first “Rosie Pros” folding laundry, organizing spaces, wrapping holiday gifts, and watching kids.
“We spent hours walking through the first 50 families’ homes so we could really learn what families and pros need,” Raman said.
Since then, Rosie has achieved:
- 17k+ hours of support by Rosie Pros
- 250+ member families
- 20%-30% month-over-month growth
- Zero- to seven-figure ARR in eight months
- $7m raised across two oversubscribed rounds
It didn’t take long for people to start talking about Rosie.
“We noticed that the word-of-mouth was going beyond city boundaries, which told us we’d built something parents genuinely wanted, and wanted to talk about.”
Growing quickly
Raman knows growth brings challenges, from building better coordination technology to expanding into cities where logistics differ for pros. One challenge she and Shankar actually enjoy is vetting: They personally meet every pro before any family does.
A core value for Rosie is “human always,” Raman says — building a personalized infrastructure of the future while maintaining human touchpoints.
“In an age of AI, we’re betting the future of family support is still human,” remarked Raman. “AI can organize a family’s week, but it can’t pick up a child, fold laundry, or become a familiar face in the home… That’s what we want every family to have: someone they trust, ready when they need them, doing whatever they need help with the most.”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Hey there: It’s actually already time to lock in. There’s still time before the new year.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
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Ten-day increase in online sales of Think Jerky’s sriracha-flavored turkey jerky following its cameo in You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder’s documentary on Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, who has apparently become a big fan of the snack during her time in federal prison.
Ricky Hirsch, CEO of the four-person company, told The Wall Street Journal he doesn’t know how his product ended up in prison vending machines — but, having spent ~$0 on marketing thus far, isn’t complaining about the exposure, which has brought in $25k in additional sales.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1860, Americans kickstarted a whole lot of history by electing Abraham Lincoln as their 16th president.
🧠 That’s interesting: Inside the world of tribologists, AKA the people who study friction.
💡 Weird history: Looking back at Pluto Lamps, short-lived streetlights that dispensed hot drinks and beef broth in 1890s London.
🍣 Game: You’re running a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. Keep up.
🐶 Aww: That Friday afternoon feeling.
SHOWER THOUGHT
Birds are flying below your feet on the other side of the planet right now. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, and Danny Jensen.
Editing by: Sara "Could use an extra set of hands" Friedman.
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