👋 Good morning. And if you’re a recent college graduate, good luck — it’s tough out there. But the city you choose to live in could play a part: A new report from Glassdoor and Redfin ranked the best US cities for recent grads based on housing affordability, career opportunities, and quality of life, with Washington, DC taking the No. 1 spot. Affordable Southern and Midwestern cities followed, while New York and San Francisco were nowhere to be found. If you’re taking your liberal arts degree to Brooklyn… godspeed.
NEWS FLASH
🤖 No one wants to work these days: Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly training an AI clone to take meetings and provide employee feedback so that they “feel more connected” to him, sources claim. As we all know, nothing makes you feel tighter with the boss than his avatar giving you a thumbs up while his physical body hangs out at his $300m Hawaii compound. Meta may also expand AI avatars to creators, who could use them to interact with followers.
🎮 Gaming the system: The Netflix Game Controller has taken the No. 1 spot in Apple’s App Store at least 2x in the last week — a sign that the streaming platform’s gaming initiative is taking off. The app has already seen 1m downloads in April, according to Sensor Tower, compared to 525k total downloads in March. The 500% month-over-month increase could be due to new additions to Netflix Games, including “Overcooked! All You Can Eat” and three Jackbox party games.
🏠 Was it a good recipe, though? A report from 404Media found numerous companies selling AI chatbot services to Airbnb hosts to reply to guests on their behalf. In one instance, a user got a bot to provide a recipe for French toast. Airbnb does allow some hosts to use approved tools outside of regular hours to offer quick replies to common questions, but still requires hosts to remain available. The French toast host was suspended for not meeting the platform’s standards, but the issue was apparently not the bot.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
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Shooting for the stars: Amazon will acquire Globalstar for $11.6B to use its satellite operations and infrastructure to boost Amazon's Leo satellite internet business.
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Another robotaxi rollout: Lucid SUVs equipped with Nuro self-driving systems are hitting the roads in San Francisco for Uber test rides of the premium service — currently only available to company employees.
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A-list opposition: Over 1k actors and filmmakers have signed an open letter against Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which could give the new media company control over up to 40% of the US box office.
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Nice: Green steel company Stegra raised $1.65B to finish its Swedish steel plant, which will use hydrogen instead of coal, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 95%.
SEE WHERE YOU STAND
What’s the big deal with AI search?
Picture this. A buyer opens ChatGPT and asks for a recommendation in your category. Your competitor's name comes up. Yours doesn't. And that buyer never makes it to your website.
That's happening right now in markets everywhere. And most teams don't know it's happening because it never shows up in their analytics.
HubSpot AEO shows you exactly where your brand stands in AI search, where competitors are getting recommended instead of you, and tells you specifically what to fix. No expertise needed. Try it free for 28 days. Just $50 a month after.
THE BIG IDEA
Gnome more fun at the Masters?
Garden gnomes may seem more at home among nana's primrose than a prestigious golf tournament.
Yet those bearded little fellows were the most sought-after prize at last weekend’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, per Golf Digest.
(Besides that snazzy green jacket.)
The Masters golf gnomes are so coveted that some resell for 720x the original price. But the Labubus of golf could face retirement.
Gnome Country for Old Men
Introduced in 2016, the first Masters patron gnome — a 13.5-inch tall, argyle-sweatered golfer — was only available at Berckmans Place, the club's VIP dining-and-merch destination.
Absent in 2017, the white-bearded gnomes have returned every year since 2018 sporting Masters-related outfits from caddy to patron (don't dare call them fans), holding a chair or clubs and a beverage or sandwich like the famous $1.50 pimento cheese.
- The 2016 gnome (~$40 retail) sold at auction for $28.8k+ and is listed on eBay from $4.5k to ~$30k.
- Recent gnomes retail for $50 and resell for hundreds, while the 2019 edition goes for thousands — anything from a year Tiger Woods won is more valuable.
- Gnome mania surged in 2020 when the pandemic drove the Masters merch shop online.
- A 2016-25 set lists for $40k.
- The 2026 gnome — with a working umbrella — ranges from $400 to $2.5k.
Gnome man's land
Why the fuss over these little dudes? Well, apart from inherent charm, the frenzy is driven by scarcity:
- Only ~500 gnomes were sold daily (likely fewer the first year), until 2025 when the number doubled.
- It's the only Masters merch limited to one per customer.
- Gnome-obsessed patrons line up early before gates open.
But the Masters is a classy place where even cell phones are banned.
To curb gnome enthusiasm, patron parking now opens at 6 am and rumors suggest this will be the gnome's final year.
But considering Masters merchandise earns over $69m, it's hard to believe they'll ditch the cash cow gnome. And since holes are named after plants, a gnome seems right at home.
Don't worry if you missed out, at those prices, you could probably hire someone to be a gnome on your property just like 18th-century England.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Weekends: The best two days of the week and, unfortunately, a concept that’s under threat. Here’s why.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
How much Justin Bieber was paid to perform at Coachella over the weekend, making him one of the highest-paid headliners in the festival’s history, per Business Insider. But unlike typical headlining performances — AKA the main event that attendees pay ~$800-$2k+ to see — much of the superstar’s set involved him seated behind a laptop, scrolling through YouTube videos of old memes (AKA us before bed every night).
Many fans seemed perfectly happy with the low-energy set. The rest are just mad they’re not being paid to do the bare minimum, too.
HOW YOU HUSTLE
Our readers are always cooking up cool ideas. Here’s our weekly spotlight on a Hustle reader working on something big.
Who: Adrian Salamunovic
What: DexaCam
The elevator pitch: “DexaCam turns a simple photo into two things people want from fitness but rarely get: instant body composition insights and a believable picture of their physical potential. By combining DEXA-style analysis with AI-generated transformation visuals, it gives users a clearer reason to start — and keep going.”
The problem they’re solving: “People struggle to change their bodies because they can’t clearly see their starting point, their potential, or their progress.”
Advice to a fellow entrepreneur: “If you ever think to yourself ‘there must be a better way,’ that’s a sign to start a company or launch a product and solve that problem. Just do it.”
What are you working on? Tell us here.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1892, General Electric Co. was founded in Schenectady, New York.
⚛️ Game: Overtake the board with a chain reaction.
📰 Newsletter: Girlboss Daily will perk up your workweek with career inspo and intel.
🍏 That’s interesting: The history of Apple’s HyperCard (and what it has to do with “Myst”).
🐶 Aww: Enjoy some puppies.
SHOWER THOUGHT
The McDonald's CEO can redeem himself by going on "Hot Ones." SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Danny Jensen, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Sara "Gnome sweet gnome" Friedman.
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