👋 Good morning. It takes a village to raise kids, but your village might be tired. The average American grandparent has six grandchildren, according to the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement study. If you think you’re stretched thin, know that 19% of today’s grandparents reported having 7-10 grandkids, and 14% had 10+. Grandma needs a day off.
NEWS FLASH
🥣 Cereal entrepreneurs: Shaun Neff, the entrepreneur behind celebrity-founded brands like Beis, Pattern Beauty, and Florence by Mills, teamed up with YouTuber Ben Azelart on kids’ cereal brand Backflip. The two-month-old startup is already outselling every breakfast brand in Target — including Pop-Tarts — with better-for-you ingredients and a slate of four flavors: cinnamon magic, chocolate sundae, fruit galaxy, and strawberry milkshake.
☀️ On the bright side: Resilience Energy will install free solar panels and batteries on homes in return for selling the power back to the grid during peak demand. Homeowners — including renters and low-to-moderate income households — could see electric bills drop 60-80%, and the startup's unique model could help get around the permitting and connection obstacles that delay large solar farms by years.
🌊 Half boat, half plane, full send: Rhode Island startup Regent Craft safely flew its prototype electric air taxi with two crew on board earlier this month and will go into production next year. Its Seaglider can operate like any other boat, but can also fly short distances just above the water at up to 180 mph. It’ll carry 12 passengers and a buyer is already eyeing it for popular coastal transport routes like NYC to the Hamptons and Boston to Nantucket.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
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Game on: Apple is reportedly making game controllers for the iPhone, likely to be sold under the Beats brand and even more likely to be used with full sound by a kid sitting near you on a future flight.
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Youth movement: Toyota is also courting teens with its latest product — a $2.5k go-kart. It can fit into the back of Toyota’s minivans, but at over ~180 pounds, good luck to any kid trying to lift it in.
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In pop culture: Coca-Cola’s decision to bring back the Mr. Pibb brand last year is looking like a good one — it was this year’s fastest growing soda brand, per Morning Consult.
- New school year, new pharma giant: Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk, sick of being stuffed into its locker by rival Eli Lilly, says it’s just going by Novo now, and its bull logo now faces right instead of left. Edgy.
STEAL THESE SIGNALS
27 power moves for founders
From a My First Million stud. A founder-dude who’s made and lost millions. Scott Galloway is a risk-taker, a workhorse, and these days, a marketing professor at the NYU Stern School of Business.
He’s got 27 power moves for finessing work, building wealth, and traversing your relationships and life. We’ve got enough popcorn for everyone (but only if you come up here to headquarters).
Plus, five needle-moving market signals:
- GLP-1s are a bigger economic force than AI
- “Third places” are missing from the world
- Boomers are retiring (and selling their cash cows)
- The $4T opportunity to overhaul healthcare
- Will money flow out of US markets?
THE BIG IDEA
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Why hotels are creating buzz about bees
Bees are vital to our agricultural systems, responsible for one in every three bites of food we take. But many species are endangered due to factors like habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change, making bee conservation efforts especially critical.
Those efforts have long been the domain of nonprofits, government agencies, and universities. But today, hotels are starting to shoulder some of that responsibility, carving out safe spaces for bees to thrive on their properties and making them a central part of the guest experience, per Forbes.
A sweet remedy to a sticky situation
Like bees, these pollinator-friendly hotels, which number in the thousands, can be found on almost every continent.
Some work with conservation groups to design their programs, many of which give guests the chance to suit up and interact with the bees, learn about local beekeeping traditions, and taste fresh honey.
- One&Only Gorilla's Nest in Rwanda partners with a French nonprofit that teaches beekeeping skills to local women, who then guide hotel guests through interactive sessions.
- Beekeepers at Tuscany’s Castelfalfi hotel are reviving an age-old honey-processing method to give guests an idea of what honey tasted like before modern technology.
- The Cashel Palace Hotel in Ireland, virtually the only place where Native Irish Black Honey Bees still exist, is a no-frills designated bee sanctuary for the endangered species.
Beyond conservation, hotels are also incorporating bees into their wellness programs, restaurant and bar menus, and other activities:
- For a real buzz, Tennessee’s Southall Farm & Inn, which has 8m bees and three national honey awards under its belt, offers an eight-course tequila and honey tasting.
- Sound meditations set to the hum of bees and honey-infused spa treatments are available at more than a few buzzy hotels.
- At Carmel Valley Ranch in California, guests can make candles out of beeswax harvested from an onsite apiary.
Beyond bees
The rise of hotel beekeeping comes as interest in ecotourism grows and sustainability remains a priority for travelers, with hotels increasingly creating guest experiences around a natural world threatened by climate change.
- Water has become a luxury at high-end hotels, taking the form of high-tech filtration systems or water tastings led by sommeliers.
- As light pollution makes natural light harder to come by, some hotels are promoting darkness as an amenity, offering onsite astronomers and observatories for guided stargazing opportunities.
Sooo, the catalyst behind these trends is a little bleak to think about — but perhaps a vacation and that eight-course tequila-and-honey tasting could take your mind off of it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Two iOS millionaires answer a big question: Now that AI lets anyone build an app, is it still possible to build a successful one?
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
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Price for one of 500 “Bey Keeper Collector’s Boxes,” limited-edition merch listed on Beyonce’s website that is — no joke — just an empty wooden box. The crate, which is meant to house one’s collection of Beyonce vinyls, is described as an “ESSENTIAL PIECE OF ART FOR THE HIVE,” though few fans seem convinced, with many expressing outrage at the price point on Reddit. But even angrier than them, The Times reports, is the woodworking community, which tore into the quality of the product in online discussions.
Charging $1k for an empty wood box is not cool — but charging $1k for an empty pine box that doesn’t even have dovetail joints?? Apparently, that’s just “f*cked up.”
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1978, Muhammad Ali won the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time — the first fighter to do so — when he defeated Leon Spinks.
📝 Game: Find a word that fits between the two letters.
✅ Helpful: What are you putting off?
👀 Mark your calendar: Tune in to the livestream of HubSpot’s UNBOUND at 9:30am ET tomorrow for a look into the future of marketing, sales, and service.
🐈 Aww: Your delivery order has arrived.
SHOWER THOUGHT
People who lose their sight later in life can still see when they dream. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Sara "Worker bee" Friedman.
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