👋 Good morning. And thank you, Henry Ford. The businessman began giving his workers Saturdays and Sundays off in 1926, creating what we know today as “the weekend,” or “when we find the will to live.” While the weekends look much the same as they did back then, our jobs look a bit different. The most common US occupations in the '20s were bricklayer, domestic servant, lumberjack, salesperson, and typist. In a way, clacking away at your keyboard all day is very retro.
NEWS FLASH
🥗 Fast-casual gets faster: Marc Lore sold Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3B, then turned his attention to a harder problem: What’s for dinner? His restaurant startup, Wonder, just debuted Infinite Makeline — an autonomous meal assembly system it acquired from Sweetgreen for $186m+ that can craft up to 500 bowls an hour from 68 ingredients. The tech handles ~80% of each bowl in ~3.5 minutes, with humans handling the finishing touches.
🚨 Something AI will probably be good at is being a snitch: Home security company SimpliSafe has added an AI-led suspicious behavior detector into its new video doorbell with instructions to go get an adult when something seems off. If the bot agent feels there’s a threat, it’ll get a human agent to assess the scene unfolding and tell any intruders to go away.
🍝 From three stars to aisle three: Daniel Humm, the chef behind New York City’s triple-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park, has a new venture that’s more accessible. The brand, Riff, will sell noodle kits in four flavors priced at $6.99 — a far cry from his restaurant's tasting-menu dinners, which can cost up to $1k for two. Bon appétit.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
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That’s a lot of robots: China’s UBTECH Robotics opened a factory capable of producing one new humanoid robot every 10 minutes. And yes, naturally the robot-making assembly line relies on robots.
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The season’s hottest handbag is from… Burger King? The chain’s Le Nugguette is a limited-edition designer bag that’s the approximate size of a chicken nugget.
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New unicorn alert: Italian startup Exein is valued north of $1B for its unique take on cybersecurity: its software is meant to head off malicious attacks on “physical AI,” including factory equipment, cars, drones, and medical devices.
- A new tune: Spotify’s former head of innovation has a new startup, A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, which TechCrunch nailed when it said it “sounds more like an indie band name” than a startup. But what’s the product? Eh, just a couple music-making apps.
DREAM BIG
The business idea rabbit hole you’ve been waiting for
Whenever you get serious about starting a business, make this your very first pit stop.
Chris Koerner’s startup database highlights ~200 creative startup ideas with pre-built business plans, including:
- Epic Weddings LLC
- Protein vending machine
- Aeroponics vertical farming
- Pet pocket gate installation
- Upcycled engine block coffee tables
- Scaling from resale to sustainable
- Luxury ice (cubes)
- Rent-a-chicken-right-now
- Airbnb wall mural design
- Coffee in waffle cones
With such ridiculous creative range at your disposal, there can be no more loafing. Go haul around a bouncy house or charcuterie cart or something.
THE BIG IDEA
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Lab-grown diamonds are TikTok's best friend
Ice. Rocks. Bling. Drip.
Whatever the kids call 'em these days, diamonds are so hot right now — particularly the lab-grown variety.
Live auctions for inexpensive, lab-grown diamonds have flooded TikTok, attracting deal seekers and curious observers with a gamified, adrenaline-fueled shopping experience, per The Guardian.
The lab-grown diamonds — chemically, physically, and optically identical to mined, natural diamonds — sell for a fraction of the price in seconds during TikTok live auctions.
- Many auctions start around $1, and diamonds typically sell for ~$100-$200 a carat.
- Sold loose, buyers must find a jeweler to set the gem, which — with gold prices these days — can cost far more than the diamond itself.
- Buyers are shown a diamond's certification during the sale to ensure authenticity.
- Lab-grown diamond startups like Pascal are also seeing growing demand.
While TikTok offers some protections for buyers, experts caution that frenetic speed and bright lighting can obscure a diamond's imperfections, leading some to regret impulse purchases (sales are final).
Auction styles vary, from subdued patter to overly enthusiastic auctioneers with thumping music and incessant urging: "c'mon chat, go, go, go."
With low prices and frenzied auctions, it's not surprising to see videos of buyers sharing their diamond haul while admitting they "accidentally" made a purchase and are now "addicted" to the auctions. Others say they just enjoy watching the auctions — even projecting them on the wall to watch with family.
The lab-grown diamonds may be cheaper than natural ones, but the auctions are still an expensive hobby.
TikTok Shop till you drop
Launched in 2023, TikTok Shop — the app's ecommerce feature — has exploded in popularity this year, per CNBC.
- In the first half of 2026, live shopping sales more than doubled YoY.
- Live shopping sessions grew by more than 60%.
- The US live shopping industry could reach almost $20B in sales in 2026, according to eMarketer, up ~35% YoY.
- The startup platform Whatnot has also benefited from the live-auction boom and recently raised $545m at a $20B valuation.
- While some refer to the live auctions as Gen Z's QVC, the longtime TV shopping network is also betting big on TikTok.
The dizzying pace of live diamond auctions might not be our speed, but maybe we'll at least update our diamond slang from "bling."
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
What does that logo on your power bank mean? More than you think. It’s just the tip of the global safety arms race iceberg.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
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Bowls of pasta that Braden Sinclair has eaten, completely free of charge, since 2019 as one of only 50 recipients of Olive Garden’s Lifetime Pasta Pass. Unlike the thousands of people who’ve nabbed one of the chain’s Never Ending Pasta Passes — a recurring promotion that offers 13 weeks of unlimited pasta for $100 — Sinclair’s pasta party will actually never end (so long as the chain exists, and he doesn’t tire of bottomless breadsticks).
Since most of us will sadly never know what it’s like to be an Olive Garden VIP, he’s sharing his journey on a website, where you can at least live vicariously through him by tracking when, where, and what he eats and voting on his next comped meal.
HOW YOU HUSTLE
You all are always up to something neat. This is our weekly spotlight on a Hustle reader’s ambitious venture.
Founder: Dulce Jorge
Building: Fresco Sofrito by DMJ — a fresh, preservative-free seasoning paste that gives home cooks a flavorful foundation in one step and eliminates the chopping, measuring, and prep that makes cooking feel like a second job.
Edge: Born out of necessity two decades ago, Fresco Sofrito is now on the shelves of 26 supermarkets and grocery stores across New York City and Westchester County, New York, with its own processing facility. The product is gluten-free, low in sodium, and suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets.
Advice: "Instead of simply accepting 'you can't,' I prefer to ask, 'How can we make it possible?'"
Working on something cool? Tell us here.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1908, a high school dropout who thought cars were noisy and dangerous incorporated General Motors with $2k.
🥥 Game: You are a coconut.
🪴 Helpful: A cat-safe houseplant database.
🏙️ That’s interesting: Explore a random city.
🐕 Aww: A very cute pair.
SHOWER THOUGHT
We are lucky that birds are only up to a certain size or else their poops would be destructive. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, and Danny Jensen.
Editing by: Sara "Diamond in the rough" Friedman.
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