👋 Good morning. Enjoy that cup of coffee you’re sipping. And maybe four more? The latest research from the American Heart Association shows up to 400mg of caffeine a day — ~3-5 eight-ounce cups of coffee — is generally safe for most adults and might even be linked to lower risk of heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. No mention of those four pumps of vanilla syrup in your latte, though. Bummer.
NEWS FLASH
🍽️ Clean plate club: Pittsburgh startup Clean Plate Innovations is using AI-powered cameras mounted above trash cans or tray returns to scan leftover food before it’s thrown out, identifying items and logging what’s tossed. The tech can help food-service operators identify which menu items are being wasted and why. In one school pilot, the system revealed students weren't eating their French fries because they arrived cold, prompting a switch to tater tots that stayed warmer longer. Now that’s innovation.
🀄 Mahjong mania moves south: In-person mahjong has been on a tear across the country, but its online counterpart has an unlikely epicenter: the South. Lafayette, Louisiana, ranks as the country’s mahjong capital, according to online site Mahjong 4 Friends, which sees nearly 1.8m active US players. Other cities at the top of the list include Raleigh, North Carolina; Springfield, Missouri; and Charleston, South Carolina.
☕ We’re all counting on them: A Vietnamese company will open a $12m+ coffee research facility with all sorts of AI bells and whistles, aiming for a more sustainable coffee bean. Once it gets up and running, the lab will generate up to 5m seedlings per year and hopes to future-proof your morning mug against climate change, pests, and disease. Also, this’ll save your hide in bar trivia someday: Vietnam is the world’s second-largest coffee producer, only trailing Brazil.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
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Changing course: Air taxi startup Archer Aviation unveiled Thunder, a hybrid autonomous attack aircraft built with defense startup Anduril, adding defense contracts to its sky-high goals alongside planned commercial air taxi services.
- The letter of the law: Anthropic filed a trademark lawsuit against AI cybersecurity startup Abnormal — one of its customers — over its logo, alleging that Abnormal’s redesigned logo is too similar to Anthropic’s and risks confusing customers.
- No strings attached: Italian startup ORiS raised $5.7m to develop laser technology that can wirelessly beam power from one satellite to another, tech that could make future spacecraft lighter, smaller, and more flexible.
- Heavyweight clash: Novo Nordisk (maker of Wegovy and Ozempic) filed a false-advertising suit against Eli Lilly (maker of Mounjaro and Zepbound) for “deceptively” asserting in ads that its GLP-1 drugs outperform the competition.
LET'S LAUNCH
Your voice is your most prized asset
You’ve been putting off being a thought leader for... how long now?
Make yourself a household name — and use this 30-day brand launch plan to break in beautifully.
Week 1: Lay the content foundation
Week 2: Assemble batches of ideas
Week 3: Distribute and track
Week 4: Scale your system
It’s not so bad when sliced into steps.
THE BIG IDEA
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A bar of their own: Why women's sports bars are popping up everywhere
Buffalo wings, wall-to-wall TVs, the smell of stale beer: Sports bars have lots in common, but nothing more so than dudes — so many dudes — both on screen and on the stools.
But that's changing quickly, thanks to a dramatic rise in women's sports bars opening across the country.
With the growing popularity of women's sports, sports bars dedicated to playing women's sports were estimated to have quadrupled in 2025 alone.
And they say nobody watches women's sports...
The movement comes as the number of women's sports fans continues to grow:
- Fans watched 46B minutes of women's sports in 2025.
- The 2025 WNBA season was the most-watched in league history, averaging 1.3m viewers across regular-season games and 1.2m across the postseason.
- Women’s college basketball viewership grew 33% year over year in February.
- Women's sports revenues are expected to surpass $3B in 2026, a 340% increase over four years.
One of the biggest barriers to the growing fandom, however, is the lack of places to watch teams play. But many entrepreneurs see that as an opportunity.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere
There are now roughly 25 women's sports bars in the US — which may not sound like a lot, but until 2022 there were none.
That's when Jenny Nguyen opened the pioneering Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon. Despite loan denials from banks, Nguyen used her savings, a Kickstarter campaign, and loans from friends and family to open the bar, which welcomes all, including nontraditional fans and the LGBTQ+ community.
The Sports Bra made nearly $1m in revenue in the first eight months.
The bar soon secured backers — including Alexis Ohanian, 776 founder, Reddit co-founder, and husband of Serena Williams — and is now expanding to five franchise locations in Boston, Indianapolis, Vegas, St. Louis, and Portland, Maine, with plans for 40 locations by 2030.
Others have followed in Nguyen's footsteps:
- Title 9 Sports Grill in Phoenix
- Untamed Spirits in LA
- Jolene Jolene in Atlanta
- The 99ers in Denver
- Whiskey Girl Tavern in Chicago
- Drawdown Brewing in Boston
- And more.
As viewership of women's sports continues to increase, we're likely to see further openings and investment — and hopefully more wings and less stale beer.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
“Wreck the hoose juice!” The what now? Read the wild story of the wine made by British monks that’s making bank.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
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Years since Olive Garden last offered its Never Ending Pasta Pass, a promotion that buys 13 weeks of unlimited pasta for ~$100, which returned last week. Back in 2019, all 24k passes sold out in mere “milliseconds,” according to the company — so it should come as no surprise that this year’s batch of 10k passes disappeared “faster than a basket of breadsticks.” Better luck next year — or in another seven?
HOW YOU HUSTLE
You all are always up to something neat. This is our weekly spotlight on a Hustle reader’s ambitious venture.
Who: Tayler Cook
What: Sup Syrup
The elevator pitch: “Sup Syrup is a low-sugar, all-purpose syrup made with natural flavors. It's the perfect addition to everyday favorites like lattes, dirty sodas, cocktails, yogurt, oatmeal, smoothies and more. With just 5 grams of sugar per serving, we are the middle ground between the traditional overly sweet syrups and zero sugar syrups that leave an artificial aftertaste.”
Problem they’re trying to solve: “We believe we are solving two problems with Sup Syrup. First, we are meeting the needs of those looking to have tasty beverages at home, without all the sugar. Secondly, we are solving a packaging issue. Most coffee syrups are designed for cafes. Our bottle is designed to complement your space.”
Advice they’d give to a fellow entrepreneur: “Ask all the questions! There were so many times in this process that we had to reach out to strangers for help. We found that most people are more than willing to give you advice and want to share their knowledge with you…. Staying curious is how you learn and grow as a human and entrepreneur!”
What are you working on? Tell us here.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1894, the world's first-ever automobile race spanned 78.3 miles across France. The early vehicles averaged scintillating speeds: just over 11 miles per hour.
⚾ That’s cool: How every Major Leaguer stands in the batter’s box, visualized.
🌭 Yum?: A guide to safely eating a cattail plant, aka nature’s hot dog.
🎨 That’s interesting: Why AI calls everything “calm” when analyzing art.
👅 Aww: A tongue bath for an unexpected recipient.
SHOWER THOUGHT
Many of the toys in Toy Story are toxic, considering their age (look at Woody & co.). They almost certainly contain lead at the very least. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Singdhi Sokpo and Danny Jensen.
Editing by: Sara "Cheers to that" Friedman.
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