🚇  Next stop: Tech ads

👋  Good morning. We wish you the kind of prosperous week that recently blessed an Arlington, Virginia, woman. She decided to play an online lottery game during a lunch break and wound up with a jackpot a little north of $1.7m. The clear takeaways here: always eat lunch, play more games, and simply coax luck to be on your side to a nearly statistically impossible degree. You got this.

NEWS FLASH 

🩺  Sharing is healthcaring: Network Bio raised $50m to remove what it says is the biggest blocker for medical AI — data. The startup collaborates with major academic hospitals to pool virtual access to their biobanks — repositories of blood and tissue samples from consenting patients — and create datasets large enough to answer pressing questions, like why certain drugs work for some patients and not others. While most precision medicine focuses on cancer, the startup is instead focusing on cardiometabolic conditions and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

💉  A real-life supervillain origin story: Age-reversal startup Generation Lab, which says its blood-rejuvenating treatment can “stop the spread of aging,” is expanding its latest study to 100+ people. The two-injection drug cocktail mimics a blood exchange and makes one’s blood younger, or so it says. The first people to test out founder Irina Conboy’s mad scientist ways, including Conboy herself, claim positive effects, but you’re telling us the Indiana Jones scene with the Holy Grail didn’t come to mind for you, too?

🛰️  Gotta give them points for ambition: French space startup ArcSpace picked up funding to advance its technology that it hopes can fix satellites in orbit. Most satellites wind up becoming space junk when they malfunction, sustain damage, or run out of fuel, but ArcSpace believes it can service any spacecraft outfitted with its electron beam system, designed to cut, join, and weld in deep space.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Sky’s the limit: Skyfarer is building what it calls the “Airbnb for aviation,” a marketplace where pilots can find flight instructors, mechanics, examiners, and aircraft in one place. The startup had its biggest month in July with 9.9k active users and 70% growth. 

• Seoul connections: The South Korean government will give its entire population free access to its own premium AI service. The move treats chatbots like a public utility but it isn’t entirely altruistic — the state-led approach aims to slow US and Chinese models’ foothold in the country.

  
  

• Nothing to sneeze at: Starbucks' new line of refresher drinks were made with a blending powder, but when baristas opened the packets, they reported coughing fits, hives, and asthma attacks. The powder is no more.
  

• Earth is 4.54B years old... and it has finally just rounded into its best form: Pringles introduced its extra-thick Dippers line, with chips hefty enough to scoop up some dip.
  

GET AHEAD

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If that number sounds familiar, HubSpot's State of B2B Revenue Trends report was built for you.

Inside, you’ll see data from 317 global revenue leaders on the disconnects slowing teams down, and what the best organizations are doing to get ahead. Get a free copy to get ahead of the trends.

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THE BIG IDEA

What's up with those weird tech startup ads on the subway?

Subway ads once provided respite: a place to avert your eyes to avoid awkward eye contact, read poetry, or remind you to see the latest blockbuster.

Now, New Yorkers face a barrage of bewildering business-to-business ads promoting tech startups with jargon-heavy language that leaves most straphangers scratching their heads.

The Silicon Valley ads are so pervasive that two comedians covered the NYC subway with phony ads for fake AI companies, lampooning the enigmatic originals, per Inc.

Signs, signs, everywhere, signs

Cryptic billboards for startups have proliferated across the Bay Area for over a decade, but their underground infiltration throughout major subway systems is relatively new.

Now they're everywhere:

• The number of tech ads on NYC transit increased 50% year over year in Q1, following a 30% increase in ad spending in 2024.
  
• Tech companies now make up 15% of all ads on New York transit, and the sector is among the top categories for New York transit, along with medical and entertainment companies.
  
• Some target Wall Street to reach finance workers or convention centers during AI conferences.

A surprisingly low-tech approach for a high-tech industry, the ads are an inexpensive way to reach millions of captive eyeballs — and cheaper than a $3m/year billboard.

• Prices range from $5k to $60k per four weeks for system wide buys.
  
• Full-train wraps, however, can run $50k-$300k+.
  
• AI startup Friend spent over $1m on subway ads.
  
• There are ~3.3m/weekday subway riders for 30-45 minutes each ride.

But is it working?

The success of mattress startup Casper, which used punny subway ads, or real estate app StreetEasy's clever campaigns, may have inspired the current tech wave.

Yet, rather than broadly appealing to consumers, the newer ads are indecipherable to most, targeting a narrow audience — but that can still lead to lucrative contracts or attract investors.

The ads may generate buzz, but they can also backfire.

Some are seen as alienating "B2B slop" and annoying "marketspeak," while others have sparked outrage and critical graffiti, like AI companion Friend or Nucleus Genomics (which welcomes the engagement).

Though if you go back far enough, you can also find people complaining about hemorrhoids ads.

Personally, I wish they'd revive ads for soup, flan, and the litter-hating Etti-Cat. But I guess that's why I'm not in charge.

Share this story

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

How is Costco gas so cheap?: The company completely redesigned the gas station, and the discount isn’t a membership perk — it’s the product. 

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Age at which Dolly Parton — the country music legend, fashion icon, philanthropist, and 11th most popular person of all time, according to YouGov — passed last week.

America will continue reeling from the loss for a long, long while. While best known for her music and flamboyant style, the star was also a successful entrepreneur who built a $450m business empire spanning food and beverage, beauty, and even theme parks, as well as a working-class champion: Her 1980 hit “9 to 5” — “probably history’s catchiest complaint about unequal pay, horrible bosses and stalled promotions,” Financial Times’ John Foley writes — still holds up.

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 1798, robbers hit the Bank of Pennsylvania for America’s first recorded bank heist. They nabbed ~$163k.

🎶  Finally: You can play a theremin right here, right now.

🌞  That’s interesting: Why “stupid hot” is a perfect descriptor for the hottest days (heat really makes us dumber).

🔠  Game: A daily word game.

🦌  Aww: Couple of sweeties.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Bad knees is one of those things that is so common. You can get it from not working out enough or even working out too much. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, and Danny Jensen.

Editing by: Sara "Stand clear of the AI slop" Friedman.

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