🍍 Go small or go home

Plus: A $34m party ferry, selling the door from Titanic, success stories of Craigslist lovers, and more. View Online Why swim against the current? The internet belongs to Beyoncé today. The artist's country-inspired album, "Cowboy Carter," is out now and you'll hear about it anywhere you scroll over the next few days. Two things you probably won't hear much about, though, are our two favorite Beyoncé facts: Eagles' "Hotel California" is her karaoke go-to, and the near-billionaire has, for 20+ years, had access to a lifetime supply of free Popeyes chicken. In today's email: Pineapples: They're shrinking, but for good reason. Monopoly Go: The mobile game's absurd marketing budget could prop up a small nation. Weird week: Government spies need coworking space, too. Around the web: A harder Wordle clone, a tool for mind maps, and more. 👇 Listen: Mini genetically modified pineapples sound fake, but they aren't — and they could help solve some very real problems. The Big Idea Can tiny pineapples solve big problems? Pineapple producers are intentionally shrinking fruit sizes down — and it's not just because they're cuter that way. 2024-03-29T00:00:00Z Ben Berkley Pineapple might not be the king of fruits (yet), but it's definitely the king of weird facts. Like it eats you back as you're eating it, and grows on the ground like this. The latest? It's gettin' really small. Fresh Del Monte, a global producer of fresh fruits and veggies, debuted its latest creation in March: Precious Honeyglow. At 1.5- to 2-pounds each, it's the company's most compact model yet. Go small or go home This isn't the produce giant's first rodeo with miniature pineapples. In 2022, it launched Mini Honeyglow to meet consumer demand and curb food waste. People like their food in easy-to-consume packages: Over 85% of consumers look for convenience in their produce. Over 66% of adults prefer fruit-based snacks. … and pineapples are not exactly a snack that's easy to crack. But there's more to the desire for smaller servings: People are delaying marriage and children, creating a rise of single-person households in the US and beyond. They live alone, eat alone, and a full-sized pineapple for one creates unwanted food waste. Around 30% of the global food supply is wasted, per Forbes, costing $1T a year. Halving pineapple sizes won't exactly cut that problem in half, but limiting food waste matters to consumers. More tricks up their sleeves Petite piñas aren't the only genetically modified pineapples that have been produced by Fresh Del Monte's marketing savvy: The Pinkglow has its own website and a cult following, but the ~3-pound fruit will set you back $10-$39. The Rubyglow (sorry, no special website for you), which is only available in China and gets a sales boost during the Chinese New Year. And they're not the only fruits in the space. From thornless blackberries and drought-proof melons to fungus-resistant bananas, fruit producers are getting creative to meet consumer demand and cater to the changing climate. But… … the genetically modified food market, which is set to reach $169B+ by 2027, will have to contend with public mistrust. Baby pineapples might not be enough to change that story just yet. We're dying to get a taste, though — at least we were until we saw that shipping for Precious Honeyglows cost even more than the fruit itself. Free Resource 101 ways to network like a boss When it's time to socialize for success, you may as well give 'em your best. 💃 Take 101 tips and templates for getting in your zone and crushing every function. For smoother maneuvers at the job fair, shindig, or symposium. Networking pointers for: Entrepreneurs Salespeople Marketers Students Event attendees Be yourself. Schmooze responsibly. 101 networking tips → TRENDING King of the auction: The door panel that Rose clung to in 1997's Titanic sold for $718.7k (including fees) at auction to a fan. In 2022, director James Cameron said he'd commissioned a study that found that, in some scenarios, the door could have fit and saved both Jack and Rose. We assume the auction winner will now try all these scenarios themselves. SNIPPETS Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday. The sentence was shorter than the 40-50 years recommended by federal prosecutors, but longer than the six and a half years Bankman-Fried's lawyers pushed for. Google added ratings to its AI shopping tools. The Style Recommendations feature will learn preferences and offer customized selections based on a shopper's ratings. Home Depot will acquire SRS Distribution, which sells supplies to construction professionals, for $18.25B — the largest acquisition in the retailer's history. Amazon's new Amazon One app lets users upload a picture of their palm to an online profile for payment, rewards, and more at Whole Foods, Amazon stores, and 150+ other locations. Universal Music Group pulled its 4m songs from TikTok, but added music videos to Spotify. Users can select "Switch to Video" to watch. Oof: Yale University, Tufts University, Boston University, and Wellesley College crossed $90k for undergraduate tuition costs for the upcoming academic year. Video game shake-up: Sweden's Embracer Group is offloading "Borderlands" maker Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two Interactive Software for $460m as part of its divestment strategy. The NFL will auction off broadcast rights to this season's two Christmas Day games. Before you start up a TV network and place a bid, make sure you've got plenty of cash on hand — an ex-ESPN exec expects winning bids to fall between $75m and $100m per game. WTF?: A Nigerian entrepreneur was arrested and will be prosecuted for damaging another business by posting a "malicious allegation." Her crime: a review of tomato paste she said was too sweet. Don't miss this... With the US presidential election around the corner, let's dive into the world of deepfakes. Find out how easy they are to make, how convincing they've gotten, and what's being done to prevent misinformation. Data Point Playing the game: Monopoly Go, the mobile board game launched by Scopely a year ago, has since earned $2B+ and been downloaded 100m+ times, becoming one of the most popular digital games ever. But it wasn't an easy win, per Kotaku. Scopely poured ~$500m into the game's marketing alone — not including production costs — a figure that makes the total budgets of the biggest recent entertainment releases look like pocket change. To put it in perspective: Sony spent $220m to develop "The Last of Us Part II," and "Spider-Man 2," produced by Sony-owned Insomniac, cost ~$300m to make. Even outside of gaming, Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. put $190m into the production of Dune: Part Two and spent $100m on global marketing. And we thought buying Boardwalk was big leagues. FIT THE BILL There are thousands of companies valued at $1B+. How many clues do you need to identify today's billion-dollar brand? Clue 1: Its purpose is to put people in good spirits, and this company has 200+ sub-brands that'll all do the trick. Clue 2: When it formed in 1997, it chose an invented name that's truly a mess: It pulls together Latin and Greek words, all to make reference to its company slogan: "Celebrating life, every day, everywhere." Clue 3: Thirsty after reading all these clues? We'll pour you a Guinness, and a Baileys, and some Johnnie Walker, and a Captain Morgan and soda, and a shot of Smirnoff. Please space them out responsibly, though. 👇 Scroll to the bottom for the answer 👇 That was odd Weird week: Coworking goes classified, skin is no longer in, and more wild stories Another week behind us, another week of the world being a strange, strange place. 2024-03-29T00:00:00Z Ben Berkley Pete Davidson and Colin Jost want to turn a rusty old boat into "New York's hottest club." The two Staten Island natives are dropping $34m on converting a ~300-foot decommissioned ferry into a 24-room traveling hotel with two restaurants and multiple bars. The pair purchased the boat, built in 1965, for $280.1k in 2022. Instead of fixing the vessel's busted engine, it will be towed between locations like NYC and Miami. For now, it's docked in Staten Island. Remote spies need shared working spaces, too. Following a 200-page government manual, private companies are building coworking spaces exclusive to the ~4m people with US government security clearance. They're popping up around DC and other areas with defense centers, positioned as alternatives to Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities: dedicated spaces for viewing and discussing sensitive information, typically located within government buildings. Amenities range from on-tap coffee and kombucha and high-speed WiFi, to more spy-specific offerings, like air vents outfitted with sound-dampening materials, motion sensors, and shredders with labeled "burn bags" for classified documents. After nearly a century, Harvard is removing a book bound in human skin from its collection. Harvard University's Houghton Library has housed the 19th-century novel — Des Destinées de l'Ame ("Destinies of the Soul," in English), written by French author Arsène Houssaye — since the 1930s. Though the nature of the book's binding was confirmed in 2014, the university has now deemed it "ethically fraught" and is working with authorities to respectfully dispose of the human remains. Disturbing? Yes. Unheard of? No — the use of human skin in book binding, AKA anthropodermic bibliopegy, was commonplace in the 1800s. RIP: A necropsy reveals that the city is no place for a wild animal. The Department of Environmental Conservation's testing revealed that Flaco — the Central Park Zoo's escaped Eurasian eagle-owl that died last month — had a severe pigeon virus and high levels of rat poison in his system. The report links the bird's death to his diet of feral pigeons and rats, confirming something we already knew: NYC's rats, and its rats of the sky, are simply built different. The 13-year-old bird celebrated one year of freedom just three weeks before his death. AROUND THE WEB 📅 On this day: In 1973, the last US troops left South Vietnam two months after signing a peace agreement. 🧠 Useful: A tool for making mind maps or outlines. 💕 That's interesting: Four couples who actually found love through "missed connections." 🧩 Game: Like Wordle, but symbols make it tricky. 🛁 Aww: That's one way to avoid a bath. SHOWER THOUGHTS Somewhere out there is an Easter egg that has gone the longest without being found. SOURCE SOURCE It's concerning how quickly we decided to stop naming world wars and just use a number system. SOURCE SOURCE The most common rhythm for CPR is either a song about dying or a song about staying alive. SOURCE SOURCE "Tik Tok" by Kesha is going to be really weird for younger people. SOURCE SOURCE After some years, there will be WhatsApp groups with all members dead. The group will just exist forever. SOURCE SOURCE via Reddit SHARE THE HUSTLE Hey. Don't keep us a secret. Refer just 3 people and we'll send Hustle essentials as a thank you. Share this custom referral link: https://thehustle.co/join?ref=7598767985 Your referral count: 0 Today's Fit the Bill answer is Diageo (Market cap: $82.21B) Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, Singdhi Sokpo, and Cyan Zhong. Editing by: Ben "Anyone else suddenly want a pina colada?" Berkley. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. PODCAST JOBS CONTACT US The Hustle, 2 Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141, US. Never want to hear from us again? Break our hearts and unsubscribe.