🥃 Not so old fashioned

Plus: The rise of Din Tai Fung, what it's like at a 'Friday the 13th' fan camp, and more.

Share The Hustle: https://thehustle.co/join?ref=7598767985 Check your referral progress & prizes here 👋  Happy Friday. Want to feel old? Dictionary.com announced its 2025 Word of the Year: 6-7. Yes, you read that right. The numerical slang phrase, popularized by Gen Alpha, can be used as an exclamation or to mean something along the lines of "so-so" or "maybe this, maybe that," and it's often paired with a hand gesture. If you can use the term unironically, enjoy your late night out with friends. If not, enjoy your Sleepytime tea.   🎧  On the pod: The odd business history of the Ouija board. STARTING UP One startup's quest to cool the planet  ❌  The problem: Global warming is heating up the Earth.  💡  The pitch: Geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions wants to cool it down by spraying aerosol particles into the atmosphere from planes or weather balloons to dim the sun. 🚀  The outlook: Stardust just raised $60m — the largest-ever funding round for a geoengineering startup of its kind — bringing its total funding to $75m. Despite the cash, the company has its work cut out for it. Critics have questions around governance and risks when it comes to a private company tinkering with our atmosphere. Given that it could potentially affect literally everyone, asking hard questions seems fair to us. NEWS FLASH The AirScooter is a one-person, hybrid robocopter with a computer-assisted fly-by-wire system that makes it "easier to fly than driving a car or ATV," its creator, Franky Zapata, told Robb Report. It's coming to a flight center near Las Vegas, where you can bravely test that claim and pilot it on a geofenced track, no license or certifications required. SensVita, a Cornell-affiliated startup, is developing a noninvasive at-home device that uses near-field radio frequency sensing to detect heart and lung metrics, ideal for patients who need constant monitoring.  Vail, Colorado, is using an AI Smart City Solution developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and other tech companies to detect wildfires. It can restore and analyze city camera footage to identify lightning strikes and smoke and use drone and satellite imagery to assess fire risk. Homecourt, "Friends" and (happy Halloween) Scream star Courteney Cox's fragrance-focused homecare brand, has raised $8m to fuel brand awareness and build out its team and infrastructure. NAILED IT Why are you not sending emails?   Raise your hand if you want to start a newsletter.    Well, class, this gnarly newsletter roadmap has enough know-how to counter all excuses. Follow closely to streamline setup, improve deliverability, and launch your product like you earned a four-year degree from the highly honored Hustle School of Email.    Here's how to rack up wins in the inbox and build a killer list. Stop loafing — start loading up sends. Nail an email   THE BIG IDEA American whiskey is getting a high-tech infusion   Pour one out for American whiskey — the industry isn't doing too hot, rocked by job cuts, falling revenue, changing consumer tastes, and tariffs.  Bulleit and Wild Turkey both saw sales drop this year, and several brands, including ~150-year-old Kentucky Owl, have filed for bankruptcy. But, despite the current climate, entrepreneurs David Mandell and John Hargrove are taking their shot, anyway.  They recently launched Whiskey House, a new-age distillery that's leveraging tech to bring the outdated world of whiskey into the future, per Wired. Not your typical distillery Whiskey House is a contract distillery, so it doesn't produce its own consumer label but creates whiskey for other brands.  Its 110k-square-foot Kentucky facility "looks more like a data center than a distillery," Wired writes, because "in many ways, that's what it is." The equipment and production floor are outfitted with 1.5k+ sensors that collect data to track and record every aspect of production — temperature, reflux ratios, etc. — in real time. Operators use the sensors and analysis software to make decisions, unlike traditional operators who go off intuition. Even the barrels have sensors, so customers can receive web-based insights throughout the aging process. Whiskey House uses QR codes to track barrels and hundreds of sensors to monitor storage conditions. The result: more control over the process, meaning less room for human error, maximized efficiency, and a more consistent, high-quality product.  But its greatest strength…  … is its customizability. Whiskey House can produce up to 120k barrels a year, including small batches of 50 barrels for brands interested in experimental varieties. The ~1-year-old company, which already has 35 customers, has made spirits using 56 different mash bills, the grain combinations used to make whiskey.  Why that's impressive: For context, Maker's Mark only used one type of mash bill between 1954 and 2025, when it added a second.  The bigger picture Traditional whiskey makers pride themselves on their old-school, hand-crafted methods, but the greater alcohol industry is facing a technological revolution.   Already, AI is being used for flavor development and personalization, and blockchain for bottle authentication.  And while Whiskey House's sterile operations might not have the same allure as the old guard's, those hoping to survive the short-term chaos, one expert told Wired, would do well to embrace tech solutions to succeed in the long run.      🔗 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED   Entrepreneurs, take note: You may not agree with every step of Sam Parr's formula for how to live a good life (two particularly controversial ones: don't have a best friend, don't set goals), but even if you're going with partial adherence, it could still help you get ahead. NEWSWORTHY NUMBER Average sales per Din Tai Fung location in the US in 2024, making it the top-earning restaurant chain in America by, well, a lot. Mastro's Restaurants ranks second with $14.5m, per Technomic data via Chartr. The Cheesecake Factory came in at sixth, with $12.4m. How does Din Tai Fung do it? Well, Restaurant Business Magazine says any wildly successful chain must be big, busy, and attract customers who spend a lot of money. Din Tai Fung fits that bill. Customers typically have to make reservations (or wait in line) and its large menu of dumplings lends itself to ordering multiple dishes to share as opposed to entrees per person. Its incredible, fan-favorite spicy sauce probably doesn't hurt either.  AROUND THE WEB 📅  On this day: In 1926, magician Harry Houdini died of a ruptured appendix 12 days after being punched in the stomach by a student testing his supposed ability to withstand blows. 🔪  That's interesting: What it's like at a Friday the 13th-themed camp excursion in Georgia. 🍬  Game: A spooky adventure. 😱  Useful: A YouTube channel for all your spooky, dark ambient playlist needs this Halloween. 🦆  Aww: So many ducklings. QUOTE OF NOTE Privacy just hit paws: Not sure how much competition pet tech firm Whisker really has in that arena, anyway, but we'll take CEO Jacob Zuppke's word for it. The company just released a ~$900 AI-powered litter box that it says can differentiate between individual cats (and their poops) to provide owners with greater insights into their animals' waste habits, per Axios — because why not.  The pricey toilet represents part of the company's $50m investment into expanding R&D and its team this year. SHOWER THOUGHT Maybe the only reason we didn't die in quicksand is that we were warned about it so often. We might be dooming the next generation by not passing on our vital knowledge. SOURCE Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, and Singdhi Sokpo. Editing by: Ben "Barrels of fun" Berkley.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. Working on something big? We've got a whole library of business-building resources for you. Subscribe to our other newsletters Stay up-to-date on AI: Mindstream  |  Expert insights: Masters in Marketing  |  Sell better: The Science of Scaling Follow The Hustle on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. HubSpot Media, 2 Canal Park, Cambridge, MA, 02141, USA, +1 888.482.7768 Never want to hear from us again? Break our hearts and Unsubscribe.