📈 Labubu futures

Plus: Why Brits want a slice of pumpkin pie, an AI-powered dictionary, and more.

Share The Hustle: https://thehustle.co/join?ref=7598767985 Check your referral progress & prizes here 👋  Good morning. Here's your reminder to treat others how you would like to be treated — that includes other humans… and humanoids. A former Figure AI engineer is suing the company, claiming he was unlawfully terminated after warning execs of safety concerns. Among those concerns? That the company's robots "were powerful enough to fracture a human skull." So ya, you better hold the door for that bot. STARTING UP Could mini-livers have a major impact? ❌  The problem: More than 52k people died of liver disease and cirrhosis in 2023, with many left waiting for transplants that didn't come in time.  💡  The pitch: Chicago-based Dimension Bio is growing miniature livers from cells on 3D-printed scaffolds that could keep patients alive while they wait for a transplant. The scaffolding concept isn't new, according to Fast Company, but the startup's approach is: It uses 3D printing to customize scaffolds that minimize an immune response.  🚀  The outlook: The startup saw a 70% increase in the survival rate of lab animals using human and mouse liver cells, and it plans to start human trials in 2028. And Dimension Bio isn't planning to stop at livers — it's exploring other organs and soft tissues. NEWS FLASH   Barn breath: Startup KiposTech revealed an air disinfection system that creates "clean air bubbles" around barn animals to reduce the spread of disease. It's piloting the tech at poultry farms in Pennsylvania and will test on pigs next. An assistant who doesn't take coffee breaks: Cavela raised $6.6m in seed funding to help companies automate sourcing with AI. Brands can upload information on the product they want to produce, and Cavela's AI agent will identify potential manufacturers and suppliers in 40+ countries, then contact them directly to request quotes. You're not the only one who hates folding laundry… Physical Intelligence, a startup that aims to build AI software for "any" robot, app, or smart device, hit a $5.6B valuation. Currently, the company is testing its software in robotic arms that fold clothes, make coffee, and put together boxes. Like a jacket… for plants: Brekland, a Brooklyn agtech startup, won the $1m grand prize at the Grow-NY Agtech business competition for its biodegradable foam, which coats crops to protect them from spring frost. Sounds cozy. WE NEED TO TALK The manager's guide to talking when it's awkward "Difficult conversations bring risk: the risk of being misunderstood, of upsetting someone, of saying too much or too little. So instead, we delay. We drop hints. We tell ourselves 'now isn't the right time.' And the moment passes." — Leanne Elliott, Truth, Lies & Work podcast   If you can empathically relate, we wrote you some scripts.   You know that employee who's been showing up late for three weeks straight? Or the one whose passive-aggressive Slack messages are making everyone uncomfortable?   Yeah, we need to talk about that… because every time you dodge one of these convos, you may be costing your company $7.5k. 15 scripts for managers   THE BIG IDEA Now you can bet on Labubus and sneakers When you think of betting, you typically think sports, elections, or maybe award show winners — not the resale price of a hot Pokémon card. But of course you can bet on that, too. Kalshi means "everything" in Arabic and it's also the name of a betting platform worth a reported $11B where you can bet on, well, everything: crypto prices, the weather, what topics public figures will mention in their next briefing or quarterly earnings report, etc. How it works Bettors buy futures contracts — agreements to buy or sell something at a later date — based on one of two (and in some cases more) outcomes. For example: If something will or will not happen The temperature range you think will match today's high in NYC Whether Spotify's top artist this year will be Bad Bunny or Taylor Swift Kalshi constantly assesses the collective sentiment regarding a particular outcome. A 0% signifies no one thinks something will happen, while a 100% indicates everyone thinks it will. What contracts cost and what they'll pay out varies as sentiment changes, and bettors can trade in or out at any time. (If you want a more detailed explanation with examples, here you go.)    Kalshi makes money by charging a transaction fee on the expected earnings of contracts. CEO Tarek Mansour said he expects predictions markets to eventually rival stock exchanges, per Bloomberg.   Is this legal? So far. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission allows and regulates Kalshi, and the platform continues to operate in all 50 states, even though gambling regulators in some states that do not allow online sports gambling have sent it cease-and-desist letters.    Kalshi skirts the regulations by offering futures tied to sports events.  Now what about those Labubus? Kalshi recently partnered with digital marketplace for collectibles Stock X to allow bets on hot ticket items, like sneakers, trading cards, and toys.   Bettors can speculate across three categories: Predicting the best-selling brands across significant sales events, such as Black Friday Average sale price for an upcoming product release The monthly average sales price for top products The collectible toy market alone is a $7B industry, per Business Insider, with Labubus — for reasons we still can't quite explain — being a recent example of a product that's gone absolutely wild.  🔗   HIGHLY RECOMMENDED   Don't miss this one: We let you in on the 10 cold calling tips that scaled HubSpot to $100m.    NEWSWORTHY NUMBER Year-over-year increase in searches for Thanksgiving in the UK, according to online retailer Ocado via the Guardian. Searches for pumpkin pie have also surged, up 550%, with restaurants and grocers reporting heightened demand ahead of the holiday. The growing appetite for American cuisine across the pond has been driven by a swelling number of US expats, as well as a rising curiosity among Brits who, one expert told the Guardian, simply want in on the cozy, autumnal vibes.   That's a lot of gratitude going around — except, probably, among British turkeys.   AROUND THE WEB 📅  On this day: In 2002, Roxio bought Napster's assets, including its domain name and logo, to use as a music service brand. It sold Napster to Best Buy in 2008. Napster is currently owned by Infinite Reality, a mysterious AI/metaverse company. 📚  Useful: An AI-powered dictionary that supports 100+ languages. 🗞️  Newsletter: Keep up with AI — minus the jargon — with The AI Report. 🧘  Chill out: with these free guided meditations from UCLA. 🐱  Aww: Guess you won't be going anywhere. SHOWER THOUGHT No matter what it is, if humans have eaten it for food, someone has (or has at least tried) to make bread out of it. SOURCE   Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Singdhi Sokpo. Editing by: Sara "Bet your bottom dollar" Friedman.   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.