Happy Saturday Besties,

The Wall Street Journal & YouGov did surveys on which products each political party prefers, and here’s what it found…

• Liberals prefer Ben & Jerry’s, Subarus, Air Jordans, DKNY, & Frosted Flakes.

• Conservatives prefer Pillsbury, Ford, Under Armour, Ralph Lauren, & Frosted Mini-Wheats.

We’re not actually Red & Blue states, we’re Frosted Flakes states & Frosted Mini-Wheats states…

🚨LIVE HOTLINE SHOW in SEATTLE 🚨 Sept 26th — We’re breaking down your questions about $$$ & personal finance. We’ll be joined by special guest, Tori Dunlap (@herfirst100k). She turned $500 into $60,000 and knows more about $$$ than Alexander Hamilton did…

🔗 LINK we’re sold out, but you can join the waitlist.

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FACTS & STATS

• GEN Z: will outnumber Boomers in the workforce starting this year.

• TABLE FOR 1: Reservations in the US for “solo-dining” are up 29% in the US over the last two years. The Japanese concept of ohitorisama makes eating alone feel more noble.

• TIS THE SEASON? Half of Americans will start Xmas shopping before Halloween.

STOCKS

This week Chipotle launched a costume collab with Spirit Halloween.

• 👻 How it started: with a Fake Idea. 2 years ago, Chipotle posted a picture of “fork” costume. It was fake, but it blew up on the gram for 70K engagements…

• 👻 The History: Chipotle has been running a Boo-rito promo (go to Chipotle on Halloween in costume, get a burrito for $6) for the last 24 years.

• 👻 This Halloween: You can now grab 4 buddies and go as a burrito, napkin, water cup, a fork, and a to-go bag.

• 👻 The ROI: Chipotle’s Halloween success is an outlier. Most businesses suffer on Halloween (you’re trick-or-treating-or-other-stuff). But Chipotle’s Halloween store traffic is 30% higher than average days - Chipotle gets an ROI on years of investing in Halloween.

ICYMI

UNHEARD OF: A company founded just this summer, has 10 employees, no product, and is already valued at $5B. 😳 

• How? The company, SafeSuperintelligence, has a Silicon Valley “dragon”… aka one of few techie individuals in the world with a deep understanding of A.I.

• Dragon who? Ilya Sustkever. He’s the former CTO of OpenAI, and was at the center of one the ousting of Sam Altman from OpenAI last fall.

• Now: Venture Capitalists just wrote his 10-person company a $1B check because they are betting on his talent — AI is so cutting edge, and the AI talent so rare, that those with it aren’t unicorns… they’re dragons 🐉 .

 🔥 Full (fire-breathing) story on the Thursday’s episode.

JUMPING IN…

…TBOY-style on Capri Sun. Because we have a BIG UPDATE — for 1st time in its 60 years, Capri Sun is selling in bottles in addition to the legendary metal pouches.

• Best Fact: Capri Sun actually invented the juice pack.

• What’s in a name? Having traveled to Italy, the German founder (yep, it’s a German co) named it “Capri. ”

• How big? 9 factories make 6B pouches made/year, for over $2B in revenue 😳

• Context? That’s 2x bigger than Vitamin Water, as big as Coke Zero, ½ of Gatorade.

Our Q: “But will the plastic bottle still turn you into melted metal liquid??

NEW INDUSTRY…

…it’s “Quitting Agents” (or, as we call them “Quitting Concierges”)

Because when you quit your job, there’s often still $$$ left on the table but people aren’t aware of it. So now there’s a Japanese startup called Exit that’ll do it for you…

FYI, always consider these things pre-quit… 

• 1) Quit on the 1st of the month: If you have company health insurance, it lasts through the end of the calendar month. So make your last day the 1st of the month, then keep that insurance card for 30 more days free.

• 2) Unused PTO: If you have unused paid time off, you’re entitled to final a paycheck for the cash value of them. IYKYK.

• 3) Check your state: Other benefits vary by city & state – but employees have rights, even if they’re quitting. Even a non-compete/non-disclosure could be negotiable. It’s worth a look.

🚨 Full (expert quitting) story on the Ceviche Wednesday show.

MARKET UPDATES

August US Jobs Report came in yesterday…

• JOBS UPDATE: 142k new jobs were created (the sweet spot). This is slow enough to further slow inflation, but not so slow that it’s giving recession vibes.

• RATE UPDATE: The unemployment rate reduced to 4.2% — nearing a historic low. Not too shabby.

• What’s it all mean? Further clearance for the Fed to cut interest rates on the 17th of September.

BEST TAKEAWAY YET

Restaurants are a microcosm of the economy. “Dining swings reflect larger changes around us” — Columbia Professor.

• Consider this: Work-from-home has people craving out-of-home experiences. More people are entering relationships later, having kids later, and spending more time as a party-of-1. Plus, self-care is bigger than ever. And all those trends are converging in 1 restaurant phenomenon: The Solo-Dining Surge. 👆

TELL A BESTIE

• 😳 This company knows your social security number (this is wild, but call this phone number, and they’ll tell you your SSN, seriously: 855.752.5625).

• 🦕 Barney is coming back to TV with streaming animation on Max after 14 years.

• 🍦 Taco Bell celebrates 20 years of Baja Blast with Mt. Dew Gelato.

• 💧 Bridgerton (the steamy Netflix show) runs on hydrogen.

• J.Crew brings back its catalog (which once had 2M readers) — We call it “Brand Archaeology”: Diggin’ up your brand’s old artifacts.

And one more thing.

The market may have had its worst week in a year, but you should still celebrate the wins this weekend. Jack’s second son just started walking, and Nick snagged a rez at Ocito in SF.

And you look fantastic btw — So make this weekend a TBOY.

— Nick & Jack