This is Nick. This is Jack. And did you notice someone new at that wedding? It was a “Social Media Concierge” — The newest vendor at weddings. They’re paid to live-tweet the ceremony, Snapchat the cake-cutting, and edit your uncle’s speech down to 20 seconds for TikTok. Because the bride can’t DM from the D-floor… but the #SocialMediaConcierge is paid to 🤳.

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1) The Big Mac is being renovated

The Big Mac just turned 56 years old, so it’s getting some work done: After 7 years of testing, McDonald’s is overhauling the most iconic burger in history.

With 50 changes. We repeat: 50 different changes. McD’s serves 2.4M Big Macs/day, but now Ronald’s making tweaks across the recipe:

• 🍔 Minor Changes: Fresher pickles, fresher lettuce, ½ ounce more Special Sauce.

• 🍔 Minovations: A new brioche bun - Not just for better taste, but to better preserve heat.

• 🍔 Innovations: McD’s even cultivated a new variety of onion for the New Big Mac (Ronald’s playing God).

• 🍔 Operational Change: Instead of cooking 8 patties at once, they’ll cook 6 to give the beef space on the griddle.

It’s all because of the “Better Burger Trend.” McDonald’s may be beating its rivals Burger King and Wendy’s. But it’s losing to the premium burger chains that emerged in the last decade:

• ✨ 5 Guys, Smashburger, Shake Shack. Grass-fed, higher-price, but better-quality.

• 😬 The Big Mac ha now fallen to #13 in consumer burger rankings, according to the WSJ.

• 💸 And since 40% of all fast food sales are burgers, McDonald’s can’t afford for its premier burger to fall behind.

Changing the Big Mac is a risk. Coca-Cola once changed its recipe (“New Coke”), but faced a revolt and had to backtrack. So why’s McD’s making 50 tweaks to its best-selling burger?

The Takeaway →

“For things to stay the same, they must change.” That’s a quote from the famous 1950s Sicilian novel, Il Gattopardo. It’s an observation that everything we think is the same, has actually evolved. Oreos, Kraft Mac & Cheese, and even McD’s French Fries — they’ve all changed their recipes over time, yet consumers don’t notice. It’s a risk to tinker with a hero product, but the reality is they’re all tinkered with in order to adapt to changing times.

2) $2.3B for a Dog-Walker-Sleepover App 

Rover, the 12-year-old dog-walking app, just sold to private equity firm Blackstone for $2.3B (that’s ½ a Lyft). It’s one of the biggest exits of the year and it reveals a generational divide in pet-care.

“The Uber of Dog-Walking.” That’s Rover’s business model. It sounds like a punchline, but it’s actually a profit machine. Get these numbers, Fido:

• 🐾 On Rover, you pay some rando $15 to walk your rottweiler — It’s a gig economy app.

• 🐾 But Rover managed to make $66M on that dog-walking revenue and turned an $11M profit last quarter.

But Rover’s true “Profit Puppy” is not dog-walking… It’s actually sleepovers. Turns out Rover is actually Hotel Tonight for Hounds.

• 70% of Rover’s biz is now “overnights”, either boarding your dog overnight in a Rover-registered dog-lover’s home or having a Rover dog-sitter stay at your house while you’re away.

• And those sleepovers are 2x as profitable as dog-walking — Rover keeps a 29% cut on each reservation.

• If a couple of DINKWADs (“double-income no kids with a dog”) need a dog-sitter for the weekend while they kick it in Palm Springs? That’s how Rover really makes money.

The Takeaway →

Millennials treat puppies different than Mitt Romney did.

Get this: Millennials splurge 25% more on dogs than Boomers do, which reveals a difference in how generations spend on pets. Remember when Mitt allegedly strapped the fam dog kennel on the car roof for trips? Most Millennials wouldn’t do that (us included). Rover knows the Millennial dog-owner will pay a premium to keep a corgi feeling calm at home instead of in a kennel. Where there’s a generational divide, there’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

On the Pod

🧠 Legendary investor Charlie Munger passed away at 99 last week — He’s one of the few great minds who crushed words as well as math. So we whipped up “Charlie’s Greatest Hits,” from his #1 favorite stock to his best reading advice ever (spoiler: Just read the 1st chapter).

Check out the story on today’s pod. 🧠

Here’s what else you need to know today —

🎬 So have you seen the clips of Elon’s interview at the NYT Dealbook event? He cursed at advertisers, explained the “Wild storm” in his mind, and got the interviewer’s name wrong.

🎓 Taylor Swift is entering her freshman era: Harvard and the University of Florida are among a bunch of colleges adding Swiftonomics 101.

🥖 Panera is planning to IPO (again) — The sandwich chain used to be publicly traded, then it went private, and now it’s ready to be served up publicly again.

🥶😎 Alaska Airlines is buying Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9B of hot/cold vacation fun (pack a bathing suit… and a ski parka).

🥪 Mortadella sales are surging (yes, that mortadella) — Because that pink hue of the cold cut is thriving on the charcuterie board trend.

🛻 Tesla’s Cybertruck has officially hit the streets and we finally got the official numbers: Price is $61K-$99K and the range is 250-340 miles.

🎂 Happy 1-year birthday to ChatGPT.

And one more thing. Social Media Concierge for weddings… yay or nay? 🔔

—Nick & Jack