Chipotle, Bumble & Burrito Bowls🌯
This Week in Review☕️:Co-working unicorn files for bankruptcy | Gen Z want to date people in person than swiping online | The most famous fast-food chain hires robots | Nutrition spending skyrockets as
Quick Bites:
Business💰: WeWork (once valued at $47 billion) officially files for bankruptcy.
But it's founder, who led the company before being pushed out in 2019, is still worth $1.7 billion.
Adam Neumann Rules:
Find rich idiots to give you $$$ to build a massive money pit where your wife fires employees because they have the wrong astrological sign, and then make them pay you a billion to leave
Background💡: In trying to scale quickly, WeWork's grow-at-any-cost rise to riches started to look like a Ponzi scheme in hindsight. Adam Neumann went from millennial entrepreneur to martyr in a span of days in 2019.
Turns out being a spiritual Kabbalah Guru can't stop you from going down.. Wall Street don't care about religion, just your reserves 🤷🏻♀️
Trading stopped on Monday after the stock's value fell below $1, closing at 84 cents, according to the New York Stock Exchange.
Valuation:
💡2019: $47 billion
💡2023: $45 million
Our Thoughts💡: Neumann should buy back WeWork for $1 and then get Masa to give him another $20 billy💯
While WeWork initially capitalized on the remote work trend, the pandemic led to empty offices with the rise of WFH and safety concerns.
Umm.. no sh*t. Sharing space with strangers with unknown hygiene practices and a contagious virus on the loose? NO THANKS🖕🏻
Ultimately, the co-working startup that took advantage of low interest rates ended up with billions of dollars in leases, for which it could not find clients, Forbes.
Our Thoughts💡: WeWork.. A perfect storm of a mesmerising leader, cheap money, an obsession with being a tech company and an unrealistic optimism that growth will make up for a gazillion losses.
#WeWORKED ☠️
Culture 📱: Investors dump dating apps as more and more Gen Z say they'd rather meet people face-to-face than via swiping, Axios reports.
Online dating is like being hungry at your grandma's home and finding the least expired thing to eat hoping not to get explosive diarrhoea 🤯
Bumble- a dating app where women make the first move, made headlines recently after CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said she's stepping down.
The stock has fallen +80% since its $9 billion IPO valuation as analysts say Bumble "has failed to execute on its vision of becoming a broader women's platform."
Us after we've messaged the guy first on Bumble👇🏻
It's not just Bumble. Shares of the big dating app companies are significantly lower this year amid slowing revenue growth, Axios.
Match Group, the parent company of Tinder and Hinge, is down 28% since last year.
Match Group president Tariq Shaukat resigned in May and Tinder's first woman CEO, Renate Nyborg, left the company last year.
Our Thoughts💡: Tbh, part of the thrill of dating apps used to be not knowing whether you'll meet your soulmate or if you'll end up murdered in a ditch and worn as a skin suit.
But we understand why people are over it.. The younger generation wanna meet the old-fashioned way.. through tequila shots and poor judgement🙄
A Billion dollar Idea💡: An Indian dating app where the criterion of getting matched is having compatible chakras
Indian matchmakers would go CRAZY🙌🏻
Food 🌯: Chipotle turns to robots as the founder goes from rolling burritos to rolling out a fleet of culinary bots.
Chipotle founder Steve Ells is launching a robot-powered, meat-free restaurant chain called "Kernel" in New York, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Ok, they really are coming for us.. 🤖
The 1st location of Kernel is set to open in early 2024 and requires only 3 human workers.
The restaraunt will rely on a robotic arm, a programmed toaster and conveyor belts once orders are "beamed to the kitchen."
The goal is to keep prices competitive to other chains but offer better pay and benefits to the leaner staff, said Ells, who left Chipotle in 2020 after outbreaks of food-borne illness.
Our Thoughts💡: From flipping flour tortillas to whipping guacamole to cutting veggies, robots have become a hot commodity in restaurants. The truth is they can do it all cheaper, better & faster.
AI-powered Robots work 24/7.
They don't need a toilet break, don't throw tantrums, can't catch the flu, don't need maternity leave & def don't need vacation time to go skiing in the Swiss Alps
Health 🍵: Wellness spending skyrockets.
The global wellness industry raked in $5.6 trillion last year, and is expected to grow to $8.5 trillion by 2027, Bloomberg reports.
From personal hygiene to beauty to nutrition and fitness- the industry has risen rapidly post-pandemic.
What do you think of when you hear the word "wellness"?
Is it a day of clean eating or a yoga class? Getting a massage or perhaps heading to the salon for a mani/pedi?
A 2021, a NielsenIQ report declared health and wellness “The single most powerful consumer force”.
Large companies are taking advantage of this trend; Equinox for example, once known for its high-end gyms, opened its 1st hotel in New York’s Hudson Yards in 2019, with rooms described as “temples to regeneration”.
In September, it was included in the first-ever World’s 50 Best hotels list.
Key Highlights, according to Bloomberg:
💡Spending on public health and prevention, in particular, has grown by more than half since 2019
💡One sector that's declined since the pandemic is "workplace wellness," such as fitness classes offered by employers.
💡At about $5,100 a year, wellness spending per capita is the highest in North America
💡In Europe, that figure is just under $1,600.
Quicker Bites:
UK PM Rishi Sunak sacks interior minister Suella Braverman.
More than 180,000 demonstrators march in France against anti-semitism.
Iceland braces for a possible volcanic eruption.
Doctors rush to save lives as Israel says it’s battling Hamas around Gaza’s largest hospital.
Biden meets Xi Jinping this week as more Americans see china as a critical threat.
Donald Trump Jr. returns to testify as New York fraud trial enters new phase.
The United Nation talks for a global plastic treaty.