Big is the enemy of cool
Big is the enemy of cool
And the founder's dilemma of letting young talent lead
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In today’s issue:
The brand with “an almost religious quality to it”
Raya for events
My advice for Nike’s marketing team
The shoe collab I blew too much money on
And more…
Quick update on the London apartment hunt
Remember last week when I said I had found my spot in London? JUST KIDDING. I changed my mind. The place was cute – mostly because it had a little yard for my 3 pups. The catch? It was a literal basement. After sharing my excitement with my local friends, each and every one of them threw bolts of warning at me, asking “are you sure you really want to live in a basement?”
Here's the thing about London: if you want outdoor space for dogs, you're usually looking at ground floor or lower ground floor apartments. But I'm not trying to transform into a C.H.U.D. with translucent skin from living in darkness, you know?
I then had a quick romance with a place that felt like it belonged in Bridgerton, in the quiet, posh enclave of Primrose Hill. To get a read on the neighborhood’s vibe, I sat outside at a sushi place and ate dinner alone on the sidewalk (something I actually love doing). It was game over for me when I realized how much of a family neighborhood it was – I spent the next hour listening to 6 children at the table next to me.
In the end, I didn’t leave my big, peaceful home in Los Angeles to live in another place tucked away from the action.
Still hunting! Will keep you posted. 🏠✨
— Sophia
People love standing in a fucking line
Word has it that people stood for 15 hours to get into The Row’s sample sale.
Camping out for a product launch (or even coffee – anyone been to Maru in Los Feliz?) is some ride-or-die behavior. In the last year, long ass lines (and chaos) have formed for a Supreme croissant, a Stanley cup in winter pink, a tiny Trader Joe’s tote, an iced matcha, and an Anora thong. Typically, when I see a line of people that’s five or more deep, I turn around. However, when I see a human centipede of fans wrapped around the block, I’m always curious. You probably are, too.
I want to know what you’ve waited in an outrageously long line for – whether it’s a cragel, dope sneakers, a nepo baby’s glazed skincare, the new iPhone with a useless camera button, or something entirely different. And if you haven’t, what brands you’d consider pitching a tent for.
Collabs on my radar
The Christopher John Rogers and J. Crew collection is all over my feed – strongly considering picking up this topcoat in red vinyl for chilly London bike rides. Postmates and Erewhon teamed up on kids meals which are predictably fresh, organic, and not cheap. Ezra, a leader in full-body MRIs which are hot right now among the one percent, joined forces with longevity king Bryan Johnson on a special scan. Champion and the MoMA Design Store have an exclusive collection of retro-inspired bombers, hoodies, and cardigans. Madrid-based fashion label Late Checkout made a capsule collection with Ritz-Carlton and it’s actually quite nice if you don’t mind repping a luxury hotel chain. Happy Halloween goths, you can get Wednesday Addams stomps from Dr. Martens. Zara’s homeware collection with Hungarian-based Nanushka is gorgeous. I need a pair of these SOREL x Proenza Schouler boots for London’s rainy season. Alix Earle has a pink sea salt chocolate bar with Gopuff. Madhappy and Thai diner hoodies look sick. No one makes matching dog sweaters and bags like Lisa Says Gah! and Little Beast. I can’t tell if this Dôen and Matilda Goad brass matchbook sleeve is lovely or embarrassing.
We’re talking about stealing WiFi at coffee shops vs. working at home in the chat
If you have any strong feelings about it… currently struggling with it
Links to make you smarter and more interesting
Brian Chesky talks about the interesting paradox of youth when it comes to building game-changing products. On a recent podcast with Masters of Scale, I was asked what advice I’d give a big brand like Nike to stay cool and innovate. I said “hire young people and listen to them.” Thing is, unless they’re being managed by a young founder, many seasoned execs don’t want to be managed by a younger non-founder leader. To keep the peace, founders often hire more “qualified” executives to oversee product, and in the end, the products are (sometimes) less groundbreaking. Building company culture… it’s great when it’s great but when it sucks, it sucks
As a designer and new mom, Chloe Fields had a lot of contraptions to charge and thought the state of plugging things in was chaotic. She wondered why a better option didn’t exist. Now it does, because she launched Counterpart, which makes gorgeous retractable chargers. The best products are taking something you use everyday and making it more efficient… and beautiful
Dunkin’ took a page from Nutter Butter’s marketing game (which I talked about few issues back) and unleashed their own unhinged marketing campaign for Halloween, featuring a spider donut talking about “daddy”
TikTok creators don’t want to go to a college with an ugly campus. It’s bad for brand deals. This TikTok creator debriefs all the North Carolina colleges and it’s 99% about what each campus looks like. ““They have this super cool brick aesthetic going on. W”
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You should probably collect RSVPs for your next brand event on Partiful. It’s hot, like Raya for events. I use Partiful for all of Trust Fund’s events so that means I’m hot, right?
Gen Z wants to borrow taste and provenance. Wanna look sophisticated? Ask AI which coffee table books will make you look sophisticated, hit up Amazon, and your library full of Belgian interior design books are on your doorstep. Not to sound like a geezer, but my taste traveled to me through things like burned CDs covered in sharpie scribbles and I’ve got a chip on my shoulder about it
Schools are banning Crocs because kids are getting hurt – weird. Guess it’s high time for someone to make plastic shoes that don’t ruin children
Prada and Axiom Space, the creator of the first commercial orbital station (which I think means something like a space airport) designed a spacesuit that’s chic as hell for bouncing around on some moon rocks but more importantly… they’re going to put the first woman on the moon (!!)
TikTok is incentivizing brands to livestream on TikTok Shop for the holidays and will even drop some “super livestreams” with celebrities
Etsy is also in holiday mode with a New York pop-up and new gifting features like wish lists and automated gift reminders
“For many in Gen Z, splurging on premium groceries is not just about nourishment; it’s about signaling identity.” This tracks – if you follow any health and wellness influencers, you’ve seen the most luxurious grocery spreads that probably cost as much as your monthly rent
Maybe the reason Apple’s pausing its annual product launches is because it’s run out of new things we’re hype about
The Information ranked this year’s 50 most promising startups. Two I’ve used and love are Locker, which is a Chrome extension that brings Cher Horowitz’s closet thingy to life, and ShopMy, which I (and probably every other influencer/newsletter you follow) use to curate looks and generate affiliate links for all the cute stuff I share right here in this newsletter
More lists! Forbes dropped its list of the top creators of 2024. The honorees on this list cumulatively earned $720 million over the last 12 months. Unsurprising, given we’ve got MrBeast, Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain, Marques Brownlee, Addison Rae, and Nara Smith on the list
Another! Creative Boom dropped the 25 hottest design studios right now. Studios on the list are behind the controversial Paypal redesign, a space for Thom Browne during New York Fashion Week, and a rebrand for Nike Run
The Row fans describe the brand as having “this intellectual aura," “a little bit of superiority,” and “an almost religious quality to it.” Whatever, it’s not like I don’t buy stuff to feel sophisticated. I actually just bought those Proenza x Sorel boots up in the collabs section. A smart marketer once told me that big was the enemy of cool, and I think The Row might be approaching that territory. (Still, people waited in line for 15 hours to spend thousands of dollars at their sample sale)
Apple Vision Pro is flopping. The only marketing I’ve seen so far that makes mixed reality actually look cool and functional is Ray-Ban x Meta’s influencer campaign. Meta, hmu if you want me to capture my upcoming closet sale
WIRED had an AI detection startup analyze the content on publishing platform Medium and found that over 47 percent of over 270k posts over a six-week period were likely AI-generated. That’s a lot of slop
There’s a school for influencers. It has no homework, no exams, and no certification. It costs $3,000
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in an AMA that if a video isn’t watched for a long time they lower the quality of the video. FUUUUCK that. For all my hard work feeling embarrassed taking snippets of videos of myself at cafes, don’t mess with my content. Also, kind of a dig at microinfluencers, no?
Opportunities to level up
🔗 A list of founder-friendly investors committed to helping entrepreneurs accelerate growth
📅 Sheinnovates is an event centered on women innovating in the e-commerce and digital space. Speakers include Heaven Schydlowsky (Merit Beauty’s director of digital product), Liz Tverskoy (Google’s head of commerce), Sarah Grosz (Allbirds’ head of influencer marketing), and more. Get tickets for the November 17th event here
📅 I Hate it Here’s Hebba Youssef is hosting a panel on how to use AI in People Ops work. Register for the November 20th event here
🔗 The deadline to apply to Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 Batch is November 12th. Apply here
🔗 Related: Here’s a helpful guide on how to apply to Y Combinator from someone who raised $4.5M for their two startups at pre-Seed and Seed rounds
Ok, I officially LOVE Locker.
Have you thought of moving South of the River. As you have 3 pups there is Battersea park, clapham common & wandsworth common. It is actually a breath of fresh air from north London. Also not far into Chelsea…. If I moved back to London that is where I would go. I also highly recommend getting a scooter. It gives a new freedom to the city.