🍋 Chick-fil-A Goes Hollywood

Chick-Fil-A is working with Hollywood studios and production companies to create original content.

Together With

“I think consensus is the enemy of greatness.” — Brian Halligan

Good Morning and Happy Friday! Elon Musk was forced to reveal who really owns X - and the list includes Bill Ackman, Larry Ellison, and even Diddy. Cava announced blockbuster earnings and the stock was up 9% in after-hours. Home sales unexpectedly jumped in July - snapping a 5-month losing streak. TD is facing $2.6 billion in penalties. Ronaldo launched his YouTube channel and has already gained over 30 million subscribers. Plus the top etiquette rules when visiting Europe.

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SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Chick-fil-A Goes Hollywood

The streaming landscape is getting more crowded by the day, with countless platforms vying for attention. And just when you thought you had enough options with Disney+, Netflix, Peacock and Hulu, a surprising name is reportedly joining the mix… Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A is reportedly cooking up its own streaming platform and collaborating with Hollywood studios and production companies to develop original content—think family-friendly game shows, movies, and series.

With the decline of reality TV in recent years, Chick-fil-A sees an opportunity to enter the entertainment industry. The fast-food giant is rumored to be ready to invest up to $400k per half-hour episode of unscripted content. They’ve already purchased 10 episodes of an unnamed show from production company Sugar23.

Chick-fil-A could start rolling out its original content as early as this year. Conveniently, Atlanta—where Chick-fil-A is headquartered—has become a booming hub for TV and film production.

But rest assured, Chick-fil-A isn’t abandoning its signature spicy chicken sandwich. The chain recently launched its first-ever elevated drive-thru restaurant in Georgia, complete with a high-tech conveyor belt system to deliver food from the kitchen to your car.

Takeaway: It's an unexpected move from Chick-fil-A, but they’re not the first to dip their toes into streaming. Lyft and Airbnb have also produced original content, and Walmart has plans to do so too. With fast-food companies facing challenges in appealing to Gen Z, Chick-fil-A is taking a creative approach. Who knows? Maybe your next binge-watch will come with a side of waffle fries.

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HEADLINES

Top Reads

  • Elon Musk was just forced to reveal who really owns X (YF)

  • Cava sales jump as fast-food diners flee price increases (Axios)

  • Home sales rose in July for the first time in five months (CNBC)

  • TD Bank faces $2.6B in penalties (Reuters)

  • Chinese self-driving startup WeRide postpones IPO (Axios)

  • Starbucks new boss under fire for 1,000-mile commute (BBC)

  • Cristiano Ronaldo is a YouTube star (CNBC)

  • Labor market weakness shows signs of 'leveling off (YF)

  • Labor market revisions hit those watching labor revisions hardest (YF)

  • Philadelphia Fed President advocates for interest rate cut in September (CNBC)

  • How Democrats are pitching Harris as good for business (YF)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Stocks slid as Wall Street braces for Powell's speech.

Movers & Shakers

  • (+) Peloton ($PTON) +35% after the company’s quarterly loss narrows, surprise revenue growth.

  • (+) Zoom ($ZM) +13% after an earnings beat, increased guidance.

  • Advance Auto Parts ($AAP) -17% after an earnings miss, will sell its Worldpac unit to Carlyle.

Private Dealmaking

  • Carlyle bought Worldpac, an auto parts wholesale distributor, for $1.5 billion

  • Grafana Labs, an observability platform, raised $270 million

  • Openwater, an open-source tech developer, raised $54 million

  • Opkey, a test automation platform, raised $47 million

  • XII Medical, an obstructive sleep apnea therapies developer, raised $45 million

  • Defcon AI, a modeling simulation developer, raised $44 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

BOOK OF THE DAY

When Breath Becomes Air

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated.

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote.

“Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

“This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living?”

DAILY VISUAL

The New Wall Street

Source: Axios

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Why? 

  • Used by a third of the top 50 asset managers globally

  • Saves hours of work per day on diligencing, screening, memo writing

  • Understands, PDFs, emails, docs, and more of ~unlimited~ length

  • Drafts one-pagers based on your team’s investment philosophy

DAILY ACUMEN

Discomfort

Growth and comfort do not coexist.

The magic happens outside your comfort zone.

Every time you push your boundaries, you expand them.

What scares you a little?

That's probably where your next breakthrough lies.

Think of butterflies emerging from cocoons.

The struggle to break free is what gives them the strength to fly.

Your challenges are not obstacles; they're opportunities for growth.

Embrace discomfort.

Seek out new experiences.

Remember, life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

  • 5 top etiquette rules when visiting Europe

  • How to optimize your work-from-home set up for career success

  • Common phrases mentally resilient people never use

  • Why wisdom work is the new knowledge work

  • How to communicate like you’re the boss

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

 

 

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