👋 It's spooky season. Time to start planning your family costume (remember what happened when you waited until Oct. 30 last year?) and to stock up on candy. If you want your house to be the most popular on the block, double down on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups — the candy was the most popular across 15 US states for the third year in a row, according to DoorDash data. A special shoutout to the weirdos in Minnesota, the only state where Mike & Ike took the top spot.
NEWS FLASH
🥊 The first rule of fight club is: you do not talk about fight club. The second rule is you should not hold unsanctioned human vs. robot cage fights in California, apparently. Robotics startup REK learned that the hard way when it received a cease-and-desist letter from the state’s Athletic Commission after hosting a company-sponsored fight between YouTuber Frankie LaPenna and three robots in San Francisco in September. This is what happens when you take “publicity stunt” literally.
🥩 Where's the beef? The startup Offbeast launched the "world's first" whole-cut blended meat — a 50/50 combo of meat and plant-based protein. The company's beef tips (shout-out New England) aim to mimic the muscle fibers in steak while maintaining protein levels and "an adjustable amount of fat." The process could boost beef margins by 200% to 400% while lowering emissions and costs. The result? Of 20 testers, 16 rated the beef tips as "indistinguishable from conventional meat" and praised the texture.
🎓 Collegiate capital: Dorm Room Fund raised a $50m fund — 4x its previous one — that lets college students invest in companies launched by classmates and alumni. The raise reflects growing competition to invest in young founders amid the AI boom. The program trains 60 undergrads and graduate students from ~30 campuses on venture capital basics, and its portfolio includes eight $1B start-ups and 30 companies worth more than $300m. Participants have landed at major venture firms or became entrepreneurs.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
- Last night an AI DJ saved my life: LA radio station José 97.5 FM's morning show co-stars Coyotec, an AI host cloned from a real host’s voice. Despite costing more to run than a human DJ, it's reportedly generating 10x ROI on ad revenue.
- A technical alley-oop: The NBA is testing Bluetooth-connected basketballs and wrist wearables this preseason, hoping the tech will be a slam dunk for future use in officiating decisions and replay reviews.
- Up in arms: Orbital Robotics will send a pair of AI-controlled robotic arms to the International Space Station in 2027, where they’ll be installed on a free-flying Astrobee robot to capture, manipulate, and upgrade other robots — and one day, satellites — while in orbit.
- Love is in the air: Some 64% of Gen Z and 51% of millennials say they’ve tried at least one mystical service — manifestation, psychics, astrology, tarot cards, or love spells — to improve their love lives, according to a DatingNews survey. We take it dating in America isn’t going well.
HAND IT TO CLAUDE
Give Claude all of your files…
…and watch it work magic in the background. Claude Cowork runs locally on your machine, like a one-person department that’s tasked with optimizing everywhere.
Make AI your partner, not a penpal. Our Claude Cowork playbook contains:
- 12 AI prompts for tackling common tasks
- Use cases + instructions for each command
- Actual deliverables (presentations, spreadsheets, reports)
From gaining competitive intel to extracting transcripts and repurposing content, we’ve got you covered.
THE BIG IDEA
The podless future of coffee pods
Pop in pod. Sip sweet nectar. Rinse and repeat.
If you're one of 47m households that enjoy easily brewing your cuppa joe with a Keurig, you've probably wondered, "Am I wrecking the planet with these plastic K-Cups?"
Well, Keurig aims to put your mind at ease with its latest innovation: Altarounds, plastic- and aluminum-free pods that are completely compostable, per Fast Company.
Of course, you'll also have to buy a new brewing system — Earth-friendly convenience comes at a cost.
Pod people
Keurig controlled roughly 80% of the US pod sales in 2024, within a global pod and capsule market valued at $20B in 2025 and projected to reach $28.5B in 2034.
But plastic waste produced by K-Cups and other pods is a concern:
-
Keurig co-founder John Sylvan regrets inventing K-Cups because of the waste.
- A 2021 paper found that pods create more emissions than other brewing methods.
- Keurig agreed to pay $1.5m over charges that it made inaccurate statements about K-Cups' recyclability.
- Keurig says its pods have been recyclable since 2020, but not in all communities.
Motivated by consumer demand for less waste and more beverage variety, Keurig aimed to disrupt lest they be disrupted.
Years of R&D led to the Alta system:
- Altarounds are small pucks made of ground, pressed coffee wrapped in an alginate coating, derived from seaweed.
- Puck heights vary for larger or stronger drinks.
- Alta brewers make drip coffee and espresso drinks and are backward-compatible with K-Cups.
- Six Keurig-branded varieties: two espressos, caramel-flavored, and light, medium, and dark roasts.
- Keurig intends to partner with other coffee brands.
Can't wait for the launch later this year or want another eco-friendly alternative? You have options:
- Brewbird, which raised $32m in Series A funding, uses compostable cups with whole beans.
- San Francisco Bay Coffee features roasts in compostable pods.
- Compostable envipods feature organic brews.
- CoffeeB (which licensed its alginate coating tech to Keurig) offers compostable coffee balls in the UK and Ireland.
So, while your plastic concerns may be put to rest, we can't say the same about the number of pods you're popping daily.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
He’s Iceland’s only full-time forensic pathologist… and he sees more fictional murders than real ones from his lab in one of the safest countries in the world.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Decline in average US quarterly spending on facial filler between 2023 and 2025, just one indication of what The Wall Street Journal has dubbed the “Great Deflate.” For more obvious signs, just look to Hollywood or at your favorite influencers' recent selfies.
Amid the rise of GLP-1s and the return of the “heroin chic” aesthetic, unnaturally juicy lips and overly plump cheeks (AKA “Instagram face”) have fallen out of fashion. The $3.3B US facial-injectables market is feeling the sting: For leading filler brand Juvéderm, revenue fell 15% last year, and at some clinics in Beverly Hills, the decline has been even steeper, with one plastic surgeon reporting a 70% decline in filler appointments over the past three years.
HOW YOU HUSTLE
Y’all are always cooking up something neat. This is our weekly spotlight on a Hustle reader's ambitious venture.
Founder: Liz Chen
Building: First Bites — a doctor-vetted baby food tracker that helps parents confidently track food variety and monitor allergen exposure when introducing solids.
Edge: What started as a personal spreadsheet to track her son's food allergies became an app used by 4k+ parents, all through organic word of mouth.
One truly innovative thing: "Most apps treat food tracking like a basic digital diary, but First Bites actively guides allergen maintenance with input from board-certified allergists. We’ve translated exposure schedules for the top nine allergens into an intuitive traffic-light system that shows parents exactly what’s due next.”
Working on something cool? Tell us here.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 1916, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland 222-0, the biggest margin of victory in college football history.
💸 That’s wild: The madcap story of a woman who allegedly stole $30m.
🥷 Game: You’re a ninja. Now don’t explode.
🪟 Haha: A parody that may hit too close to home for Microsoft Windows users.
🐅 Aww: A sweet, if entirely scary, boop.
SHOWER THOUGHT
It took roughly 117 billion people about 300,000 years to bring technology to what it is today. SOURCE
Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, Danny Jensen, and Bill Meincke.
Editing by: Sara "Brewed awakening" Friedman.
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