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AI eats the world. The AI investing frenzy is reaching a fever pitch… and it’s only just getting started. From coding productivity tools to AI chatbot creators, check out this thread of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s latest investments.
In other news… Pay-TV’s slow demise, Rewind revolutionizes investing, and the Taylor Swift economy.
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MEDIA
Streaming gives satellite TV a sendoff // Illustration by Kate Walker
Streaming services are killing cable and satellite TV
The Future. Cable, satellite, and internet TV providers just had their worst quarter ever in terms of subscriber losses. With streaming continually on the rise and competition stiffer than ever, it looks like “Pay-TV” programs may be dying right before our eyes.
Cutting cords
From the numbers, it’s clear that people just aren’t watching “Pay-TV” anymore.
Comcast, the biggest US provider of Pay-TV, lost 614K subscribers – more than any other company.
But customer dropoff was severe across the board, with major cable operators seeing an average customer dropoff of 9.9% YoY.
Meanwhile, leading satellite providers lost 13.4% of their audiences.
Multichannel video programming distributors lost 264,000 customers over the same time span.
The sole pay-TV provider to grow its audience was YouTube TV, which added 300K subscribers in Q1.
Good night and good luck
The shift from Pay-TV to streaming services is only getting more pronounced. It’s telling that the only healthy competitor in this sphere, YouTube, is also a web giant and video-sharing platform.
If it’s on cable, it can probably be streamed for cheap – so why not stream it? If these providers can’t figure out how to offer something streamers can’t, it’s curtains for cable.
BUSINESS
Rewind turns the tables on VCs // Illustration by Kate Walker
Rewind flips the script on investors
The Future. Rewind, an AI startup that sells itself as a user’s “perfect memory,” just tried a novel approach to Series A fundraising. After publicly inviting investors to make offers, Rewind fetched a $350 million valuation – and potentially changed the future of startup investing for good.
Impress me
Rewind took negotiation off the table, giving investors an offer they couldn’t refuse.
CEO Dan Siroker shared a public link to an internet form where investors could enter the highest amount of money they’d pay to invest in Rewind, with acceptable guesses ranging from $200 million to $1 billion.
This pitch got 1.7 million views on Twitter, leading to over 1,000 preliminary offers and 170 committed offers.
While Rewind ended up with a sky-high valuation, the one they chose was just a fraction of the highest valuations, with 22 investors making offers that valued Rewind at over $1 billion.
Power to the people who aren’t VCs
Rewind could make these demands partly because AI startups are all the rage right now. Regardless, they’ve set an example for other promising companies to follow and wrest bargaining power away from the VC firms who’ve historically held it. Maybe it’s time investors took the back seat.
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BUSINESS
This is Swiftonomics 101
The Future. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is expected to be one of the highest-grossing tours of all time, but its impact reaches beyond tickets and merch, as Swifties splurge on travel, lodging, clothes, and makeup to attend. Her fans’ extravagance could point to a larger trend of consumers indulging in experiences they missed during years of cooped-up pandemic living.
“It’s me, hi”
Each stop on the Eras Tour is preparing for a boom as Swifties cross state lines to attend whatever shows they could get tickets for.
Glendale, Arizona, where hotel rates soared when fans visited from around the world, temporarily renamed itself “Swift City.”
Swift’s three-night stay in Houston resulted in the city’s highest hotel revenue week of 2023, jacking up prices more than the NCAA’s Final Four tournament.
The Courtyard by Marriott in Philadelphia, near the 65,000-seat stadium where Swift performed this weekend, is completely booked (a rare occurrence).
“Wind in my hair, I was there”
The celebration doesn’t stop there. Fans want to look good for the shows, so they’re shelling out for bejeweled boots, custom jackets, and hair and makeup. And major retailers like Amazon and Poshmark are selling out of Eras outfits.
It’s Taylor’s world. We just live in it.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
How Americans celebrated Mother’s Day
This year, Americans were projected to spend nearly $36 billion on Mother’s Day gifts, a $4 billion increase over 2022, according to the National Retail Federation. Over half of the respondents to an NRF survey said they would take their moms on a “special outing” as opposed to giving traditional gifts. Mother’s Day sees a 37% uptick in phone calls, making it the busiest calling day of the year. There’s no wrong way to honor Mom.
Read More → adweek
Americans set their sights on international travel
Searches for international flights are 42% higher than they were this time last year, with Europe topping the list, according to Kayak and Hopper. Airfare to Europe is averaging $1,200 per round-trip ticket, a 37% increase from 2019 and 2022. If you want to fly there this summer, you might spend $300 more than you would have before the pandemic. Trending destinations include London, Paris, and Rome, as well as Milan, Montenegro, and the Canary Islands. Bon voyage.
Read More → insider
Dream Assembly Base Camp evolves virtual fashion
The Web3 fashion accelerator program, launched by Farfetch and Outlier Ventures in 2022, just announced its second cohort of startup talent. The lineup includes Decommerce, Me Protocol, Nettle, Solaire, SPIN by Lablaco, Wovn, and Numbers Protocol, which are geared towards such aspects as customer engagement, loyalty rewards and community, payment and commerce infrastructure, and data infrastructure. In addition to investors, the startups will receive support from a network of mentors in the fashion, technology, and Web3 industries.
Read More → forbes
Do the upfronts still matter?
Before this year’s upfront week (which kicks off today), many buyers wondered whether the tradition was still necessary. While the pageantry does cater to the broader marketing community, junior personnel, the media, and clients, the value of flashy, star-studded presentations remains in question. Several buyers praised Paramount’s move out of upfront week toward customized Upfront dinners for clients in April, with one admitting (anonymously) they were “relieved.”
Read More → adweek
A recession could hit as early as June 1st
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates there’s “significant risk” the US could default on its debt within the first two weeks of June if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by then. A default could trigger a recession on par with the Great Recession, but this time, the government wouldn’t have the money to step in and cushion the crisis. Yikes.
Read More → insider
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Today's email was brought to you by Luke Perrotta and Kait Cunniff. Editing by Melody Song. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.