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Case Study

1. How one app won over 100+ million teens

Ever seen a teenager read a book? Yeah me neither. But I'll bet you've seen one with a screen 4 inches from her face. That mobile-first mindset led Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia, co-founders of the crazy popular app, Hooked, to modernize the way content creators connect with young adults. Their invention: a bite-size text message format app that has hooked 100+ million kids on suspenseful stories, enticing them to cough up subscription fees of up to $39.99/month. The takeaway: Technology has made it easy for companies to connect directly with consumers. But your content better connect if you want to stand out. Gupta and Chordia used a tried-and-true startup tactic -- get early versions of your product in front of customers and make changes based on their feedback -- to create a whole new storytelling format. Check out their story to make deeper connections with your customers.

Trends Report

2. Make millions as a sneaker entrepreneur

The sneaker market is booming -- last month, the “sneaker stock exchange” StockX raised $110m at a valuation north of $1B, and some individual shoe sellers make upwards of $250k. As we discussed last week, the resale market in general is expected to double in five years, and sneakers are a major component. Our report shows you how to become a sneaker entrepreneur, with an exclusive analysis of which shoes are selling the fastest.

Breaking in: To re-sell shoes for thousands, buyers can’t just show up at Foot Locker the day they come out. The best buyers in the biz are ponying up thousands of dollars for sneaker bots with names like “Soleslayer” to snag the rarest kicks faster than human hands.  The takeaway: It's not all about the timing, of course. The best sneaker entrepreneurs understand the shoes that are all hype -- like the Chinese New Crazy BYW -- and the shoes that will really resell for $2k+. Read our full analysis by clicking below.

New Database

3. What we're working on: Private Mergers and Acquisitions Database

1. The detailed income statements of privately held internet businesses that recently sold
2. The price the companies sold for
3. Sales price multiples based on income and revenue

4. News you need to know

Why you should try to be debt-free by age 45 (Marketwatch): You may want to think about paying off your mortgage and those student loans faster than you thought. If you're still paying off debt when you reach middle age, you won't be able save and invest enough by the typical retirement age, says Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary. How to shed debt in time? Treat yourself like an early-stage business and keep costs down. Want to get paid more? Move abroad (Quartz): Average salaries in the US have increased by about 2% and 3% the last two years. The real salary bumps are abroad. According to a report for HSBC, average workers under 35 who moved abroad in the last year saw a 35% jump in salary. Those between 35 and 54 experienced a 24% increase. The top two countries for salary gains were the UAE (50%) and Hong Kong (41%). Is India the next hot market for tech IPOs? (TechCrunch): India has had its fair share of unicorns the last few years, including Flipkart and Paytm. But it has rarely had a big tech IPO. Last week, 23-year-old B2B selling platform India Mart raised nearly $70m during a rare tech IPO for India. Insiders think this could be a bellwether. “[The] Indian market is ready for more tech stocks. We just need to get more companies to go out there," investor Rajesh Sawhney says. The German case for reining in Google and Facebook (NYT): American regulators have been circling Big Tech the last few years without asserting control. Germany's leading antitrust lawyer may have the answer. He is building an antitrust case against companies like Google and Facebook, which essentially mandate users turn over personal data, by arguing the data gives them an unfair advantage against potential rivals, creating an uncompetitive atmosphere. Mark Zuckerberg, "former innovator"? (Bloomberg): Inside a fascinating story about Facebook's battle to fend off negative PR is a nugget about its founder discovering that the public no longer considers him a "current innovator." Instead, he was viewed by a Facebook focus group as a "former innovator," someone who "once pushed the envelope." When Zuck heard the news, Bloomberg says he was "incredulous" and concerned about whether that same reputation applied to Facebook, which has long been losing cache among young people.

Industry Insider

5. Companies to Watch: Webflow, Relationship Hero 

Trends Interview

6. The King of Content Marketing

Joe Speiser started his first company when he was 12, and has made millions writing blogs and creating affiliate partnerships. We sat down with him to discuss some of the five businesses he’s started and what’s led to his success. On his highlight reel:

• Speiser's first big splash -- Ezoogle, one of the first affiliate networks -- did $200m in revenue by the time he was 25.

• He started a pet blog that would become one of the most popular sites on the internet, growing to $5m in monthly revenue.

But it hasn’t been all roses. Like any content creator, he faced strong headwinds when Facebook changed its algorithm.

And the pet-food business attached to that pet blog? It went up against Chewy, which raised 10x more money before getting snapped up by PetSmart.

But Speiser has made a career pivoting into bigger and better things. Read our full interview to see what he’s up to next. Click below to read.

Events from The Hustle

7. Join the Trends team at Hustle Con: December 2-3, 2019