P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #345

Old business model violently executed

my story 🚀

Should we get flowers for mama? Always.

i’ve been thinking 💭

I was chatting with the founder of a successful online specialty pharmacy about Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company. I had recently read this interview with Cuban and was curious to get the perspective of someone more experienced in the space. He cut right to the chase: “Unless I am missing something I don’t see anything different between Cubans business model and a Mail-order pharmacy. Mail order pharmacies are ultra-competitive and low margin already.” I turned to ChatGPT for help. It pointed me to several mail-order pharmacies, including PillPack (now owned by Amazon). I chose one I hadn’t heard of, Honeybee Health, and asked for a comparison.

This neatly organized table might might strip away some nuances, and it might even be inaccurate in some ways (thanks GPT), but it sure does make it seem like Cuban’s business model is not unique.

Yet, here’s a key difference: free publicity thanks to Cuban’s star power. Honeybee Health launched in 2018 with $27k in sales. By 2020, they grew to $5mm in revenue. And in 2021, they were on track to reach $14 million. Meanwhile, “In September ‘22, Cost Plus Drugs reportedly surpassed $25 million in sales and 1 million customers (10% week-over-week growth) within the first nine months of operations.”

General George S. Patton famously said “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” If I’m being optimistic about Cuban’s impact, maybe what we’re seeing is an old business model, violently executed now with the benefit of zero-cost customer acquisition.

fun facts 🙌

7 body parts you didn't know had a name. “For some reason, though, we skipped over a few details in anatomy class when learning about the human body. For instance, what’s the space between our eyebrows called? What about the one between your upper lip and nose? And is there a name for the white coloring at the bottom of your nails?” ~ learn more

Halfsies. A game of shapes and strategies. “Using the white shape, try to cut the shaded shape perfectly in half.” ~ play now

Great news about American wealth. “In other words, a rising tide is lifting all boats. I know it can be tough to believe that, with all the doom and gloom you see in the media, but the numbers speak for themselves. And just so you know, all the numbers I give in this post are adjusted for inflation, so don’t worry about that.” ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

What's wrong with LLMs and what we should be building instead. A presentation by Thomas G. Dietterich, emeritus professor of computer science at Oregon State University, a pioneer of the field of machine learning. “This talk will review these shortcomdifferentings and current efforts to address them within the existing LLM framework. It will then argue for a , more modular architecture that decomposes the functions of existing LLMs and adds several additional components. We believe this alternative can address all of the shortcomings of LLMs. We will speculate about how this modular architecture could be built through a combination of machine learning and engineering.” ~ learn more

“Creator-Entrepreneurs”: A New Hope. From John Hu, founder of Stan. “For all of the shouting of a reckoning, I’d actually argue that there’s never been a better time to be building in the Creator Economy. What we’re seeing right now isn’t so much a “winter” as it is a reset back to reality. The fundamentals of the Creator Economy are healthier than ever. And there’s an emerging class of Creators that’s proving this out.” ~ learn more

Demystifying and deconstructing Q&A bots that work over your data. “This post will provide a high-level overview of [retrieval augmented generation] RAG. We’ll start from the big picture workflow of what’s happening, and then zoom in on all the individual pieces. By the end of it, you should have a solid understanding of how those three magic lines of code work, and all the principles involved in creating these Q&A bots.” ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

Mimetic theory. Keeping this in mind to try and make better decisions. "Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires." ~ learn more

How Fred Wilson improved his sleep. “My experience over the last two years tells me that sleep habits can change and those of us who are poor sleepers can become good sleepers. I started with a device (in my case an Oura ring) that let me measure my sleep. I find that measuring helps to manage. But ultimately it is behavior change that helps the most.” ~ learn more

to your health ⚕

The Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act. This passed the house in 2018, but the senate never voted on it. “The … Act will allow Americans to use pre-tax dollars—flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs)—to pay for health club memberships, fitness equipment, exercise videos, and youth sports leagues.” ~ learn more

The consumerism conundrum in healthcare. “We can consumerize bread-and-butter conditions like acne, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, or sore throat. These prevalent issues come with well-documented, evidence-based treatments that most individuals may need at some point, and physicians/providers have a clear, standardized approach to managing them.” ~ learn more

retail therapy 💸

Diaper brand, Hello Bello, is bankrupt after hitting $180 million revenue. “In 2019, celebrity couple, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard launched Hello Bello.” This post summarizes how they went from a successful launch and incredible ramp to running out of cash. ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

Fungal infections in the brain may cause Alzheimer's-like symptoms. “For now, that is just a hypothesis, but it does align with recent findings that indicate amyloid beta plaques are latecomers in Alzheimer's disease, not the original triggers of cognitive decline. This could be why treatments that target these plaques in humans mostly prove unsuccessful.” ~ learn more

New organ-on-a-chip provides hope to arthritis sufferers. “Researchers have developed a 3D organ-on-a-chip, complete with blood vessels, that mimics the human joint. The discovery will help researchers understand the pathology of joint diseases better and assist with the identification and testing of new treatments for arthritis.” ~ learn more

thoughts of food 🍔

Chipotle and California’s $20 minimum wage. “Around 15% of Chipotle’s 3,300 stores are located in California. The minimum wage increase will add between 2.5% and 3% to the company’s overall labor costs.” The article says they’ve already raised prices four times in the past to years, and they also plan to pass this cost on to customers via higher prices. This will be a natural experiment in demand elasticity. ~ learn more

Salty taste without the salt. “Japanese researchers Homei Miyashita and Hiromi Nakamura received this year's Ig Nobel Prize for nutrition on Thursday for research that led to the development of tableware that employs electric stimulation to allow users to sense salty taste strongly.” ~ learn more

on the blockchain ⛓

Nick Tomaino of 1confirmation on 20 Minute VC. How did this developer with no rich friends start a crypto VC fund with $26 million after getting pushed out of Coinbase? He had built a personal brand. Crypto folks made fun of him at the time for raising only $26 million. Today he remains high-credibility, unlike so many others. ~ learn more

The SEC burned LBRY to the ground. “It makes me angry that with all the scams in the crypto world, the SEC chose to go after a working product with real customers and users. No one, not the customers, the content creators or the investors has benefitted or been protected by the SEC. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here is SEC commissioner Hester Peirce’s compelling Statement of Dissent…” ~ learn more

thanks for reading!