An Unhinged Founder Strikes Back & Revenge Travel

Bolt's wild ride and American travel is simmering down

Author

Sammi Cohen
August 25, 2024

Biz & Culture: Articles of the Week

Earlier this year, Beyoncé announced Cécred, but little did we know that she’s had yet another brand launch up her sleeve. Beyoncé is continuing her foray into the country music world with the launch of a whiskey brand called “SirDavis” under the LVMH empire, entering the same industry that made her husband a billionaire (Jay Z is estimated to have made $300 million selling half of his luxury champagne brand Ace of Spades to LVMH in 2021 and $750 million selling a majority of his stake in D'ussé Cognac to Bacardi). SirDavis could push Beyoncé closer to billionaire status depending on how well it performs. I know we are all collectively exhausted with celebrity alcohol lines, but LVMH is known for its execution on luxury brands, so I’m expecting this to have a better shot (no pun intended) than most.

In case you missed it, Temu sued Shein at the end of last year and alleged a variety of things - one of which was “Mafia-style” intimidation tactics on merchants. This quote from the lawsuit is WILD: “Shein recently has gone so far as to falsely imprison merchants doing business with Temu, including detaining merchant representatives in Shein’s offices for many hours while Shein confiscates the merchants’ electronic devices.” Now, Shein is coming after Temu with accusations that are equally as aggressive.

This is one of the more unhinged founder stories that I’ve come across in a while (it’s safe to say I’ll be doing a video on this story this week). Ryan Breslow, the founder of a well-known fintech company, Bolt, surprised the industry with a leaked term sheet that revealed it is trying to raise $200 million in equity and an unusual, additional $250 million in “marketing credits”, which would bring the company’s valuation to $14 billion. The company has seen a lot of controversy since its last $11 billion valuation in 2022, including Ryan stepping down as CEO in early 2022. Part of the news of the new funding round included Breslow coming back as CEO. This is after allegations that he misled investors and violated security laws by inflating metrics while fundraising the last time he ran the company.

When Apple won the rights in 2021 to make the action comedy “Wolfs” with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, it did so in part because it promised the stars it would put the movie into a large number of movie theaters. But this month, just six weeks before the film was set to show up in thousands of US theaters, Apple announced a significant change in plans. “Wolfs” will now be shown on a limited number of movie screens for one week before becoming available on the company’s streaming service at the end of September. “None of Apple’s films have done well,” Stephen Galloway, the dean of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, said in an interview. “Financially, you might think it doesn’t matter. This is a company worth $3.3 trillion. But psychologically, it does.

The luxury-goods industry is cutthroat and usually unforgiving for struggling brands.  Since 2017, Burberry has tried to appeal to higher-end customers who would be willing to pay higher prices. If consumers think a label is exclusive, they will be more willing to pay a full price. Louis Vuitton and Hermès both have operating margins north of 40%. But sales and operating profit at the end of Burberry’s last financial year were only 9% and 1% higher, respectively, than they were six years ago.

Maria Sharapova turned to investing after retiring from tennis—and one of her first bets was the sun protection phenomenon Supergoop. Now, she's announcing a new investment in startup Cofertility. What’s incredible about this startup is their business model: “We enable women to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to intended parents that can't otherwise conceive.” As someone who did 2 rounds of egg freezing/IVF earlier this year to bank embryos, this hits very close to home (I was very fortunate and my employer covered the fees) and I’m thrilled that more creative financing options are coming out.

The End of the Revenge Travel Era?

Chartr

Post-pandemic, Americans were over-eager to see all of their favorite places around the globe after being stuck at home. The rush of people eager to book trips quickly morphed into a trend known as “revenge travel”, with consumers digging deep into their COVID-boosted savings to splurge on cruises, flights, and hotels. That desire to get away has now lasted as long as the pandemic itself, as America continues to rediscover its sense of wanderlust.

In fact, earlier this year, more Americans than ever were planning international travel, according to data from The Conference Board’s US Consumer Confidence Survey. In February, a record 21.8% of Americans intended on holidaying abroad within the next 6 months… perhaps with an eye on joining the throngs of tourists in summer hotspots like Barcelona or Santorini.

But now, a few years and some vacations later, travel companies are starting to sound the alarm about an apparent slowdown in the industry.

Earlier this month, travel-dependent companies such as Airbnb, Ryanair and Expedia Group all issued a gloomy economic outlook on the state of travel. It might be a tricky idea to get our heads around at this time of year, when social media feeds are flooded with envy-inducing poolside or beachside snaps, but such comments would suggest that the era of “revenge travel” might be coming to an end. Read the full article here.

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