Personal takes and retweets as well as blatant self-promotion
Mateo
Joined July 2008
- Tweets29.7K
- Following11K
- Followers22.9K
- Likes5.7K
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
DoorDash is buying Instacart for about $17B. At my last firm, my boss asked me whether we should invest at a $10M post-money. I recommended we pass because the valuation seemed high and the business seemed capital intensive. Obviously that was the wrong call. Read on >>
Your ânew categoryâ is an old one with a new use case open.substack.com/pub/scaledâŠ
oh
XS Nightclub at Encore reopens tomorrow (Nov. 5) following a three-month renovation. You and your bruzz can still grab a sweet VIP table for opening weekend. wynnsocial.com/vip-tables/
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
JUST IN: Atlanta strip club Magic City announces election night watch party â "From the Polls to the Polesâ
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
Nerds going from ~$40M to nearly $900M since launching Gummy Clusters might be one of the most underreported CPG stories of the decade.
And it almost didnât work.
The idea actually started in 2001 with Nerds Rope. But no breakout.
Then Gummy Clusters launched in 2020 with just ~$700K of marketing. Early tests flopped.
In 2021, Kylie Jenner posted them organically to ~200M followers: âNext level.â
TikTok took it from there. The crunch became ASMR content.
Sales:
2020: ~$8M
2024: $500M+
Today: approaching $900M
Repeat is insane too:
More than 1 in 5 buyers purchase 6+ times a year.
Nerds has now passed Skittles as Americaâs #1 sugar candy.
And Mars is responding with gummy versions of Skittles + Starburst.
Big M&A win. Ferrero bought NestlĂ©âs entire US candy portfolio in 2018 for $2.8B: Butterfinger. Crunch. SweeTARTS. Laffy Taffy. Nerds.
Nerds was basically an afterthought.
Today, the value created by Nerds alone may have effectively paid for the whole acquisition.
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
The Golden State Valkyries' story is crazy.
In 2023, the Warriors ownership group (Joe Lacob, Peter Guber) paid $50 million for a WNBA expansion team.
Lacob promised that they would win a championship within five years and also lead the league in revenue.
Now, in just their second season, the Valkyries have accomplished both.
âą 12,000+ season ticket holders (90% renewal rate)
âą 40+ sponsorship partners (JPMorgan Chase, etc.)
âą $100 million in annual revenue (WNBA record)
âą 44 straight sellouts (league-leading attendance)
âą 2026 WNBA Champions (beat the Atlanta Dream)
And here's the craziest part...
Not only did Lacob and Guber negotiate a clause that let them pay the $50 million expansion fee over 10 years, but the last three expansion teams sold for $250 million each, and the Valkyries are now valued at $1 billion.
That is 20x more than the $50 million expansion fee, and it makes the Valkyries the most valuable franchise in women's sports history.
Today's newsletter breaks down all the details.
READ: huddleup.substack.com/p/how-âŠ
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
Pat Murphy says he still wasnât a good coach even after winning at Notre Dame and going to the College World Series at Arizona State because he was still making it about him instead of the players
âYou know, when you get to a spot in life when youâre a little bit older, you start to make it not about you. When I dropped my ego, which took a while, I wasnât a good coach at Notre Dame. Even though we were winning games, I still wasnât good. I didnât know baseball, for one, and it was about me a little bit at the end.â
âI started the right way. I loved Notre Dame, and I didnât want to embarrass the university. I was working for $7,000 a year. I just wanted to be good and not embarrass them. We had a lot of success, but then it became about me.â
âAnd then I got to ASU, and it became about me again. We won a lot and went to the World Series a lot, but I just wasnât good. It took getting knocked on my ass a little bit. I had that NCAA thing, which was total bull, but it woke me up. My kids made a difference in my life, and you start to realize it ainât about you. Honestly, itâs not about me.â
âAnd whenever I started focusing on that, we came into last year and everything wrong happens. We trade Corbin. Woodyâs out for the year. Devinâs out. We cut the budget $30 million. Weâre going to suck. And again, I just kept saying, âItâs not about me. Make it about that young energy.â And we had these young guys go out and make me look good. Hungry players, you remember when you guys were hungry in your career? Hungry players make the manager look good.â
âAnd thatâs exactly what happened. Now I got the credit for it. Iâm still under construction. Iâm not great. There are so many areas I suck in. But then youâre trying to find staff members to help you, trying to realize what you suck at.â
âBut the most important thing is love the player. When you really find the good in that dude, thatâs it. The guy thatâs hardest to love needs love the most. Iâm at a point in life where itâs about them. And if you keep it about themâŠâ
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
Son: Hey Dad, what was your favorite song when you were in high school?
Dad: Son, let me take you back to 1995 for a minute. This will give you goosebumps.
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
Eleven years before Michael Jordan, Nike gave NBA star Spencer Haywood 10% of the company.
While Haywood was on a road trip, his agent sold the whole 10% stake for $100,000 in cashâjust to collect his $10,000 fee.
In the video below, Haywood is asked if he is still friends with the man who sold it. His answer: "Yes."
In 1973, Haywood was 24 and averaging 29 points a game in Seattle. Phil Knight came to him and asked him to wear his new shoe.
Knight didn't have the cash to match Converse. So he offered Haywood stock instead.
"First of all, I was young, too, and I'm thinking: livestock? What are you talking about? Stocks," Haywood says.
Haywood took the stock.
His agent had a problem. An agent gets 10%. Ten percent of stock in a tiny shoe company couldn't pay his bills. Ten percent of $100,000 in cash was $10,000 in his pocket right away.
So the agent kept telling Haywood the shoe would never work. At the time, Nike only made running shoes for Steve Prefontaine. When Haywood ran down the court, defenders stepped on his heel and popped the shoe right off his foot.
Before leaving for a road trip, Haywood gave in.
"I said, 'Okay, man, I give you the power of attorney. Let me just go play. I got to really focus on this game now because this is my chance.'"
When Haywood came back, the stock was gone.
"He had sold that sh*t," Haywood says. "He said, 'Man, I got the cash right here â 100,000.'"
Matt Barnes asks him what that 10% of Nike would be worth.
"It was up around 2.7 billion," Haywood says. "Years ago." At Nike's peak, 10% was worth over $8.6 billion.
The case for the agent: in 1973, Nike was a tiny Oregon running-shoe company, and the shoes literally fell off Haywood's feet during games.
Could you stay friends with a man who cost you $2.7 billion?
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
Before Hollywood, I was living in a van in Hawaii and waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. One day, the incredible Rae Dawn Chong walked into the restaurant, and naturally, I went up to her table and said, âHey, youâre a movie star! What are you doing here?â
She asked if I could act, and I said, âFuck yeah, put me in your movie!â
She asked for my phone number. The only problem was I didnât have one. So I gave her my buddy Mikeâs number instead. A couple days later, Mike casually mentions, âOh, by the way, someone called you.â ARE YOU KIDDING ME, MIKE?!
I called her back, and sure enough, she was serious. I drove over to pick up the script, went back to Mikeâs house, and read all 120 pages three times in a row. First script Iâd ever read. My character's name was Devon, and I remember thinking, âSweet! I could totally play a Devon!â
I showed up to the audition with every line and inflection mapped out in pencil. Rae told me I could act and offered me the part. I asked if we were shooting in Hawaii. Nope. Los Angeles.
I had about $60 to my name, a bag of clothes, and some rollerblades.
Then Rae told me they'd fly me out. And I remember thinking right then and there, my life just changed forever. I'm going to be an actor.
That little movie was Cursed Part 3, a low-budget horror comedy that opened the door to Hollywood for me.
I'll forever be grateful to Rae for taking a chance on a kid working at a shrimp restaurant. Everybody starts somewhere, and this is where it all began for me.
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
The salaries and contracts of the 2005â2006 WWE roster have been leaked.
Triple H's salary impresses me a bit.
Plan for 2027 with smarter AI & more human control open.substack.com/pub/scaledâŠ
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
Jordan Belfort finally explained what âSell me this penâ really tests, and most salespeople fail it in 1 sentence.
The moment they hear the line, they start pitching. The pen is great, it writes upside down, itâs the best value for the money. To Belfort, thatâs the clearest sign someone doesnât understand selling.
The right answer doesnât mention the pen at all, at least not at first.
A fan in the audience asks Belfort to sell the pen. He jokes that no one has ever asked him that before, then explains what the test is really for: before you pitch anything, you ask questions. How long have you been in the market for a pen? What have you used before? Is it for business or personal? How much do you usually spend?
Pitching without asking, Belfort says, tells the buyer you donât give a shit about them. Youâre just ramming the product down their throat.
The questions also tell Belfort who to walk away from. If someone says theyâre not looking for a pen, he says âGreat, have a nice dayâ and moves on. To him, the biggest rookie mistake is trying to sell to everybody.
Only then does Belfort pitch: âBased on what you said to me, this pen is perfect. Let me tell you why.â And the pen, he says, is just a stand-in for any product.
Rookies sell the pen. Pros sell what you just told them.
Be honest: would you have pitched the pen, or asked the first question?
Your marketing budget is going down in 2027. Here's how to cope. Latest Substack open.substack.com/pub/scaledâŠ
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
An excellent look at what menâs college đ teams are offering & paying high school basketball recruits.
And how player contracts are being structured.
Five star recruits are generally demanding 1 yr deals.
Lower ranked recruits are sometimes taking 2 yr deals.
Market is up.
NEW: Some of the nation's top high school basketball recruits are commanding NIL offers approaching $5 million for a single season.
I spoke with anonymous college coaches and GMs about the rising market, two-year deals, and what goes on behind the scenes during negotiations.
Story: on3.com/rivals/news/inside-câŠ
Craig Rosenberg retweeted
NLCS MVP Jake Bauers shares how letting go of results helped him find a different level of freedom as a competitor.
"I think what changed for me this year was I stopped caring about results. I started caring about competing. I started caring about being in the moment and getting out of my own way."
Sometimes, the biggest obstacle to performing at your best isn't a lack of preparation or ability.
It's the pressure you place on yourself to produce a particular outcome.
You become so concerned with what you want to happen that you lose touch with what the moment actually requires.
Any performer can unlock a new level when they learn how to be fully invested in the competition without becoming imprisoned by the outcome.
đ„: Fox Sports
