Good Morning! OpenAI soared past $1 billion in revenue as big companies supercharge investment in AI. Cannabis stocks surged as health officials look to shift marijuana into a lower-risk drug category. Q2 GDP growth was slower than expected, hinting at a potential rate hike pause. Elon Musk is under scrutiny by DOJ and SEC over a secret Tesla project for a glass house for the CEO. And the GOAT, Warren Buffett, turned 93 yesterday.

If you missed our Excel Webinar, you can view a recording of it here.

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Crypto Mafia

You’ve probably heard of the PayPal Mafia - the group of former employees that have gone on to start companies like Tesla, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

But Fidelity says they’re home to the so-called ‘crypto mafia’. It’s ironic - Fidelity is a big-time financial powerhouse with $4.5 trillion in assets under management.

Fidelity is precisely the type of institution the founders of crypto sought to disrupt. And yet, Fidelity was one of crypto’s earliest backers. They started mining Bitcoin in 2014 (when it was only trading around $400).

And over the past year, when regulators began cracking down on the industry, Fidelity went on a hiring spree and helped provide legitimacy to the industry. Some of Fidelity's crypto alumni have become venture capital investors, heads of research, and startup founders. And they call themselves the Fidelity Mafia.

Fidelity Investments maintains a strong crypto department. But the firm might have gotten too aggressive - they were criticized last year for ‘jeopardizing retirement security’ when they allowed investors to put Bitcoin in their 401(k)’s.

Takeaway: It’s a little ironic - the big whales that crypto founders sought to take out have become the most successful players in the space. And it goes to show that in the finance industry, you can do something entrepreneurial but still set yourself up with a brand name on your resume at the same time.

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Markets Rundown

Stocks closed higher as economic data fuels rate-pause bets.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Apple ($AAPL) +2% because Citi reaffirmed its buy rating ahead of the iPhone 15 launch.

• (–) Hewlett-Packard ($HPQ) -7% after the company missed sales goals as PC demand remains soft.

• (–) Box ($BOX) -12% after the cloud-based company’s earnings outlook diappointed.

Private Dealmaking

• E.L.F. Beauty bought skin care brand Naturium for $355 million 

• Archimed bought Instem, a healthcare IT firm, for $222 million 

• Mediafly, a revenue enablement platform, raised $80 million

• Hyperproof, a risk and compliance management SaaS, raised $40 million 

• Runway, a financial planning tools maker, raised $27.5 million

• Isometric, a carbon removal registry company, raised $25 million

Get access to private deal flow here.

_{SPONSORED BY PERCENT}

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_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Amazon will let you pay with your palm at Whole Foods - but there’s a catch (CNBC)

• Workers want AI to help with burnout (Axios)

• Shein faces scrutiny over forced labor before IPO (CNBC)

• Home prices increased for 5 consecutive months (Fox)

• Grayscale CEO predicts crypto environment we haven’t seen before (YF)

• This miserable market could be a catalyst for private equity firms (II)

• The labor market returns to pre-pandemic normalcy (Axios)

• Nvidia is AI king, but threats to its reign abound (YF)

• How Yahoo sparked a renaissance under private equity owners (Axios)

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How Big Things Get Done

Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant, new reality. Think of how the Empire State Building went from a sketch to the jewel of New York’s skyline in twenty-one months, or how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to a product launch in eleven months.

These are wonderful stories. But most of the time big visions turn into nightmares. Remember Boston’s “Big Dig”? Almost every sizeable city in the world has such a fiasco in its backyard. In fact, no less than 92% of megaprojects come in over budget or over schedule, or both.

The cost of California’s high-speed rail project soared from $33 billion to $100 billion—and won’t even go where promised. More modest endeavors, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?

Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life’s work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, dubbed “the world’s leading megaproject expert.”

In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors in judgment and decision-making that lead projects, both big and small, to fail, and the research-based principles that will make you succeed with yours.

“Think slow, act fast: That’s the rhythm of success.”

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Short Squeez Picks

• 6 mindset strategies I wish I’d known earlier in my career

• Use the timeline technique to make forward progress in your business

• Why do toxic leaders succeed?

• Get more done with the 3-3-3 Method

• How to cultivate conversational intelligence

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Slowing Spring Growth

Quarterly change in US GDP

_{WHAT ELSE TO READ}

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Get Happier

Get Off Autopilot: Too often we’re not thinking; we’re just reacting. We fall into a funk and suppress or avoid bad feelings. Breaking these bad mental habits can feel like trying to un-toast a piece of bread. But first we need to step back and notice them.

Openness: Let the feelings in. It’s not fun but get curious about them. Notice them but don’t get caught up in them. Yes, it’s hard. Not getting caught up in emotions is like trying to play Jenga during an earthquake.

Acceptance: You can’t immediately change bad feelings. But we can accept them. Acknowledge them like you do your crazy uncle. You don’t have to agree but don’t try and shove them away either.

Detachment: Negative emotions can seem like glitter on a craft project gone wrong – they stick around forever. Give them a nickname or just thank your brain. Something to remind you they’re not you. They’re just something that popped up in your brain. And they can float away if you let them.

Act On Your Values: You don’t need to purchase some silly manifesting course that costs more than a black-market kidney. Once the feelings die down, you need to take some action. Move toward being the person you want to be.

Source: Eric Barker

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Memes of the Day