Good Morning! Please find the Wall Street firm feedback deck here.

Yesterday was the tale of two Wall Street titans. Blackstone is reportedly closing in on a record milestone - becoming the first private equity firm to manage $1 trillion. Goldman Sachs on the other hand reported a 58% drop in profits as dealmaking dries up.

It’s looking like hybrid work is here to stay in NYC, with Wednesday office visits hitting 73% of 2019 levels, up from 53% this time last year. But good luck getting anyone in-office on a Friday - office visits are still lagging at 43%. And the Eurotrip is back, too - more Americans are expected to make the trip across the pond than even before the pandemic.

Apple dialed up the heat in the AI arms race - the company is developing its own chatbot to take on Microsoft, Google, and even Elon Musk.

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_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

When Size Doesn’t Matter

Silicon Valley investors had been on a tear scaling up their fund sizes over the past decade. Every year, venture capital funds got larger and larger. And the logic checks out - the technology market was expanding rapidly, and why couldn’t VC firms compete with $10B+ private equity funds?

But it turns out that strategy backfired. The technology market crashed last year, and megafunds were left with overvalued stakes in startups with little to no chance of going public. Take SoftBank, for example. The firm launched a $100 billion VC fund in 2017, and has since written down billions of dollars off its investments.

And now? More venture giants like Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global Management, accustomed to raising megafunds, are telling investors that they’re eyeing smaller funds. Part of it's because it's a much tougher fundraising environment. Another reason? University endowments and pension funds are cutting back on VC investments because of the risk. And with a barren IPO market, investors won't be able to get those fat payouts needed to reinvest in new funds.

Takeaway: Bigger isn’t always better - at least not in investing. And over the past few years, venture capital firms have been learning that the hard way. Some forms of investing are just harder to scale than others - and it looks like venture capital might be one of them.

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed higher as earnings season heats up.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Carvana ($CVNA) +40% because of a deal to reduce the company’s debt by $1.2 billion.

• (–) Omnicom ($OMC) -10% after the marketing and communications company missed revenue expectations.

• (–) Joy Aviation ($JOBY) -16% after a downgrade by JPMorgan.

Private Dealmaking

• Musina, an online fashion company, raised $190 million

• 09 Solutions, a supply chain planning company, raised $116 million

• Preply, an online language learning marketplace, raised $70 million

• Tractable, a car and home assessment startup, raised $65 million

• Risc Zero, a blockchain technology startup, raised $40 million

• Mynd, a real estate investing startup, raised $30 million

_{SPONSORED BY FENNEL}

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_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Goldman Sachs isn’t transforming fast enough (WSJ)

• Barbenheimer opening weekend could top $200 million (CNBC)

• Microsoft, Activision extend deal deadline to October (Axios)

• AT&T might spend $4 billion replacing lead cables (YF)

• Tesla shares dip after earnings conference call disappointed (CNBC)

• Netflix subscriptions jumped 8%, revenue jumped after password crackdown (Axios)

• Private equity titans tap sovereign wealth to get deals done (BB)

• Netflix just scrapped its cheapest ad-free tier (YF)

• Investors are feeling bold again (WSJ)

• The economy is officially doing better than we thought (Axios)

• Gucci CEO to step down as parent company chases luxury boom (CNN)

• Corporate America cuts operating expenses to keep profits flowing (Axios)

• TikTok expanding to music streaming (Verge)

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Billionaires’ Row

To look south and skyward from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires stretching from Park Avenue to Broadway.

Known as Billionaires’ Row, this set of slender high-rise residences has transformed the skyline of New York City, thanks to developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and foreign oligarchs. And chances are most of us will never be invited to step inside.

Filled with eye-popping stories that bring the new era of extreme wealth inequality into vivid relief, Billionaires’ Row is a juicy, gimlet-eyed account of the genius, greed, and financial one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world—a stranger-than-fiction saga of broken partnerships, broken marriages, lawsuits, and, for a few, fleeting triumph.

“A fly-on-the-wall account of the ferocious ambition, greed, and financial one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world.”

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• Warren Buffett says practicing these 3 habits is a difference maker

• Wall Street is eyeing this Long Island area as the new Hamptons

• The number one resume red flag, according to former Google recruiter

• Anthony Bourdain’s 18 favorite restaurants in NYC

• 3 productivity tips that turned me into a multimillionaire

_{DAILY VISUAL}

UK Inflation Tempers

Annual change in UK Consumer Price Index

_{WHAT ELSE TO READ}

A Refreshing Approach to News

You know our bite-size, easy-to-digest format that keeps you ahead of the pack on all things investing? You’re not alone, it’s a tried and true method to stay “edu-tained”.

But here’s the thing, we’re not alone either… If you truly want to transcend your peers and see the markets on a zoomed-out, macro level, you need to understand the events having a fundamental impact as they happen…. AKA current events.

What are we getting at here?

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In a nutshell, it’s news that lets you make up your own mind every day in just 4 minutes – and a must-have for your newsletter toolbelt.

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Sushi King

My friend Joe dreamt of opening a sushi restaurant without knowing the first thing about sushi.

He jumped in, investing everything, and "Joe's Sushi Extravaganza" was born.

Opening night was a disaster - Joe rolled sushi like burritos and the customers weren't pleased.

His dream began to crumble, but the failure taught him a priceless lesson - passion needs to be backed by knowledge and skills.

Joe then took cooking classes, learned business management, and studied successful restaurants.

It took time, but he turned things around. Today, his restaurant is a hit and he's known as the Sushi King.

Don't fear failure - it's an opportunity to learn, grow, and come back stronger.

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day