Prime Hydration - From $0 to $200 Million In 12 Months!

GM! It's Thursday, December 29th - Today, we're covering the 68% drop in Tesla stock, Southwest Airlines mayhem, Google's plan to lay off 10,000 people, the AMC CEO's $19m salary, why Instacarts cut its valuation, and the secret sauce of a $0 to $200m/yr company.

 - Callum

HEADLINES:

> Tesla stock loses 68% of its value becoming the worst-performing S&P 500 company of 2022. 

> Southwest Airlines cancels another 4,800 flights leaving passengers stranded until the new year. The cause? Outdated tech.  

> Google Plans to lay off 10,000 'poor-performing' employees in 2023.

> AMC CEO, who earns $19m/yr, asks for a salary freeze in 2023, stating “I do not want ‘more’ when our shareholders are hurting,” after stock falls 75%. >

> Instacart cuts internal valuation to $10B, down 20% from October and even further off its $39B valuation from last year. 

> Billionaire Investor Charlie Munger says to stop complaining, "Everyone is better off than they used to be."

> Teampay raises $47m to expand its spend management platform that allows companies to request, approve and track expenditures in real-time. 

> These 15 startups could go public in 2023. 

> Bugatti to auction its last gasoline-powered vehicle, which could sell for up to $8m.

> TikTok is banned from US House of Representatives electronic devices, identifying the platform as a “high risk to users due to a number of security risks.”

> German Research buys used Iris scanner containing 2,632 individuals, including known terrorists, from the U.S Military for $62. 

FEATURE:

 From $0 to $200 Million In 12 Months!  

In 12 months, Prime Hydration has sold over 100m bottles worldwide. At $2 per bottle, that’s $200m in revenue.

They’re now the 6th largest sports drink in the country - worth ~$1B.

What's The Business?

Prime Hydration is a flavored sports drink founded by influencers Logan Paul & KSI - together, they boast over 140m followers.

The built-in customer base created immense demand. The company is on track to 8x its retail footprint in the next year, from 20,000 locations to over 160,000.

So How Do They Win?

Everyone talks about Logan & KSI, but they forget to mention the 3rd partner - Max Clemons.

Max Clemons is the CEO of Congo Brands, a boutique drink manufacturer based out of Louisville, Kentucky.

They partner with large social influencers, develop a co-owned beverage brand, and use their infrastructure (e.g., warehouse, customer service, distributor relationships) to scale them fast.

This partnership is the secret sauce.

We've Seen This Playbook Before

It turns out that strapping a social media cannon to a highly tuned operations machine works pretty well. Check it out:

• WorkWeek: A newsletter business that partners with B2B influencers generated $10m in its first year of business.

• Skims: Kim Kardashians $3.2B fashion brand, is powered by Eurotex - a full-service manufacturer in Turkey.

• Vitamin Water: Rapper 50 Cent was the face of Vitamin Water and netted $100m when it sold for $4.1B.

  • BTW: Mike Repole, the owner of Vitamin Water made billions from the sale. He ran the same playbook with BodyArmour, which sold for $5.6 billion. He's worth ~$1.5B

Opportunities:

Can you power the infrastructure for another influencer-rich niche?

1) Pick a platform (Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, etc.).

2) Pick a business vehicle (Newsletters, Podcasts, Perfume, Makeup). 

3) Build the systems (specialize, build relationships). 

4) Partner with influencers to scale (Plug into a marketing machine). 

TRENDING: What the tech industry is talking about

> Despite 250,000+ Layoffs during the "white-collar recession, insiders expect worsening conditions for Q1, 2023. 

DATA VISUALIZED:

Here are the stocks that lost the most market share in 2022. As a FAANG holder, I cried looking at this. Click here to see it in action.