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Pom-Poms, Smart glasses & $100mn Job Offers
Five fresh money moves - from KKR’s pro-cheer gamble to Meta’s nine-figure talent hunt - that proves weird niches still pay big.
Ananay Batra
June 20, 2025
The quick take
Forget lofty think-pieces on “the future of AI.” This week is about cash changing hands in unexpected corners - from a private-equity-powered cheer squad to a $70m DM slide. Five stories, four data points each, one snappy “steal it” at the bottom. Dive in.
1️⃣ Pro Cheer League: cartwheels into cash
KKR-owned Varsity Brands is funding the first pro cheer circuit - four city squads, TV talks underway, and a merch pipeline rivaling MLB caps. If it lands a spring-time broadcast slot, expect a ready-made fanbase of former school cheerleaders (200 k+ graduate every year) to tune in - and spend.
What it is | First professional cheerleading league (4 teams, tips off 2026) |
|---|---|
Money on tap | Varsity Brands bankroll → powered by KKR’s $664 B AUM war-chest |
Why it could boom | Huge talent pool + uniforms = near-pure-profit merchandise game |
Steal-this-move | Franchise micro-leagues (pickleball, dodgeball) to local bar sponsors |
Copy-paste angle: a streaming-only “Stunt-of-the-Week” pass at $4.99/mo.
2️⃣ Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses: visor comeback
Meta and EssilorLuxottica cram a multimodal model into Wayfarers. One-million preorder emails hint consumers finally want cameras on their faces - battery lasts 10 hrs, on-device 7 B model keeps latency <200 ms, and you can TikTok hands-free.
What it is | Ray-Ban frames with camera + AI assistant (ships late 2025) |
|---|---|
Money on tap | 1 M wait-list × $299 ≈ $300 M day-one haul |
Why it could stick | No “Glasshole” vibe; truly hands-free content factory |
Steal-this-move | $20/mo vertical add-ons—cycling HUD, golf swing overlay |
Copy-paste angle: OSHA-subsidised smart safety goggles for factories.
3️⃣ OpenAI vs Meta: the $100 M talent slap-fight
On his brother’s podcast, Sam Altman revealed Meta dangled nine-figure signing packages for OpenAI engineers - no takers. He chalked it up to culture and claimed Meta “isn’t great at innovation.”
What happened | Meta offered $100 M packages to poach OpenAI staff—struck out |
|---|---|
Revealed number | Staff-plus AI devs now quote $5–10 M total comp |
Why it matters | Salary inflation will torch Series-A budgets everywhere |
Steal-this-move | Gate a real-time AI salary tracker behind a $499/yr paywall |
Copy-paste angle: recruiter-sponsored comp newsletter—traffic monetises itself.
4️⃣ Fanatics Fest NYC: Comic-Con for jerseys
Merch giant Fanatics lures LeBron, Brady, Jay-Z & 100 k fans to Javits Center. Think Comic-Con, but every autograph upsells a limited-run jersey.
What it is | Two-day collectibles carnival + live shows (100 k+ attendees) |
|---|---|
Money on tap | $65 GA × 100 k ⇒ $6.5 M gate before merch/NFTs |
Why it works | Fanatics owns both jerseys and signing desks—vertical gravy |
Steal-this-move | Mini-con for esports skins; publishers pay for “exclusive drop” booths |
Copy-paste angle: rent a 200-seat theater, stream Dota finals, sell limited jerseys.
5️⃣ PostHog × Stripe: $70M thank-you tweet
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison tweets “great website.” PostHog founders DM, hop on Zoom, and walk away with a $70 M Series B at a $920 M valuation - no banker, no roadshow.
What happened | Compliment tweet → $70 M cheque, $920 M valuation |
|---|---|
Why Stripe bit | Open-source analytics → sticky usage = Stripe churn hedge |
Lesson | Public kudos = warm intro. Reply immediately. |
Steal-this-move | Build vanity dashboards for Fortune-500 execs; DM the upgrade link when they flex |
Copy-paste angle: “Homepage Roast” Chrome extension—auto-grades landing pages, upsells full report.
Pattern to copy
PE cash is flooding quirky niches (cheer, collectibles).
Hardware hype only lands when the model runs on-device.
Public shout-outs = live leads - treat Twitter like a CRM.
Ship weird, show numbers—see you in Issue #5.