$10M to $700M, a shoe factory, and a $25M spice blend - Oct 26

$10M to $700M. The WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks were bought for about $10 million in 2014. This week the team was reportedly put up for sale with an asking price of $700 million, more than double the previous WNBA record sale of $300 million. An asking price is not a sale price, and it says nothing about what any owner earned. It does show how much the market has grown. Sources: https://frontofficesports.com/article/mark-walters-sports-empire-keeps-shrinking-with-sparks-up-for-sale/ and https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/mark-walter-looking-sell-sparks-224318841.html and https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/mark-walter-sparks-wnba-for-sale-investigation/ My take: the price is only an ask. Even so, the gap between 2014 and now shows how fast this market has grown.

Marco Vaghetti, Lanx (Lancashire, UK). His shoe brand runs its own factory and repair workshop, employs 60 people and makes four of its six collections in the UK. He says it turns over £11 to £12 million. Instead of opening more shops, he is putting money into the factory. He turned "made here" into the thing customers pay for. Source: https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/reviving-british-shoemaking-why-footwear-brand-lanx-prioritises-factory-capacity-over-retail-expansion/2026102391000 My take: owning how the product is made gives you something shops cannot copy. Go deep on the thing customers value.

Airbnb bans checkout chores. For bookings made on or after 20 November, hosts can no longer make guests strip beds, wash dishes, start laundry or take out the trash before they leave. Some hosts are pushing back. A marketplace has two sets of customers, and fixing one side's complaint can upset the other. Sources: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/airbnb-limits-chores-for-guests-sparking-backlash-from-hosts/ and https://skift.com/2026/10/21/airbnbs-new-policy-for-hosts-dont-ask-guests-to-wash-dishes-or-strip-beds/ My take: every rule change in a two-sided product has a winner and a loser. Know who you are choosing.

How I Built This, "Advice Line with Seth Berkowitz of Insomnia Cookies" (44 min). The Insomnia Cookies founder takes calls from three small brands (an African-rooted fashion label, a sauna-hat maker and a college-purse brand) and lays out how he plans to grow without franchising (letting other people open stores under your name). Source: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/advice-line-with-seth-berkowitz-of-insomnia-cookies/id1150510297?i=1000797577404 My take: listening to a founder give live advice to small brands is free coaching. Worth your 44 minutes.

The NFL started its own investment fund with $1 million from each of its 32 teams. 32 Equity launched in 2013 and now manages about $250 million, according to Dealroom. This week the league's fund announced a partnership with investor General Atlantic to back sports companies. If you sell to a league, that league could also become your investor. Sources: https://www.generalatlantic.com/?p=12546 and https://dealroom.co/news/164506-nfl-taps-general-atlantic-to-scale-up-its-250m-investment-arm/ My take: big buyers are starting to invest in the companies that sell to them. Customers can turn into backers.

Pivot: changing what your company does because the first idea isn't working. Pittsburgh's Mach9 dropped "Robotics" from its name and now makes AI design software. It just raised $34 million. Unicorn: a private startup valued at $1 billion or more. AI assistant startup Town reached a unicorn valuation four months after launching publicly. Spin-out: a company that starts inside a university (or another company) and then goes independent. Lumilab, a University of Copenhagen spin-out, says its AI platform supports operations across 45,000 assets, and it just raised its first round. Sources: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/mach9-raises-34m-after-pivoting-to-ai-cad-software/ and https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/ai-assistant-startup-town-nabs-unicorn-valuation-four-months-after-launch/ and https://arcticstartup.com/lumilab-raises-pre-seed-funding/ My take: three words, three ways a company changes shape. Changing direction is not failing.

AI startups are hitting $1 billion values in months, not years. In one week: Town became a unicorn four months after its public launch, Daytona hit a $1 billion valuation, year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raised $1 billion at a reported value of about $6 billion, and legal-AI company Legora's valuation went from $5.6 billion to $8.8 billion. Money is rushing to a few AI teams, so if you are not one of them, revenue and efficiency matter even more. Sources: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/ai-assistant-startup-town-nabs-unicorn-valuation-four-months-after-launch/ and https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/year-old-ai-lab-flapping-airplanes-raises-1b-at-a-6b-valuation/ and https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/23/agent-cloud-startup-daytona-hits-1b-valuation-backed-by-firstmark-and-a-whos-who-of-angels/ and https://tech.eu/2026/10/21/legoras-valuation-leaps-to-88bn-as-raises-550m/ My take: a few teams get huge cheques. Everyone else wins by earning money, not by chasing valuations.

Latch: unlock your apps by walking to a key. This phone app locks the apps you choose until you scan a physical key: a sticker on your fridge, a printed QR code, or a set number of steps. Pro is a one-time $9.99. It showed up on Product Hunt this week, and these details come from its own page. One small physical step made it stand out in a crowded category. Day 29 of 100. Still building FOUNDERS out loud. This newsletter gets a little sharper every week. Source: https://www.producthunt.com/products/latch-7 My take: a small twist can make an old idea feel new. Make the first step physical.

Dan-O's Seasoning takes $25 million. Dan Oliver started selling his spice blend at a farmers market in 2015. Today the brand is sold through more than 22,000 retailers and says it has a community of more than 15 million home cooks. Investor The Newcastle Network put in $25 million, its first food deal. One product plus an online community grew into a national brand. Sources: https://www.lanereport.com/190150/2026/10/dan-os-seasoning-25-million-investment/ and https://www.just-food.com/newsletters/us-firm-dan-os-seasoning-secures-private-equity-investment My take: start with one product people love and a crowd that talks about it. Investors arrive later.

Revenue-based financing. Instead of selling part of your company, you get money now and repay it, with interest, as your sales grow. You keep ownership, but you need steady sales to repay. This week Otter.ai (AI meeting notes) raised $320 million from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund. SiliconANGLE reports Otter must repay the money with interest as its growth spending brings in revenue. Sources: https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/20/otter-ai-raises-320m-in-funding-for-its-ai-meeting-assistant/ My take: selling shares is not the only way to fund growth. Steady sales give you more choices.