She made an old game look new. The company says it sold $40M in 2025 - Nov 2

€7.25 billion. That was adidas's revenue in the third quarter, the biggest quarter in its history. Sales straight to customers, through its own shops and website, grew 17%. Even a giant grows fast when it sells direct. Sources: https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/press-releases/adidas-achieves-record-results-in-the-third-quarter-of-2026-and-increases-full-year-profit-outlook My take: Selling direct means you keep the customer relationship. That is the part a small brand can copy, at any size.

Megan Trottier, Oh My Mahjong, Dallas. Mahjong is a tile game that began in China. Megan loved the American version, which has its own tiles and winning hands, and in 2022 she started making modern sets out of her garage. The company says sales went from about $1 million in 2023 to $40 million in 2025, and the brand is now in more than 2,000 shops. Those numbers come from the company, as reported by Modern Retail. She gave a much-loved game a fresh look and sold it online and in stores at the same time. Sources: https://www.modernretail.co/operations/our-biggest-challenge-has-been-keeping-them-in-stock-mahjong-sets-are-big-business-for-brands/ My take: She did not invent the game. She made it feel new for people who had never played, and she says the game's roots out loud. That is doing it right.

DoorDash has agreed to buy Instacart for about $17 billion, or $65 a share. That is 26% more than Instacart's share price before news of the talks leaked. DoorDash is expected to keep the Instacart brand and app. The deal is not done. It still needs approval from regulators and shareholders, and Instacart says it expects it to close by the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028. Restaurant delivery and grocery delivery are moving toward one business, so small food brands may end up dealing with fewer, bigger platforms. Sources: https://company.instacart.com/blog/instacart-doordash-news-what-it-means-for-shoppers-today https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/29/doordash-to-acquire-instacart-for-17b/ https://abcnews.com/US/doordash-acquire-instacart-deal-valued-17b-companies-announce/story?id=137672192 My take: An agreed deal is not a finished deal. Watch for the approvals before you count on any of it.

My First Million: "How to find your arbitrage (from the guy who's done it 3x) ft. Nick Kokonas." Kokonas started as an options trader, then founded the Chicago restaurant group behind Alinea and co-founded Tock, the table-booking app. An "arbitrage" is a gap other people have not spotted yet. The show notes list "The Magic of Alinea" at 1:03:40, which looks like a good place to start. We have not listened to the episode ourselves. Sources: https://www.mfmpod.com/how-to-find-your-arbitrage-from-the-guy-whos-done-it-3x-ft-nick-kokonas/ https://getscuttlebutt.substack.com/p/i-had-a-20-second-edge-on-goldman My take: Listen for how he spots a gap, then ask where a gap like that might be hiding in your own work.

Dot's Pretzels started with a party mix at a wedding. Dot Henke liked the buttery pretzels in a Chex party mix at a reception in North Dakota, then started testing seasonings in her own kitchen. In 2021 Hershey agreed to buy Dot's and one of its manufacturing partners for $1.2 billion. On Hershey's latest earnings call, the company said demand for Dot's Pretzels is still ahead of what it can make. Sources: https://www.grandforksherald.com/business/hershey-to-acquire-dots-pretzels-as-part-of-1-2b-deal-employees-north-dakota-headquarters-to-remain-in-place https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/transcript-what-hershey-hsy-said-on-its-q3-earnings-call-2026-10-29/ My take: Selling out is a good problem, but it is still a problem. Even Hershey has to build more capacity to keep up.

Flagship store: a brand's main shop, built to show off the brand. London handbag brand DeMellier, founded in 2017 by Mireia Llusia-Lindh, just opened its first standalone store, on Sloane Square. Source: https://fashionunited.uk/news/retail/demellier-expands-retail-footprint-with-debut-london-store-opening/2026102691029 Limited partner (LP): an investor who puts money in but does not run things. A Goldman Sachs report says owning a whole sports team is now out of reach for most wealthy families, so many look at smaller stakes bought from team owners. Source: https://fortune.com/2026/10/28/goldman-sachs-pro-sports-private-equity-ownership-ultrawealthy/ Lead investor: the investor that sets the terms of a funding round and usually puts in the most. Bedrock Robotics, which makes self-driving tech for digging machines, raised $600 million in a round co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/26/this-startups-self-driving-excavators-help-dig-up-600m-in-new-funding/ My take: Three small terms you will hear more once you start paying attention to deals.

Secondhand is becoming the first choice. eBay says Depop's US sales volume more than doubled last quarter. The RealReal says it sold $642 million of goods, up 23%. And a survey done for ThredUp found 62% of Americans plan to buy secondhand this holiday season. In Pennsylvania, Ashley Ralligh started by selling handbags on Poshmark, moved to a booth at a flea market, and now plans her own shop. You can start a resale business with stock you already own. Sources: https://fortune.com/2026/10/29/gen-z-depop-ebay-thrifting-fashion-clothes/ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-realreal-announces-third-quarter-2026-results-302924177.html https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/26/3388120/0/en/thredup-report-finds-one-of-a-kind-beats-brand-new-for-holiday-gifts-as-62-of-americans-plan-to-buy-secondhand.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/secondhand-boom-helps-malvern-entrepreneur-204000016.html My take: ThredUp sells secondhand clothes, so read its survey as a signal, not a verdict. The sales numbers from eBay and The RealReal point the same way.

Oru: a lamp that shows how your wood-stove fire is doing. Vermont software engineer Neil Shah built a sensor that clips to the stove pipe, plus a walnut lamp that changes colour to show how the fire is burning. Oru is not a smoke or carbon monoxide detector, and Shah says stove owners should use both. He built 57 prototypes by hand and sold them at cost before launching on Kickstarter on October 27. He fixed a worry from his own home, tested it with real customers, and only then asked for money. Day 36 of 100. Still building FOUNDERS out loud. This newsletter gets a little sharper every week. Sources: https://newatlas.com/around-the-home/oru-wood-stove-lamp https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/tech/oru-woodstove-monitor-tracks-temperature-lamp-app/ My take: He sold 57 units before he scaled. Proof that people will pay comes before the big launch.

Mondelēz has agreed to take a majority stake in Undercover Snacks. Diana Levy started the brand with chocolate quinoa crisps that are gluten free. The company says its snacks are in more than 25,000 stores, and United Airlines has handed them out as a free snack. Mondelēz, one of the world's biggest snack makers, is buying a majority stake and the price was not disclosed. Diana stays CEO and she and Michael Levy keep a significant minority stake. The deal is not closed yet. Mondelēz expects it to close in the first quarter of 2027. Sources: https://snackandbakery.com/articles/116573-mondelez-to-bolster-its-bfy-portfolio-with-undercover-snacks https://www.fb101.com/undercover-snacks-mondelez-majority-investment-302925103 My take: The founders did not sell the whole thing. Keeping a stake and a seat means they still have a say in what happens next.

How an IPO is underwritten, and how it can be pulled. When a company lists on a stock market (an IPO), banks called underwriters agree to buy its new shares at a set price and sell them on to investors. Until the shares start trading, the deal can still be called off. This week Nigerian payments app OPay priced its shares at $19 for the New York Stock Exchange. Then OPay and its banks agreed to end the deal, and OPay said the reason was a regulatory inquiry involving a foreign jurisdiction. The company did not say which one. Sources: https://nairametrics.com/2026/10/30/opay-lists-on-nyse-offers-16-million-shares-at-19-each/ https://nairametrics.com/2026/10/31/why-opay-ipo-sale-was-halted-after-debut-on-nyse/ https://techpoint.africa/news/opay-withdraws-nyse-ipo/ My take: Pricing a deal is not the same as finishing it. The deal is only done once the shares trade.