Suno's $2.45B Bet Just Opened a New Label Model
Major labels just signed licensing deals with AI music platforms for the first time. The infrastructure shift creates a specific wedge for operators who understand rights, not just tools.
Consumer
Consumer & Commerce follows the shifting tides of how people spend. We surface opportunities born from cultural habits, shopping behavior, and digital marketplaces — where brand, data, and convenience collide.
Rail Explorers Hit 650K Riders. The $1.2T Outdoor Boom Has Room for More.
Outdoor recreation hit $1.2T in 2023. A fragmented category with proven unit economics and finite infrastructure is consolidating—corridor access is the moat.
PepsiCo Paid $1.95B for Poppi. The $3B Mushroom Coffee Gap Is Wide Open.
Big Beverage is buying culture, not chemistry. Mushroom coffee incumbents still sell generic benefits—leaving identity-first positioning wide open for micro-tribe operators.
Blackbird's $50M Raise Exposes $200K Neighborhood Loyalty Gap
While Blackbird scales restaurant loyalty nationally, hyperlocal coalition programs capturing cross-merchant neighborhood data represent an untapped $200K-per-district opportunity.
Pistachio Panic: The $2.5B TikTok Beauty Play Kayali Started
Gourmand fragrance searches exploded 77% while Kayali's pistachio scent went viral—but nobody's built the modular system TikTok's layering culture actually wants.
Pinterest-Style Commerce for the $18.5B Affiliate Market
Pinterest trained 522M users to shop by aesthetic, but creators can't monetize this behavior outside walled gardens. The embed economy awaits.
How TikTok's Winter Arc Built a $7.3B Accountability Market
TikTok's Winter Arc accidentally proved social accountability drives 85-90% course completion versus 3-15% for self-paced learning, creating a platform opportunity.
TikTok's 86% Relationship Test: $60K MRR Couples App Opportunity
TikTok couples are running relationship tests with 56M+ views. No product captures the data. Gottman's research proves the science.
How CrunchCup's Success Reveals a $2.4B Desk Breakfast Gap
Hybrid workers skip breakfast 39% of the time, eating at desks when they do—creating a TikTok-native convenience play beyond traditional CPG channels.
VRChat Mobile Launch: Build $12K Touch Worlds for Brands
VRChat's mobile launch opened mass distribution. Studios still design for headsets. Brands need phone-first worlds—nobody's shipping them yet.
Bob & Brad's $2.5k Amazon Play: Creator Hardware Hits Mainstream
Physical therapists with 5M YouTube subscribers launched $2,499 massage chairs on Amazon, proving creators can sell high-ticket hardware with zero customer acquisition cost.
Target-Ready CPG: FlavCity's $10M Scanner-to-Shelf Playbook
FlavCity's scanner app tracked 18M users' dietary constraints before launching CPG products, reversing the traditional brand-building sequence with data-first manufacturing.
Dubai Chocolate DIY Kits: $180K in 21 Days on TikTok Shop
Smart operators hit seven figures selling Dubai chocolate DIY kits while TikTok Shop's order-volume caps create an accidental moat against casual sellers.