Pope Leo XIV on AI:
“Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word [disarmed] is strong I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.”
i worked with maja in our early careers at an influencer startup before the world even knew about influencer marketing. her experience has grown immensely and any team on earth would be incredibly lucky to have her on!
hello! i am exploring my next chapter and looking to move to SF for the right role
looking for work somewhere in the overlap of narrative, growth, culture, brand, and company-building
made a short Notion page on who i am, what i’ve created, and where i think i could be useful
very grateful for any thoughts, pointers, companies, or people you think i should meet :)
The people I admire most have a way of escaping the bubble of modern culture. Some via religion, some via old books, some via time in nature. Without such an escape, propaganda wins. You stop thinking for yourself. Modern delusions grow into an all-consuming mind virus.
The time is KNOB. Pre-orders for the Knob / k•no•b•1 by @work_louder are now open! Link in the replies. ⌨️🎛️🚀
Available for $439 USD in both ANSI and ISO layouts with a number of language options.
📦Shipping worldwide in Q3 2024. 🗺️
I just sat down with a Houston-area Crumbl franchisee to learn the juice you can't find online. He owns several stores.
What an insane biz:
- Busy stores can do $20k+ per DAY in sales, whereas a slow store is closer to $1k/day. All are closed on Sunday.
- Hourly pay starts at $8 but tips can increase that by $30-50%
- Rural stores are performing best, but rural employees are harder to manage. Suburban high school girls are the easiest.
- Net profit margins are about 20%, but sometimes much less. This is less than I'd have thought with a $4 cookie and only $8/hour employees!
It doesn't help that a whopping TEN PERCENT of top line sales go to the franchisor! 30% margins sounds a bit nicer...
- Crumbl has an insane control grip over their franchisees, but it's loosening that grip as growth stalls.
It turns out, local franchisees actually have some good ideas!
Historically they haven't been allowed to have their own FB page or sell cookies offsite at events, but that's starting to change.
- Occasionally a store launches to complete crickets, such as one in Eagle Mountain, UT that opened and closed within a month or two recently.
- Their biggest competitors are other Crumbl stores, hence the reason rural stores do well.
Here's an excerpt from a unit for sale in Chicago, shown below:
"Please read: This location has faced competition from additional Crumbl locations in the Chicago area in 2023 and as a result has seen a decline in sales and profits.
There is still opportunity but for the right ownership structure but we are priced to get out of our loan and would ask that any interested buyers only reach out if they are serious about buying and aware of our current financial state.
We had a net operating income of $145k in 2022. In 2023 we have net operating loss of $43k."
The owner I spoke to wants to stay anonymous.
His overall take is that it's a great company but they've grown too fast. They aren't opening any more stores.
That's just how the cookie crumbls, I guess.
Follow me @mhp_guy for more juicy inside peeks into small businesses and bad dad puns.
proud of my good friend noah.
follow him to follow this journey of building a brand and design subscription service.
having a goal is one thing- working towards it everyday is another!