Episode · 2026-07-14
Apple Sues OpenAI
Apple Sues OpenAI | Starbucks' $400M Software Bill | The World Cup Sells Blades of Grass
Rundown
Chris and Colin open with Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI, Disney+'s reported plan for a free ad-supported tier, and the World Cup's sod-square upsell, before running two founder interviews: a guest who built a wearables brand after years sourcing in Guangzhou and raising ~$500K on Kickstarter, and Abdu, co-founder of subscription brand Prom Queen, who traces his path from teenage eBay arbitrage to a 15-month landing-page and offer-build process.
Takes from this episode
Chris argues Apple benefits from suing OpenAI regardless of the suit's merits because it slows a potential competitor on hardware quality.
Apple is actually winning in this situation as well. The longer they can slow down someone who might have the ability to compete with them on the quality of hardware, the better for them.
Colin predicts connected TV will make a comeback as an ad channel because it functions as a trackable household device, improving CAC visibility.Prediction
your literal house is the connected device... I'm pretty bullish on products like this... I think TV's TV is gonna make a comeback.
The wearables guest argues durable LTV comes mainly from having a broad, giftable product assortment that earns customer trust over time, not marketing tactics.
the best marketers have the best products... your LTV is like baked in with what you have to offer people.
The guest argues live-shopping streams are worth running even at modest direct revenue because of the impressions and downstream sales they generate.
we get a ton of impressions... we got a $100,000 corporate order from someone who saw us on live.
Abdu credits Prom Queen's landing page success to roughly 15 months of repeatedly iterating every section's design and copy before launch.
the landing page... 70% of that landing page was built during that 15 months. Every single design, every single copy.