Guest

Kurt Elster

1 indexed appearance on the show — Retail & Wholesale, Consumer Trends, Product Development, Brand Strategy, AI

Appearances

• Aldi Leans into Blind Boxes?2026-07-07 · Chris and Colin debate whether Aldi's new blind/mystery boxes are a smart loss-leader tactic to drive foot traffic, question whether Chevy's…

Takes from the episode

Extracted from the full conversation — a take may be the cowboys’ or the guest’s. The clip link settles it.

1. 2026-07-07 AI

   Kurt Elster argues AI coding tools like Claude don't replace developers but massively empower them, even though it changes the emotional payoff of building things yourself.

   I don't think that's true. I think AI doesn't replace people, but I think it empowers them hugely. That's the way to look at it.

2. 2026-07-07 Product Development

   Chevy's EV push is a mismatched category extension because Chevy truck buyers value rugged, work-ready capability, not EV attributes, unlike Rivian's more lifestyle-oriented audience.

   no one who wants a Chevy wants an EV... A Chevy is meant for work and it's meant for rugged terrain and it's people who want to deal with that stuff.

3. 2026-07-07 Retail & Wholesale

   Aldi's mystery/blind boxes are a smart tactic to pull shoppers back into physical stores and drive incremental impulse spend, even if the boxes themselves aren't profitable, similar to a loss-leader like Costco's rotisserie chicken.

   it's it's like the rotisserie chicken at um at at Costco. So, I like it.

4. 2026-07-07 Product Development

   Colin is skeptical Ricola's new energy 'drops' will sell to him personally, but concedes Gen Z's lack of preconceived notions about the legacy cough-drop brand could make the extension work for that audience.

   I'm not buying drops, extra drops that aren't cough drops from Ricola... they don't have a preconceived notion of Ricola because Ricola is like your grandmother's brand.

5. 2026-07-07 Founder & Team

   Reframing anxiety as 'positive stress' that signals motivation, rather than something purely negative, is a useful mental model for staying productive as a founder/operator.

   That's positive stress to motivate you for what you need to get done. That's your brain telling you, hey, there's stuff you want to go do.

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