The Cheese #91 🧀 - SubSummit Mastermind, Whatnot Record, and Meta Momentum

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Back from New York, and I had an absolute blast. The weekend before, the lead-up, and the event itself were all great.

The Saturday before, we met up with RT and his family and went to the World Trade Center Memorial and the new One World Trade Center, then grabbed dinner afterwards. Great way to kick off the trip.

The SubSummit Mastermind was phenomenal. This is the first year they've done it, a single-day mastermind roundtable event, and it was a great mix of seeing peers who are friends and meeting new people. Richard and I both had a really good time.

As anyone would expect, a lot of the conversations were about AI. How people are implementing it, and trying to gauge who's behind and who's not. We talked through the different types of team members and the different levels of AI sophistication and adoption across a team, which is a conversation I think every company is having right now, whether they admit it or not.

On our side, the software apocalypse continues. HubSpot is dead, we're still working through the Adobe piece, and we're starting to get other software in our crosshairs, either to get costs down or to disrupt it fully.

Whatnot news, the good and the bad. Our shot at $500k is not possible. Our second tent show (as Whatnot calls them) was built around an exclusive knife rollout we'd been planning for months, and the knives did not arrive in time. Frustrating, to say the least.

That being said, we're a few thousand short of our August record of $447k, so October will be a new record for the company on Whatnot. With a few shows left in the month, it'll be cool to see where we end up.

Membership has been phenomenal the last 60 hours or so. We've been scaling on Meta, and everything's looking great. If we can carry this momentum through the end of our selling month, which is the 3rd, we'll be in a perfect spot. After how choppy it's been, I'll take it.

Amazon is continuing to do well. It'll come down to the wire on whether October ends up being the best month of the year.

On BattlGames, we have a site visit Tuesday. This place is the leading option for Season 4, but it's quite expensive compared to previous years. We've got to walk it and get a real understanding of whether the vision is doable or not.

With all the travel and the event, it was a short week in the office. That kept me really busy, though I didn't make as much progress as I wanted on some things I'd hoped to have further along. Let's get into the rest!

Steve Ells: How Chipotle Grew From a Single Burrito Shop to a Global Restaurant Brand

Lhea's latest. Steve started Chipotle in Denver in 1993 with a $75,000 loan from his dad. McDonald's invested when it was 16 restaurants, and today it's over 4,000 locations doing about $11.9 billion in revenue.

Meshki: How Two Architecture Students Built a Global Fashion Brand

Also from Lhea. Two architecture students started MESHKI in 2013 with $400 combined, grew it on Instagram to over four million followers, and now ship direct to consumers in more than 190 countries.

A Little AI Humor

Some AI humor from me on LinkedIn this week. Go give it a look lol.

Topolino's Terrace Breakfast Review: The Best Character Dining at Disney World

Bryan's review of Topolino's Terrace. He calls it "the best meal, period." The Mickey Waffle Dippers and the four characters stopping by each table are what make it, and he says it's worth the price and the effort to book.

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That’s a Wrap on This Week’s Flavor Explosion! 🧀

Savor the flavor? Let’s keep the cheesy love going! Forward this newsletter to a friend, colleague, or anyone who could use a little extra cheesiness in their life.

Catch you next week for more cheesy fun!

Melted Magic,
Team Online Queso