Welcome to The WC — your weekly shot of awesome.
I’ve had feedback lately that people would rather I go deeper into one topic each week rather than s
Today, we’ve got:
- Remember Global Air? It’s somehow got worse
- AI is approaching ludicrous speed
- Succession on the block
- Household spending is coming down – what does that mean?
- Two good ideas and one bad one
Let’s go.
Wyatt
Table of Contents
1. Remember Global Air?
Last year, I noticed Global Airlines looked like maybe it was a scam:
- The CEO didn’t say who his investors are, which is a bit unusual.
- The Global Airlines site contains photos he’s nicked from other sites. And the ones that aren’t stolen are stock photos.
- Every review for his Holiday Swap app, which hasn’t been updated for seven months, is either “It’s a scam!” or “It’s the best!”. The first category, I believe; the second category smells fishy.
Nothing about the above has changed, really. There are still stolen photos on the site, and they’re not exactly on the ball about updating their copy.
Having a lazy site isn’t a crime. Well, stealing photos is maybe a civil offense.
Anyway.
They’ve added a bunch of credible-sounding advisors, and the company has brought this guy on board as the “A-380 project leader,” which exudes instant credibility.
He’s one of four apparently full-time employees, as far as I can tell.
So why are we circling back to this project?
Porn, of course.
OnlyFans co-founder Tom Stokely is joining forces with Global Airlines, a new airline startup that aims to offer flights from London Gatwick to New York and Los Angeles as a rival to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, the top airlines on the route.
Stokely will join the long and distinguished list of board members, where he’ll rely on his deep knowledge of aviation, travel, and, um, porn.
At my last count, there are 2x to 3x as many board members as actual employees, which is 100% cool when you’re running an operations-heavy business like an airline.
Things are going about as well as you’d expect for Fyre Fest disciple and charlatan entrepreneur James Asquith:
Global has already announced that its spring 2024 launch has been put back to sometime “in the next 12 months,” with the carrier also announcing that before it begins its planned scheduled services, it will operate charter flights using its A380s.
Global planned to launch in a few months with four aircraft, but as far as anyone can tell, they’ve only actually acquired one. Details on the other three will be released “when appropriate,” according to “International Corporate Affairs Director,” Liam McKay.
It’s unclear if there are national corporate affairs directors or if there are any other corporate affairs personnel being directed.
Aviation insiders are justifiably skeptical.
But Asquith is great at getting headlines from the mainstream media, like when he announced a partnership with FactoryDesign, an award-winning aviation design company in London.
Weird that FactoryDesign wouldn’t want to shout about it themselves with such a high-profile client.
This whole thing feels like a scheme that fits directly between the guys from Centra Tech and the dude from Fyre Fest (Fyre 2 tickets available for only $1,022,057.06).
We’ll check in again later.
AI is approaching ludicrous speed
In my look ahead to 2024, I recommended you begin investing in AI. Not AI startups, but tools. New tech that will both help you and your company stay ahead. I found a great one the other day.
So we’re launching a private members club for accredited investors called Altea, and I’m obviously obsessing over how to promote it. Product is important, but distribution is everything.
I stumbled on invideo AI a few days ago, and the video above is the output from 45 seconds of pasting in an email I was sending out to people.
The video is watermarked, because I haven’t paid the $20 a month, and it’s not branded or anything, but if you would have told me this was possible two years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.
I made another one based on Stefan’s issue on accredited investing from last week, and same thing — 45 seconds produced something pretty incredible.
Succession on the block
Last week, Heritage auctions sold loads of props from the show Succession. Here are a few highlights.
The Ludicrously Capacious Bag sold for $18,750.
Roman Roy’s funeral speech cards from season four fetched the highest price: $25,000.
The scorpion in resin went for $10,000
And my personal favorite, Logan Roy’s office bar set, went for a paltry $8,437.
Loads more was on the block, including the Doderick costume, the contents of Greg Hirsch’s wallet, Logan Roy’s framed bayonet sword, and Tom Wambsgans’s wristwatch (may not work).
Household spending is coming down
The Fed’s household spending survey is out, and people are cutting back on spending by about 5% year over year. Not surprising, but it’s still way higher than pre-Covid.
The most important takeaways:
