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👋 Mornin’, it’s a big day for fans of “King of the Hill” as the beloved animated series returns today after 15 years off the air. The Hulu revival will put propane salesman Hank Hill back in the spotlight — and the propane industry, too. Before the show’s 2010 finale, LP Gas magazine reported that many in the gas game felt the series offered a “positive, accurate reflection of the industry.” Big Propane’s seen massive growth over the last 15 years and there are surely many factors why… but the “King of the Hill” effect is the most fun one, so we’re going to run with that as the most important factor.

🎧 On the pod: Why pecan is the hot new alt-milk.

NEWS FLASH

🖐️ Palm readings are used to tell the future, but what if it is the future? Biometric payments startup Handwave raised $4.2m to expand the piloting of their palm-based payment system. To make it work, it’d require a scan of the lines and veins on your hand, which’d then be used to create a unique, secure ID, which you could use on any of their sensors. The tech, they imagine, would enable payments, age gating, check-ins, or whatever else people get scanned for. Handwave says palms are harder to fake than fingerprints and they don’t even have to tell us why it’d beat facial recognition and eyeball scans — those just feel kinda creepier by nature.

🤖 This rivalry may eventually make Coke vs. Pepsi look like child's play: Anthropic, maker of Claude, revoked OpenAI’s API access to its models. Anthropic spokesperson Christopher Nulty told Wired that OpenAI violated its terms of service by using Claude's coding tools ahead of GPT-5's launch. Customers can use Claude Code, its AI-powered coding assistant, to automate coding tasks, but not to build competing products, train rival AI models, or copy its services. OpenAI was using the tool to compare Claude’s abilities to its own models. OpenAI chief communication officer Hannah Wong told Wired that's a standard practice, and called Anthropic’s decision “disappointing.”

📈 Not a Figma of your imagination: Design software company Figma had a huge IPO, debuting on Thursday at a $19.3B valuation and reaching $68B by market close. Adobe once attempted to acquire Figma in a $20B deal, but abandoned it in 2023 due to regulatory issues in the US and Europe. Lina Khan, who chaired the FTC from 2021 to 2025, called Figma’s smash IPO a “great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought by existing giants, can generate enormous value.”

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

You’ll probably be hearing more about a par 3 golf league: Grass League got a $2.75m infusion to hire a commissioner and supersize its content offerings. Unlike golf golf, this is a team competition entirely played at night on short, lit-up courses.
This dog had its day: The Uber of dog walking, Wag, went bankrupt. Once valued at $650m, the struggling pet care app also offers dogsitting, pet insurance, and veterinary services — and hopes to keep offering them as a private company post-Chapter 11.
Yum: It’s been ~40 years since Doritos launched its “Cool Ranch” flavor, and now, the snack maker thinks it’s found its next “mega flavor” in Golden Sriracha, a sweet, spicy, tangy flavor it spent two years developing to appeal to younger consumers who crave “layers and nuance.”

FOR YOUR BOOK CLUB

Our founder’s favorite books and reading ritual

Your search for a book stops here. Because our founder Sam has great taste.

Case in point: His shortlist includes mystery thrillers, shipwrecked sailors, presidential history, Japanese cowboys, and a few more low-key classics.

Find your next read, or enjoy his whipsmart summaries.

7 brilliant books

THE BIG IDEA

Mahjong: The latest networking opp for women entrepreneurs

Mahjong, with roots in 19th-century China and long considered a grandma’s game, has made a comeback in recent years, rebranded as a trendy social activity for a new generation of Gen Z and millennial players.

Today, mahjong is a ~$2.6B global industry that’s expected to reach $4B+ by 2032.
It’s showing up in spaces like DJ-ed parties in LA and luxury hotels in New York.
Fueling its popularity: mainstream media like Crazy Rich Asians (2018), renewed interest in games, and sustained post-pandemic demand for in-person experiences.

But it’s not all just fun and games, and its appeal has now reached another demographic looking to connect: female founders.

Work hard, play hard — but at the same time

Digital events platform Evite reported a 46% year over year increase this year in mahjong events, a trend Evite data analyst Olivia Pollock told Inc is gaining traction in networking settings.

And it’s especially popular among women entrepreneurs. Per Inc:

Ariel Kaye, founder of bedding brand Parachute, after hosting a successful mahjong night with 20+ other female founders in May, is planning to host another.
Austin-based entrepreneur Elizabeth McCormick hosted her first mahjong party this summer with four people. Now she has ~30-person guest lists for her biweekly meetups.
Everhem founder Haley Weidenbaum enjoyed her introduction to mahjong so much, she’s considering it as a team-building activity for her remote employees.

For some women entrepreneurs, though…

… mahjong is generating more than just new professional connections.

Take Angie Lin, for example: a Taiwanese-American founder whose newly launched startup East Never Loses organizes mahjong events around LA.

In 2022, she went from teaching friends how to play, to hosting mahjong house parties, which eventually turned into 200-person, ticketed warehouse events held every few months. Then, when celebrities started reaching out about hosting private parties, Lin told Inc she decided to quit her marketing job and go all in on the venture.

One year in, her company now hosts as many as 14 mahjong experiences a month, including public, private, and corporate events — all thanks to a newfound interest in an old-school game.

Fun fact: Mahjong's connection to female entrepreneurship runs deeper than you'd think— in the early 1900s, when the game was first introduced in the US, teaching it was one of the few socially acceptable opportunities women had to make money.

🔗

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Interesting choice: Ikea’s sales fell last year for just the second time in 20 years. Naturally, its first move toward a rebound was partnering with… perpetually struggling Best Buy?

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Share of Americans who think their college major did not adequately prepare them for the job market, per a study from Preply, an online language learning platform.

Top regrets include not networking more (~56.4%), student loans (~34.4%), not completing an internship (~33%), their major (~28.8%), and the college they chose (~17.9%).

Good news for Preply: Most Americans, 71%, would consider a job in another country if language barriers weren’t an issue.

AROUND THE WEB

⚓ On this day: In 1790, Congress authorized 10 ships to be built to patrol US ports, thus creating the Coast Guard — though it was originally known as the Revenue Marine.

🚅 Chill out: and build a subway.

🏝️ That’s interesting: All about Pulau Tiga, the island where the first season of “Survivor” took place.

🍲 That’s cool: Tracking every ingredient in a perpetual stew.

🐇 Aww: Little bunny bath.

QUOTE OF NOTE

The age of instant gratification, cont.: A practice once popular among the queer community — cruising, AKA looking for casual sex in public places — is now back in vogue. And its revival has been facilitated in large part by Sniffies, a platform, launched in 2018, where users can log on anonymously for a real-time map of cruisers in their neighborhood, per The New Yorker.

Today, the fast-growing app, often referred to as Uber Eats for sexual appetites, is active in most major cities — London usership grew 475% between 2022 and 2023 — available in 14 languages, and, interestingly, sees the most activity on (*checks time*) Monday afternoons.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Despite how loathed criminals generally are, they are, ironically, also responsible for the creation of millions of jobs around the world, from police officers, prison guards, and loss prevention staff to locksmiths, cybersecurity specialists, and legal professionals. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Ben “Has never been to Arlen, Texas” Berkley.

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