Good Morning. Twice as many solo founders cleared $1 million last year, but the average one-person business still grosses $57,611. Plus, diet weed, a hundred-year flood at Apple, and Jake Paul's 400 fighters (Join the 1% Better movement).
Missed yesterday? Our most clicked link: Anthony Fauci's pandemic-era diary
TOP STORY TODAY
Solo Seven Figures
Solo business owners are hitting seven figures at record rates. An analysis by the payments company Stripe found more than twice as many earned over $1 million in 2025 as in 2023. Those crossing $10 million nearly tripled.
AI is absorbing the work that used to require hiring. New business applications in the information sector jumped nearly 45% in a year, the largest increase of any industry, while the share of applicants planning to hire fell sharply.
The typical one-person business is nowhere near that. About 30.4 million Americans run companies with no employees, and average annual receipts run $57,611 before expenses. The average US wage is $67,920. Read Stripe’s full report.
Drug Cities Reverse Course
Seattle and Burlington, Vermont, both loosened drug enforcement under harm reduction policies. Reporting published yesterday describes open-air drug markets operating near parks and playgrounds in both cities, with users gathering by the dozens.
King County, which includes Seattle, recorded 7,089 overdose deaths from 2016 to 2025, seven times its homicide total. Burlington logged 585 overdoses in 2024, 28 of them fatal, in a city of 45,000 (The Atlantic).
British Columbia ended drug decriminalization on January 31 and now requires witnessed consumption for prescribed opioids. San Francisco and Philadelphia have pulled back. Researchers dispute whether the policies caused the harm.
Tim Cook’s Last Call
Tim Cook led his final earnings call as Apple CEO yesterday, closing 15 years in the job. Revenue hit $109.4 billion, up 16%. iPhone sales rose 22%. Shares still fell more than 6%.
The forecast caused it. Apple guided to 9% to 11% growth against 12% expected, blaming a memory chip shortage Cook has compared to a hundred-year flood. Mac and iPad prices already went up.
Cook said the company expects to pay even higher memory costs past September, which analysts read as iPhone price increases coming. John Ternus takes over September 1 and said almost nothing on the call. What Ternus inherits on September 1.
TOGETHER WITH TRIBE TOKES
Diet Weed Is Real, and It's 2 Carbon Atoms From THC
The newest cannabis craze goes by diet weed. What THCV actually delivers is energy, alertness, and reduced appetite.
Here's the nerdy version. THCV is a cannabinoid nearly identical in structure to THC, separated by two carbon atoms. THC turns on your CB1 receptors and starts the munchies. THCV blocks them at low doses, so the hunger signal never fires. What's left is focus without the fog and energy without the coffee jitters.
TribeTokes named their new gummy Fit and Focused because that's how it feels. Combined with CBD and CBG, real fruit flavors and colors, no artificial ingredients.
Code THCV15 applies automatically at the link.
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GET 1% BETTER
Keep the Muscle While Losing Weight
About 40% of the weight lost on semaglutide comes from lean mass, not fat. That is roughly the same ratio as any fast weight loss, but the absolute number is bigger because the loss is bigger.
Muscle is not vanity after 40. It is how you handle blood sugar, how your bones stay dense, and how you get off the floor at 70.
Two things protect it.
Lift two or three days a week. Bands and dumbbells count. The signal matters more than the equipment.
Put protein first at every meal. Appetite suppression is what makes this hard, so it goes on the plate before anything else does.
Talk to your doctor about targets before you change anything.
How Long It Actually Takes to Make $1M Alone
Inspired by our Top Story today.
The headlines say AI is minting solo millionaires. The numbers underneath say something slower. The median solo founder makes about $3,000 a month. Roughly 0.2% ever clear $1 million. The ones who do took years, not months.
Justin Welsh needed 29 months to reach his first cumulative million
Dan Koe spent about four years getting from $10K to $800K before it compounded past $4 million
Pieter Levels shipped around 70 projects that went nowhere first
The tools got faster. Distribution did not. You still have to be known by enough people to sell to them, and that part has not sped up at all.
A strong first two years looks like $10K to $30K a month.
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▲ Jake Paul merges MVP with the PFL to challenge UFC, combining a roster near 400 fighters
TOGETHER WITH SKECHERS
You Have Seen His Work a Thousand Times
Airport terminals. Hotel lobbies. The side of a building in Miami. Romero Britto is billed as the most licensed artist in history, which means you have walked past his work for twenty years without ever learning his name.
Now it is on shoes. Skechers put the Britto collection across kids, street, and court and classics, with apparel alongside it. Heavy black outline, blocked color, the pop art look you would recognize on a wall in one second.
It is louder than anything currently in your closet. That is the entire point.
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