🥒 Panasonic can Create 3D Holograms using Water

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Hey Pickle Gang, it’s Rob.

Here's what's in today's issue:

• Panasonic can Create 3D Holograms (like out of Star Wars) using Water…

• Young Zhao: Zero to 5 Million Users in 7 Months with OpusClips

• How to Build a Nine-Figure Empire by Acquiring Companies: Rollups

• And more…

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This Weeks Favourites

• Handy: Financial Modeling Handbook (link)

• Article: Google is testing verified checkmarks in search (link)

• Video: Cody Schneider: Every Founder Needs To Build Digital Gravity (link)

• Podcast: All-In Podcast - In conversation with Mark Cuban (link)

• Fun Stuff: I found a website where you can bounce pickles (link)

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News

Panasonic can Create 3D Holograms (like out of Star Wars) using Water…

Remember those cool holograms in Star Wars? You know, the ones Jedi’s use to communicate across galaxies?

Well, Panasonic can now make a 3d hologram in mid-air using water.

The company has unveiled an innovative display system that projects images onto a thin layer of mist, resulting in visuals that appear to float in mid-air. This mist-based technology works by emitting a fine vapor and projecting light onto it, creating dynamic images viewable from multiple angles without the need for special glasses or equipment.

It does have a stupid name though… ”Silky Fine Mist technology”. Which muppet decided to call it that?!

Read more about how this works, with a video of it in action.

Story

Young Zhao: Zero to 5 Million Users in 7 Months with OpusClips

How on earth do you get to five million users in seven months?

Very few people in the world can tell you how, but this man can: Young Zhao.

He created Opus Clip. Opus Clip is a video editing tool that uses AI to automatically transform long-form videos into short, shareable clips optimized for social media platforms.

But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Zhao’s journey began in 2013 with Sober, a social app that flopped just two months after Snapchat’s launch. Despite the setback, his entrepreneurial spirit stayed strong, teaching him the importance of solving real problems.

Fast forward to 2022, when Zhao launched Opus, an AI-powered live streaming tool that initially gained little traction. However, one feature—automatically creating video clips—caught users' attention. Zhao pivoted, transforming that single feature into OpusClip. Within two weeks, tens of thousands of users signed up. Seven months later, OpusClip had 5 million users and a $10 million ARR, showing the power of listening to users and adapting quickly.

Read his full story

Funding

Investors Scramble for a Slice of ElevenLabs, Eyeing a $3B Valuation

Investors are in a frenzy over ElevenLabs, the AI startup poised to hit a whopping $3 billion valuation. Best known for its cutting-edge voice cloning and text-to-speech technology, the company is gaining serious traction. The latest funding round, expected to be led by Andreessen Horowitz, has turned into a bidding war among top-tier investors, all hoping to cash in on the next AI breakout. ElevenLabs' technology, which creates hyper-realistic voiceovers, is already revolutionizing industries from entertainment to media and beyond.

If the round goes ahead, it would triple the company's Series B valuation which was in January, and was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. Its rapid growth reflects the broader surge of interest in AI-driven startups, as everyone scrambles to stake a claim in the booming sector.

Growth

How to Build a Nine-Figure Empire by Acquiring Companies: Rollups

Right, so you want to know what a roll-up is?

Well, to put it simply, it's when you buy small businesses in the same industry, roll them up together into one company, and then sell that company for more than you bought the businesses for.

Essentially, it's arbitrage. You'll often buy the small companies at a low multiple of profits (maybe 3-5x EBITDA), and then because the new company is much larger, it's valued at a higher multiple of its profits.

Arbitrage, yes.

Oh, and there are some efficiencies in there, like merging multiple back-office functions.

Sounds easy? Well, it's not. 

Here’s why it’s hard, and also more on the process of how it’s done.

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Meme of the Day

Hope you enjoyed today’s issue!

I won’t lie, it takes me a while to write, so I’d love it if you could give it a share! (just forward it to a friend if you’re lazy like me!)

Cheers,

Rob 🥒

Robert Benson-May, ACA

Get me a beer?