š ASB Partners Nuggets 10.3.25
This is a short weekly email that covers a few things Iāve found interesting during the week.
Interesting Links/Reads
Many links are sourced from Marginal Revolution (bold and italics are my own to highlight what I found particularly interesting)
A new app offering to record your phone calls and pay you for the audio so it can sell the data to AI companies is, unbelievably, the No. 2 app in Appleās U.S. App Storeās Social Networking section.
The app, Neon Mobile, pitches itself as a moneymaking tool offering āhundreds or even thousands of dollars per yearā for access to your audio conversations.
Neonās website says the company pays 30Ā¢ per minute when you call other Neon users and up to $30 per day maximum for making calls to anyone else. The app also pays for referrals. The app first ranked No. 476 in the Social Networking category of the U.S. App Store on September 18 but jumped to No. 10 at the end of yesterday, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.
On Wednesday, Neon was spotted in the No. 2 position on the iPhoneās top free charts for social appsā¦
However, Neonās marketing claims to only record your side of the call unless itās with another Neon user.
Here is the full story, via Mark.
Schottenstein, an Orthodox Jew, was perplexed at the criticism that the campaign smacked of eugenics, the Nazi-embraced theory that selective reproduction can advance the human race. He said his mother-in-law grew up in Nazi Germany and watched as the synagogue across the street from her home was burned to the ground.
āIām very conscious of that term,ā Schottenstein said. He said that if he and his team had felt the campaign would be offensive in that way, āwe never wouldāve done it.ā
What teens want
Schottenstein uses a Yiddish word to describe his long-held goal for American Eagle: āto put a pair of jeans on every tuchis in the United States.ā
The 71-year-old has an uncanny ability to discern what young shoppers want. The storm over the Sweeney ads was still blowing when American Eagle unveiled a collaboration with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his Tru Kolors clothing brandāthe day after Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement.
His three sons and nine grandchildren are a particularly helpful focus group. Basketball star LeBron James counts him as a friend.
James became friendly with the Schottensteins while playing state championship basketball at the Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State campus. In 2009, James nominated Schottenstein for Time magazineās list of the 100 most influential people. āWe have a huge relationship,ā James told Cleveland.com in 2016.
Maverick Carter, a longtime friend and business partner of both James and Schottenstein who runs an entertainment company, describes meeting Schottenstein as āa young African-American kid from the inner city of Akron, Ohio.ā
Schottenstein has honed his instincts over decades in a retail business founded by his grandfather, Ephraim, a Lithuanian immigrant, who opened a department store in Columbus, Ohio, in 1917.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What lies ahead for American Eagleās brand and business following its recent ad campaign starring Sydney Sweeney? Join the conversation below.
Through holding companies and family trusts, Jay Schottenstein owns or has stakes in dozens of businesses, from shoe retailer DSW and furniture company American Signature to a Napa Valley winery and a luxury menās clothing store in Milan.
He owns roughly 7.8% of American Eagle Outfitters, a publicly traded company that controls four apparel retail chains, including loungewear brand Aerie and menās clothing retailer Todd Snyder.
Podcast/Videos
Show notes from Peter Attia Podcast āThe Driveā
I hope you enjoyed it.
Adam
Always fascinating. What was the so-called reference to eugenics?