The $233,000 Per Second Math Equation

📔 Jeff’s Diary (yes, I’ll let you read it)

You’re not feeling well, so you go to the doctor and after a few tests, hear the worst news ever. You have cancer.

You reflect on all the things you’ve done in your life you knew you shouldn’t. You drank too much, smoked too much, and constantly told yourself you’d slow down… but never did.

It’s easy to make the drastic changes in life once someone tells you this is what you need to survive, so why is business any different?

Every business has a start and end. Whether by choice or by force, every decision small and large impacts the lifeline of its success.

That email you’ve been dreading to send to your biggest prospect.

The person you need to hire but are too scared to pull the trigger.

That video you promised yourself you’d finally sit down and record.

The monotonous tasks are not the ones you check the box and feel fulfilled are moving the business forward.

Action is not momentum.

Momentum is when you move towards a goal you set yourself.

So don’t life or business happen to you.

Don’t spend your time in the moment knowing what should be done but isn’t.

Emails will pile. Tasks will compound.

But success is a choice of decisions you know will change your life. So don’t delay them.

Because if not now, then when?

– Jeff

📆 WHAT WE WILL HIT ON THIS WEEK:

→ Every Founder Must Know: Ro is spending ~$20M on a Super Bowl ad. Here is the "boring" math behind why one 30-second spot is safer than your Facebook ad budget.

→ The Cap Table Pivot: Travis Kelce just signed with Sleep Number. The catch? He isn't just taking a fee; he is buying the stock on the open market.

→ The Recovery Gold Rush: Mike Trout and Freddie Freeman just backed a $160k "Smart Chamber." Why athletes are dumping cash into Recovery Tech.

📉 The Economics of Attention (And Why Serena Bought In)

Most founders look at a Super Bowl ad—$233,000 per second—and see an ego vanity project. They are wrong. Ro (the direct-to-patient healthcare giant) just announced their 2026 Super Bowl spot featuring Serena Williams.

The News: 
Ro is dropping roughly $20M fully loaded ($10M for the airtime, ~$4M production/talent, ~$6M accompanying spend) for 30 seconds of airtime. But here is the detail most people missed:

Serena Williams isn't just a paid actor. She is an investor and board member.

Why It Matters: 
Zachariah Reitano (Ro’s Founder) released the internal math on why they did this. It isn't about "going viral." It is about Time Compression.

1. The Monoculture is Dead: The NFL is the only thing left that 100M people watch simultaneously.

2. The Efficiency Compounder: Ro doesn't need the ad to pay for itself on Day 1. If the brand awareness improves their future marketing efficiency by just 2% over the next 12 months, the ad is free.

The Lesson for Founders: 
Stop looking for a "silver bullet" ad channel. Look for Asset Alignment. Ro didn't just rent a celebrity for a day; they built a product so good that the "GOAT" invested in it, then they used the Super Bowl to amplify that existing equity.

Reitano calls this a "Portfolio Decision," not a moonshot. The downside is capped (you lose the ad spend). The upside is uncapped (you lower CAC for the next 3 years).

The OWM Take: 
Serena is the ultimate example of the "Owner" thesis. She didn't want a sponsorship fee; she wanted a seat on the board. If you are still trying to pay creators with free product or CPMs, you are playing a 2020 game. The best talent wants to own the upside.

♟️ The Cap Table is the New Billboard

The News: 
Travis Kelce just signed a partnership with Sleep Number (NASDAQ: SNBR), but this isn't your standard "smile and wave" endorsement.

The Deal Structure: 
Kelce isn't just receiving Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) as a bonus; he is actively purchasing common stock on the open market. This move will make him one of the company's "top shareholders," holding a stake just under 5%.

The Operator Take: 
This is the single strongest signal we’ve seen in the creator economy this year. Most "equity for endorsement" deals are fluff—options with zero downside risk. Kelce is different. By buying on the open market, he is putting real skin in the game.

• The Agent Model: Get paid a fee regardless of outcome. (Rent seeking).

• The Owner Model: Buy the asset, increase the value, sell the asset. (Capital allocation).

Kelce is betting his own net worth that his influence can drive Sleep Number’s stock price up. If he fails, he loses money. That is the only alignment that matters. Founders: If a creator asks for equity, check if they are willing to buy it. If they aren't, they don't believe in your product; they just want a lottery ticket.

🩸 The "Recovery Stack" is the New Golf Course

The News: 
A massive syndicate of MLB and NFL stars—including Mike Trout, Freddie Freeman, and George Kittle—just announced an investment in Ammortal, a "human optimization" company.

The Product: 
They aren't selling supplements. They are selling the "Ammortal Chamber," a $160,000 hardware unit that stacks 5 different therapies (Red Light, PEMF, Molecular Hydrogen, etc.) into one session.

The Operator Take: 
Smart founders are watching where high-performers spend their own money. For decades, athletes spent their cash on cars and jewelry (depreciating assets).

Now, they are pouring capital into "Body Infrastructure" (appreciating assets). This validates the "Prosumer" thesis for HealthTech. These athletes are the R&D lab. If Trout and Freeman are putting six figures into a chamber to extend their careers, that technology will trickle down to the high-end consumer market in 3-5 years.

The Signal: 
Stop pitching athletes on "lifestyle" brands. Pitch them on "performance tooling." They don't want to look cool; they want to play for three more years. That’s a $100M problem they are willing to pay to solve.

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