🏘️ Disney’s real estate play, explained

PLUS: A startup building trick-or-treating maps. February 18, 2022 [The Hustle] Earlier this week, an Israeli strawberry was declared the world’s largest, weighing in at 10.19 ounces. As for the most expensive berry, that title may belong to Oishii, a company whose box of 6 Omakase strawberries costs $60. In today’s email: - Storyliving: Disney wants you to reside in its brand. - Trick or treat: How the pandemic inspired a map startup. - Payload: A new newsletter on the business of space. - Around the web: AI-generated Pokemon, the history of the luge, and more internet things. 🎧 On the go? [Listen to today’s podcast]( to hear us chat about Disney’s bizarre desert town, Belgium’s new 4-day workweek, and why investors snapped up 1 in 7 single-family homes in the US last year. The Big Idea [Disney gif]( Disney wants your life to be a fairy tale Ever wish you lived in a Disney story? Well, now you might actually be able to. Per The Wall Street Journal, Disney is [developing]( a master-planned residential community concept called Storyliving, designed by the company's famous Imagineers. The 1st Storyliving community… … is called Cotino, and located in California’s Coachella Valley. Its 1.9k housing units include estates, single-family homes, and condos — plus a section for residents that are 55+. All residents get an exclusive membership that includes: - Access to a private beach on the community’s 24-acre lagoon, including a waterfront clubhouse - Recreational activities and other year-round Disney programming Though Cotino is the only Storyliving concept in the works, Disney says other locations are being scouted. This isn’t Disney’s 1st foray into residential real estate The company’s previous efforts include: - Golden Oak: A 980-acre gated community [located]( within Disney’s resort property where the company sells luxury homes - Celebration: A 5k-acre community [developed]( as an idealistic small town outside Orlando that the company is no longer affiliated with What makes Storyliving different is that the company plans to [incorporate]( storytelling into the resident experience. Does that mean Daisy Duck will be hosting community happy hours? Specifics remain vague. The announcement also coincides with turbulent times in the residential real estate market. The median home price [reached]( record levels in 2021, and Zillow [expects]( prices to jump another 20%+ this spring. So who’s moving to Cotino? If you’re skeptical of the market for Storyliving, you must not know any “[Disney Adults](” — AKA the 18+ crowd that maintains a lifelong obsession with all things Disney. While it's easy to poke fun, the group’s buying power is no joke. The starter price for a home in Golden Oak was $1.7m. BTW: Are you a Disney super fan? We’d love to hear from you. Take our [short survey]( to tell us more. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=Disney+wants+your+life+to+be+a+fairy+tale%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F02182022-Disney%3Futm_campaign%3DDisney%26utm_content%3D02182022-Disney%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( SNIPPETS Doubling down: Spotify [announced]( the acquisitions of Podsights, which helps measure podcast advertising, and Chartable, a podcast analytics platform that helps podcasters learn more about their audience. Big new gig: Meta [promoted]( Nick Clegg to president of global affairs, where he will report directly to Mark Zuckerberg. The move means Zuck and COO Sheryl Sandberg won’t have to spend as much time with regulators on Meta’s metaverse ambitions. Backlog billionaires: Spotter, a startup that licenses YouTubers' backlogs, [raised]( $200m at a $1.7B valuation. The company works with creators like MrBeast and Dude Perfect, and plans to use the money to buy up more backlogs. Jackpot: US casinos [raked in]( $53B in 2021 — the sector’s best year ever. Guess the house is still winning. --------------------------------------------------------------- Hey — enjoy getting quick updates on what you care about? Take [20 seconds]( to personalize your Snippets. Pick your preferences👇 and we’ll send you more of what you love. Boom. [Personalize my Email →]( Map Tech [Proxi image]( How pandemic trick-or-treating inspired a map startup [Proxi](, a platform for users to make and share custom maps, just raised [$1.2m]( to build a mobile app and new features. But it all started with trick-or-treating. Co-founders Melinda Haughey and Chelsey Roney are 2 Seattle moms and self-described “business nerds” who met at Texas A&M a decade ago. Roney’s background is in marketing and startups, while Haughey is a former US intelligence analyst with a background in spatial mapping. During Halloween 2020… … Haughey saw families on social media building [candy chutes]( and other covid-safe trick-or-treating solutions. “So, I cobbled together some tools and made a map where people would add their own homes,” she told The Hustle. The map grew to 2.3k Seattle-area homes and racked up 500k views. People started asking Haughey to build other maps, so she and Roney decided to build Proxi, officially launching in the fall of 2021. Proxi is built with simplicity in mind… … and has several customization options, like swapping logos or colors and adding map categories and icons. Some use cases include: - Seattle station King 5 mapping its [Best of Western Washington]( winners - Seattle-based travel bloggers [Traveling While Black](, who help Black visitors to the Pacific Northwest, making a local guide - Influencer Rachel Vigil [crowdsourcing]( an El Paso guide While Proxi is free to use, the company’s business model will eventually include partnering with creators and businesses on advertising and affiliate linking, as well as premium content. They’re also building an analytics dashboard so creators can gauge the popularity of their maps. The new mobile app will allow users to layer maps and create a specific itinerary. Fun fact: Years ago, Haughey and Roney started a QR-based payments company, but weren’t ready to work on it full time. Seeing the success of apps like Venmo, they vowed to go full steam ahead on their next good idea. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=How+pandemic+trick-or-treating+inspired+a+map+startup%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F02182022-Proxi%3Futm_campaign%3DDisney%26utm_content%3D02182022-Proxi%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( Space Biz [Payload newsletter]( The business of space, explained As you can imagine, The Hustle enjoys a good newsletter. And one newsletter to watch is [Payload](, which covers the space industry and raised a $650k seed round last September, per [Axios](. The Hustle recently spoke with Payload’s Ari Lewis to ask all things space: Why a space newsletter? (One of Payload’s co-founders Mo Islam) spent more than 9 years working in the investment world. In that role, he actively invested in the space industry. He noticed an accessible, pithy, and refreshing digital media product (a la The Hustle) was hard to come by. So we started one. What are the most interesting sub-industries in space? Launch captures most of the headlines, but the vertical is a small part of the overall space economy. From an investor or space agency official’s POV, sub-industries to watch are: - Orbital debris: We continue to break satellite launch records every year, adding to the millions of objects flying uncontrolled [in space]. Market mechanisms need to be put into place that tackle the tragedy of the commons that is space junk. - Commercial space stations: When the International Space Station (ISS) reaches the end of its useful life in 2031, the platform will be decommissioned and de-orbited into the Pacific Ocean. The ISS has been orbiting Earth since 1999 and has been continuously inhabited by astronauts since 2000. At $150 billion and counting, the ISS is the most expensive object ever built by humans. That leaves a significant gap in the western world’s ability to operate in space. Will Jeff Bezos become CEO of Blue Origin? It’s only a matter of time, in our opinion, before (Bezos) decides to take the helm at Blue Origin, (which has continuously) suffered from product delays, cultural issues, and employee attrition. The efficiency present throughout Amazon is notably missing at Blue. (Read the full [Q&A]( to find out the 5 hottest space startups) [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=The+business+of+space%2C+explained%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2Fpayload-the-newsletter-covering-the-business-of-space%2F%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( TRENDS Unbundling the hefty handicraft industry Let’s talk arts and crafts. The people’s lockdown hobbies of choice include embroidery, pottery, woodworking, leather-crafting, and other downright delightful activities. The $674B tactile craft industry (2020) is [projected to hit ~1.2T by 2026](. Our Trends analysts unpacked 4 favorable niches. - Beginner crafts: A kid’s bracelet-making kit is [pushing $350k per month](. Plenty of niches are heating up. - Online migration: More brick-and-mortar stores are biting the digital bullet, and we see win-win opportunities. - Advanced crafts: “Crochet kit” garners 37k Amazon searches per month. [“Candle-making kit” sees nearly 4x that](. - Live experiences: Drunk-knitting is winning. There’s a lot more. Want the uncut data and details? Get access to hundreds of curated market signals and advice from 17k+ business builders. [Try Trends for a buck →]( AROUND THE WEB 📄 On this day: In 2010, WikiLeaks [published]( the 1st of almost 750k documents leaked by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. 🧑‍💼 How to: Finding a therapist can be surprisingly hard. Here are [some tips]( to avoid huge waitlists and find a good fit. 😆 Haha: This [website]( uses AI to generate fake Pokemon. 🛷 That’s interesting: How did [the luge]( become an Olympic sport? Well, it all starts with some men on vacation in the Swiss Alps in the 1800s. 🐦 Aww: Have you ever seen a [kagu](? It’s a near-flightless bird endemic to New Caledonia, and we need everyone to look at it. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT (A roundup of our best reads from the last couple weeks…) 🏅 Is this the end of an Olympic ticket monopoly? [LINK]( 🚜 Would you take free land in rural America? [LINK]( 💬 The group chat that unlocked NYC’s hottest reservations. [LINK]( 😴 The $12B+ sleep industry, explained. [LINK]( 🛒 Amazon’s plan to dominate the grocery business. [LINK]( Shower Thoughts - “You have matching underwear with lots of strangers.” [SOURCE]( - “Having a sore throat is probably way worse for some languages compared to others.” [SOURCE]( - “Some cars go their entire lives without ever touching another car.” [SOURCE]( - “You only notice how bad Hollywood is at foreign countries when you see your country in a movie.” [SOURCE]( - “Milking is taking milk but watering is giving water.” [SOURCE](  [via Reddit]( SHARE THE HUSTLE Hey. Stop keeping us a secret. Refer just 3 people and we’ll start to send some goodies as a thank you. [My First Million ebook]( Spread the news. Help us grow 🌱 [Share The Hustle 🤠→]( Or copy this custom referral link: [ Your referral count: 0 How did you like today’s email? Today's email was brought to you by [Trung Phan](, [Jacob Cohen](, [Juliet Bennett Rylah](, [Rob Litterst](. Editing by: Mark “Mickey Mouse lives down the street” Dent. [PODCAST]( [JOBS]( [CONTACT US](mailto:news@thehustle.co) [Facebook]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( [Trends]( 25 FIRST ST. 2ND FLOOR, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02141, UNITED STATES  +1 888 482 7768 Never want to hear from us again? Break our hearts and [unsubscribe](list=thehustle). [The Hustle](