🏠 Airbnb’s expansion plans

Plus: A cool Airbnb chart, a SHART machine, our best stories this week, Cocaine Bear, and more. [View Online]( [The Hustle] Engineers recently [built]( a device to recreate and study bodily sounds. It’s called the Synthetic Human Acoustic Reproduction Testing machine, or SHART for short. In today’s email: - Mental health apps are shifting strategies. - Chart: Airbnb wants more hosts. - Weekend reads to pair with a winter margarita. - Around the web: Songs for tortoises, disappearing sounds, a purple mystery, and more cool internet finds. 🎧 On the go?[Listen to today’s 10-minute podcast]( to hear Zack and Juliet discuss mental health app hurdles, advanced chatbots, Netflix’s Preview Club, and more. The big idea [brain-lifting-weights]( Mental health apps are changing strategies Sometimes looking for a therapist is so frustrating, you need a therapist just to talk about that. In the US, patients face financial barriers, confusing insurance systems, too few providers, and long wait times. Tech startups have tried to make it easier, receiving $7.8B in funding over the last two years, [per]( Business Insider. In 2020, the [American Psychological Association]( reported there were as many as 20k mental health apps — online talk therapy, meditation, journaling, etc. But few are FDA approved, and hurdles remain: - Many don’t accept insurance, remaining unaffordable for some patients. - Some cost-cutting efforts come at the expense of care (e.g., shorter visits). - Cerebral [drew attention]( from the DOJ over allegations that it was overprescribing drugs, like Adderall. Additionally, the costs for a startup to acquire a patient for D2C care has skyrocketed from ~$150 in 2018 to $500-$1k today, thanks to competitors flooding the market and Apple’s privacy updates. What’s next? Startups are changing their strategies, relying on referrals over expensive digital ads and targeting employers, who pay a fee for employee access, over individual patients. Example: Talk therapy app Ginger [merged]( with meditation app Headspace last summer. CEO Russell Glass told BI the company is now targeting enterprises, not individuals. Others, like Alma, are working with therapists to help them accept insurance. Many providers don’t, [citing]( lower pay and more paperwork than with out-of-pocket clients, but as of August, Alma had [8k]( professionals on its platform. [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=Mental+health+apps+are+changing+strategies%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F12-2-mental-health%3Futm_campaign%3D12-2%2BFriday%26utm_content%3D12-2-mental-health%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]( TRENDING [eyeball wearing a hat] Ummm… Universal Pictures dropped the trailer for [Cocaine Bear](, an action comedy based extremely loosely on a [true story](. SNIPPETS A consumer price index that tracks personal expenditures (besides food and energy) [rose]( 0.2% in October, less than the 0.3% Dow Jones estimate, suggesting price increases could be slowing. Monkey think, monkey do: Elon Musk’s Neuralink is hoping to hold human clinical trials of its brain implant next year. For now, [here’s a monkey]( “telepathically” typing. Netflix is expanding its Preview Club from ~2k subscribers to tens of thousands. The group gets to [provide feedback]( on Netflix content prior to release. Coinbase is [the latest]( in a long line of Big Tech companies calling out Apple’s 30% commission fee on the App Store. Less is more: Japan defeated Spain 2-1 in the World Cup on Thursday despite possessing the ball for just [17.7%]( of the match, the lowest share in tournament history. Mind-boggler: OpenAI dropped [ChatGPT](, a chatbot that can answer detailed questions, write code, type essays, and more. On that note, Disney researchers [showed off]( a cool new AI re-aging tool that could save visual effects artists weeks of work. Speaking of movies… Indiana Jones [is back](. Future’s future: Andreessen Horowitz’s future-focused tech publication is [reportedly]( shutting down. The VC giant continues to make popular podcasts, videos, and newsletters. Why build a community? Because it’s one of the best ways to build a business. We unpack seven keys to community-based success [inside Trends](. SPREAD THE WORD [paper airplane] Brad — our boss and a huge Swiftie — somehow got Taylor tickets, and said there’s a microscopic chance he’ll let us go with him if 100 people share The Hustle. [Share The Hustle 🤠→]( Chart [airbnb-revenue]( Olivia Heller [Tweet this Image]( How Airbnb plans to get ahead of a shortage Airbnb may have [6m+]( listings, but that doesn’t mean it’s fine kicking back and relaxing in a cozy cabin. CEO Brian Chesky told [TechCrunch]( that one of his goals is to avoid “a supply-constrained era.” To ensure that doesn’t happen, Airbnb’s working to make it easier to become a host. - This week, the company launched [“Airbnb-friendly apartments”]( in the US — a platform highlighting apartments that renters are allowed to put on Airbnb. - While Airbnb doesn’t take a cut of their rent, the property owners “take a revenue share of between 20-25% of a host’s booking amount.” So, while the program could help renters earn some extra cash, it’s also possible that property owners could be incentivized to charge more for rent in the first place — because the renters can just “make it back.” Related throwback: Remember the time Zack visited the world’s [most booked Airbnb](? [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+Airbnb+plans+to+get+ahead+of+a+shortage%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F12-2-airbnb-gets-ahead%3Futm_campaign%3D12-2%2BFriday%26utm_content%3D12-2-airbnb-gets-ahead%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]( Free Resource 15 holiday-themed email marketing templates No, they’re not all Christmas-themed. That would be downright ridiculous. But if you would prefer that, just say the word... We have ideas. For now — [15 holiday email templates]( to help you hit the list in style. They cover the days people most actively wait for, from one New Year’s to the next. For messaging contacts and customers on: - Christmas :) - New Year’s - Black Friday - Labor Day - All the days The play is to give them another reason to celebrate. [Emails for holidays →]( Recs weekend-reads-image Welcome to Weekend Reads… … Recs to pair with a festive [winter margarita](. In case you missed ’em, here was our week’s best… - Story: Zack explored one of life’s [most puzzling questions](: Can you get sued for using a meme? He also took a deep dive into meme economics. - Podcast: The puns were out of bounds on our latest [“Shark Tank” rewatch pod]( about a fancy chicken coop, a mother-daughter duo, and a dating app that needs a date with a distribution plan. - Chart: Did Netflix make [the right move]( with Glass Onion? It appears not. - Video: Catch this [“Hustlenomics” episode]( on why most gas stations don’t make money selling gas. - Blog: Is blockchain the new frontier for health care? Explore [top startups and use cases]( in the space. - Interview: My First Million [spoke with Bryan Johnson]( about selling his company to PayPal for $800m, and his work to reduce his biological age. [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=Welcome+to+Weekend+Reads%E2%80%A6%0A%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A View on our website AROUND THE WEB 🌳 On this day: In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [opened]( to oversee concerns surrounding pollution and the environment. 🎵 Useful:[Music Historian]( is a music discovery platform that lets you filter through Last.fm’s top 30k artists and play each one’s top song. 💡 That’s interesting: The mystery behind the “Great Purpling,” or why some LED streetlights are turning [purple](. 👂 That’s cool: A collection of disappearing [sounds](, many of them from defunct technology, and music inspired by them. 🐢 Aww: And now, a [tortoise serenade](. Shower Thoughts - “Every once in a while, far in the depths of a landfill, a packing bubble finally pops under too much pressure.” [SOURCE SOURCE]( - “There is probably a tastier bird that we’re missing out on because evolution didn’t favor it.” [SOURCE SOURCE]( - “Considering how much our gut affects our brain, food itself is psychoactive.” [SOURCE SOURCE]( - “Of fictional clowns, Ronald McDonald has a much higher body count than The Joker.” [SOURCE SOURCE]( - “30,000 years ago, someone looked at a cave painting and sneered that they coulda done that.” [SOURCE SOURCE](  [via Reddit]( How did you like today’s email? [Love It]( [Meh]( [Hate It]( Today's email was brought to you by [Jacob Cohen](, [Juliet Bennett Rylah](, and [Rob Litterst](. Editing by: Mark “Cocaine Bear (lol, not actually)” Dent. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. 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