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Levered Beta is All You Need
Mountains and Caves, Tariffs, Chocolate, and GLP-1 Drugs
Peeyush Jain & Mohit Garg
July 30, 2025
In partnership with
Salutations, Olio aficionados! 👋
Midweek greetings to all, as we unveil the 173rd chapter of Weekly Olio—a delightful concoction of laughter, insight, and a sprinkle of mystery. Within these pages, you'll discover a handpicked selection of fascinating finds from the vast realms of the internet.
Keep your eyes peeled for this week’s Publisher’s Parmesan, arriving this Sunday!
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The Quote 💭
“A man’s life is all a matter of mountains and caves - mountains we must climb, caves where we hide when we can’t face our mountains.”
The Tweet 🐦
India imported 15,000 cars a year. Why? It has 110% tariff on autos. Now, trade negotiations are not going well and it's approaching the WTO on Trump's 25% auto tariff.
But the reason is simple. India exports more than it imports autos. Why? It has pretty high tariff on auto.
— Trinh (@Trinhnomics)
8:22 AM • Jul 28, 2025
With countries continuing to wrangle with Trump for closing trade deals, here is a nuanced take on the 3-D chess behind the noise that is being generated. As they say incentives drive outcomes.
The Infographic 💹
Chocolate consumption enhances cognitive function. There is powerful correlation between chocolate intake & the number of Nobel Prize recipients.
Fact-based news without bias awaits. Make 1440 your choice today.
Overwhelmed by biased news? Cut through the clutter and get straight facts with your daily 1440 digest. From politics to sports, join millions who start their day informed.
The Short Read 📝
If GLP-1 Drugs Are Good For Everything, Should We All Be on Them? - by Derek Thompson
Derek Kahn Thompson is an American podcaster and journalist. He was a staff writer at The Atlantic from 2009 to 2025. He is the author of Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction and, with Ezra Klein, the co-author of Abundance.
Yes, it seems likely that we will all be using weight loss drugs. It's unclear if these drugs directly affect conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's or if they help because these conditions are linked to being overweight. However, looking back, it probably won't be an exaggeration to say that GLP-1s are the most significant medical breakthrough of the century. Read more…
The Long Read 📜
Levered Beta is All You Need - by Ethan Ding
Ethan Ding argues that in today's AI boom, being early and riding market waves matters more than building superior technology. He introduces the concept of "levered beta" - amplifying market correlation rather than seeking unique competitive advantages ("alpha").
The evidence is compelling: Lovable, an AI coding tool launched six months ago with just Claude Sonnet and a text editor, now competes with StackBlitz and Replit despite their seven years of infrastructure development. Similarly, the AI SDR category thrives despite universally terrible products. Companies like 11x reached $10M ARR with products users hate, scandal−ridden leadership, and poor execution− yet raised $50M 50M because they rode the AI wave early.
Legal AI exemplifies this perfectly. Harvey, worth $5B, is essentially ChatGPT with legal templates and enterprise sales, but law firms buy it because of positioning and timing.
Ding's key insight: when foundation models improve (like Claude 4), users attribute all improvements to the product, not the underlying technology. This makes early positioning more valuable than engineering excellence. In volatile markets with steep growth curves, the winning strategy isn't building the best product - it's taking leveraged bets on inevitable trends and surviving until the technology catches up to the hype.
Former PepsiCo Exec Invented A Plastic That Dissolves in Water
If anyone knows a thing about plastic’s impact on the planet, it’s Manuel Rendon. The former PepsiCo executive and environmental engineer is using his 20 years of expertise to solve one of the world’s biggest problems with Timeplast.
Up to 450 million metric tons of plastic are wasted each year. Microplastics seep into our bodies, and mountains of bottles pile up in the ocean. But Timeplast has patented a water-soluble, time-programmable plastic that vanishes without harming the environment.
Major players are already partnering with Timeplast for its patented technology—their sales grew 6,000% in the first month.
You have just a few days left to invest as Timeplast scales in its $1.3T plastic market, from packaging to 3D printing. Become a Timeplast shareholder by midnight, 7/31.
This is a paid advertisement for Timeplast’s Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.timeplast.com.
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We’ll be back in your inbox 2 PM IST next Wednesday. Till then, have a productive week!
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
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