Hi! Spending upside (down): When “Stranger Things” was first released, Netflix was investing $1.07 into content for every $1 of revenue… Now, with the series’ fifth and final season on the horizon, the media giant spends some $0.40 for every dollar it makes. Today we’re exploring:

Have feedback for us? Just hit reply - we'd love to hear from you!

TOGETHER WITH

BYND is soaring — can the fake meat company turn the meme stock spotlight into a real future?

Sometimes it’s hard to nail down what makes a meme stock. The basic ingredients — retail enthusiasm plus soaring trading and options volumes — are obvious.

However, throw in Wall Street investors betting against the stock, a low share price, and maybe a helping of nostalgia, and you have a near-perfect recipe for the Meme Age. One aspect that seems to be completely irrelevant is what the company actually does: from video games to healthcare insurance providers, real estate tech platforms to donut-peddlers, the meme stock kingmakers are industry-agnostic.

Their latest pick is Beyond Meat, which soared 128% on Monday in a frenzied trading session which continued into Tuesday and Wednesday, with the stock gaining more than 100% earlier this morning, before being halted for volatility after shedding nearly all of those gains. Indeed, BYND was the most traded stock in today’s premarket session, with a genuinely jaw-dropping $3.37 billion changing hands in the fake meat company’s shares.

To put this into perspective: yesterday, the company traded more than twice as many shares as it has sold pounds of plant-based meat in its — mostly miserable — history as a publicly-traded company.

The surge in interest comes after a debt swap deal, which massively diluted existing shareholders. Inspired, at least in part, by a YouTuber who saw potential in the company, as well as the possibility of a short-squeeze, the retail buying spree ensued. Already spiking this week, the positive sentiment was buoyed further yesterday after Beyond Meat announced plans to expand its distribution at Walmart locations.

Easy come, easy go

If we’ve learned anything about meme stocks over the last few years, though, it’s that the attention doesn’t always last. The OG meme stock, GameStop, managed to use its fame to transform itself, selling hundreds of millions of new shares and creating a formidable balance sheet with billions of dollars of cash on its books.

The question for Beyond might be: can it do the same? Even after the recent debt swap deal, the fact remains that the core plant-based business is still incinerating cash. Once a $14 billion Wall Street darling during the meat alternative boom, the burger- and mince-maker has seen its sales slide and layoffs continue.

Since its 2019 IPO, the company has spent nearly its entire public life in the red, only turning a profit across two quarters at the height of the plant protein craze. Demand has since started to shift back toward conventional animal products, while the brand’s higher prices have turned off cost-conscious shoppers. Indeed, cumulative net losses have reached $1.2 billion from 2018 through mid-2025, as the company’s gross margin (before any overhead costs are taken into account) in Q2 stood at just 11.5%.

Read this on the web instead

Regional air travel could soon look different

There’s an untapped transportation network in the US: small airports. With just 30 airports serving ~70% of American travelers, smaller, underutilized regional airports could be the foundation for the next big shift in regional transport. 

That’s due to innovations like electrified aircraft and AI-enabled software, two areas where Surf Air Mobility (NYSE: SRFM) is making strides. The company is building SurfOS, an AI-enabled platform for the air mobility industry, and creating a platform to enable electrified aircraft, all targeting a $100+ billion estimated market by 2035.

Plus, SurfOS is being developed in partnership with a US top 20 most valuable company (by market cap), aiming to become the intelligent operating system for the industry. 

As the owner of one of the largest commuter airlines in the US, Surf Air Mobility is ready to combine its scale, experience, and next-gen tech to enable the future of air mobility. 

Din Tai Fung earns more per restaurant than any other chain in the US

Although no one can quite agree on just how many branches of Din Tai Fung, the buzzy dumpling spot, there are in the US — The Wall Street Journal went for 16 this week, Bloomberg put it at 17 in early October, and the chain’s website lists a host of new openings that might muddy the waters further in months to come — everyone can concur on one thing: each one is a fine-tuned orchestration that turns dough into tens of millions of dollars.

The Bao generation

In the early 1970s, when tinned cooking oil started eating into sales at their shop in Taipei, Din Tai Fung founder Bing-Yi Yang and his wife decided to convert half of their shop into a restaurant making and selling Xiao Long Bao — the soup dumplings it’s famous around the world for to this day. The pivot proved popular and, after the Taiwanese spot cropped up in The New York Times’ “Top-Notch Tables” in 1993, international expansion would only be a matter of time.

However, when the company opened its first US branch in Arcadia, California, in March 2000, even the most evangelical DTF fan might not have predicted that it would grow into the stateside hit it is today, as America’s top-earning restaurant chain. With a string of locations along the West Coast, some prime real estate in New York City, and an outpost in Disneyland to boot, each Din Tai Fung brought in a whopping $27.4 million on average last year, per figures from industry research firm Technomic.

To put that into context, at the world’s largest Din Tai Fung branch in Times Square (where, as of April, a portion of 10 traditional Xiao Long Bao sets you back $18.50), $27.4 million would equate to the restaurant shifting a staggering ~15 million individual dumplings across 2024.

According to Restaurant Business Magazine, a chain must do three things to secure the sort of turnover DTF is posting: it must be big, busy, and customers must spend a decent amount when they’re there. Thanks to its expansive floor plans, snaking lines outside most restaurants, and a menu made up of items that lend themselves nicely to sprawling family-style banquets, Restaurant Business says the Taiwanese chain is ticking the boxes on all counts.

Read more on the web

The regional air mobility market is projected to be approximately $100 billion by 2035. Surf Air Mobility is developing next-generation technology to drive this transformation, including AI-enabled software and electrified aircraft. Discover $SRFM.¹ 

Ad

Off the charts: Which type of tattoo is seeing a surge in popularity, as more people embrace the style of body art as a new status symbol? [Answer below]. 

Answer here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have some feedback or want to sponsor this newsletter?

Not a subscriber? Sign up for free below.

Advertiser’s disclosures:

1 Stock markets are volatile and can fluctuate significantly in response to company, industry, political, regulatory, market, or economic developments. Investing in stock involves risks, including the loss of principal. Before investing, carefully assess whether a particular stock aligns with your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and financial situation.

This is a paid advertisement for Surf Air Mobility, Inc.

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more

SHERWOOD MEDIA, LLC, 85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025