Wanna Buy the Boston Celtics?
They’re available, they’ve been valued at $.7 billion, and they just won a world championship. But there’s a good chance your business has been more profitable this year.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
There’s a new term for the nonsense that AI bots can produce.
Companies and venues that handle micro-weddings are catching on.
For retailers, the mask wars have returned—but with a difference this time.
Don’t miss the latest 21 Hats Podcast episode, which explains why family businesses are so difficult and offers some coping strategies.
BUSINESS FOR SALE
Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking of buying the Boston Celtics: “While [owner] Wyc Grousbeck has stated his desire to remain the Celtics’ governor through 2028 when the deal is supposed to fully close, that is not a fait accompli if you or someone else in your group wants to become the face of the team. Resolving that detail will be part of late-stage negotiations. It’s likely you’re already well-connected with the wheelers and dealers in the sports marketplace. You will call on those you trust to form a team of bankers and financial advisers to guide you through the bidding process. That process will be laid out and managed by the team of bankers and financial advisers the Grousbeck family will employ.”
“Wyc Grousbeck said recently on CNBC that he already has heard from potential buyers. ‘This is going to be quite a bidding process,’ said Grousbeck, noting that the team is being sold at a high point, coming off an NBA title and with its young core locked into contracts that are expensive but may prove to look more reasonable the longer NBA valuations continue to rise.”
“The Celtics were most recently valued at $4.7 billion. The highest price paid for a sports team is $6.05 billion for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, a number that Grousbeck said ‘why not?’ to as a goal for what the Celtics might command. ‘I would think there’d be interest because people would be able to start being involved in something that is at the top of the world, not at the bottom,’ said Grousbeck.”
“Before placing an opening bid, the bidders will take a long, close look at the financials of BBP, including any debt a buyer would have to assume. The Celtics had $443 million in revenues in the 2022-23 season, with $88 million in operating income. Grousbeck said toward the end of this season that the team is losing money.” READ MORE
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
There’s a new term for the hallucinations produced by ChatGPT and other AI bots: “Amidst the genuine promise and excitement over possible applications of chatbots is what we call the ‘epistemic risks of botshit.’ Botshit, in our definition, is made-up, inaccurate, and untruthful chatbot content that humans uncritically use for tasks. Not effectively managing the risks of botshit could have large consequences for individual professionals and leaders, as well as their organizations. Some of these risks include reputational damage, incorrect decisions, legal liability, economic losses, and even human safety.”
“One place this can be seen is in the health care sector. When reliable, there are clear benefits to introducing a chatbot into consumer facing medical contexts such as pharmacies. Chatbots could be available 24/7 to provide immediate response to questions about prescriptions and pharmacy services efficiently.”
“However, researchers presenting at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Society for Health-Systems Pharmacists found that currently about three-quarters of responses generated by ChatGPT about questions related to drugs were inaccurate or incomplete. Worse still, when researchers asked the tool for references to support responses, it generated fake citations as a type of hallucination.” READ MORE
THE WEDDING INDUSTRY
Thanks to the rise of micro-wedding companies, you can now get married for $1,000 or less: “Angela Gaspar spent about $2,000 to get married last weekend. The Philadelphia wedding photographer opted to forgo the extravagance that accompanies so many modern nuptials — and this year will cost U.S. couples $33,000 on average, according to the wedding planning site Zola. In front of a handful of friends, Gaspar and her now husband, Avi Rubinsky, tied the knot at Philly Elopement Co., their new Kensington micro-wedding venue, which maxes out at 16 guests.”
“The couple briefly considered getting married in Las Vegas, Gaspar said. ‘But then we were like, Why isn’t there something like this here, but cooler?’ So they found a loft space and opened their own micro-wedding venue. Their yearlong lease started July 1, and the website went live last week. On Saturday, they became the first couple to get married there. They plan to spend the money they saved on a honeymoon to Iceland.”
“Philadelphia Elopement Co. is the latest Philadelphia venue to cater exclusively to so-called micro-weddings, or nuptials with fewer than 50 people in attendance. These ceremonies typically aren’t followed by traditional receptions, saving couples money (the venue fee alone can be $12,000 or more for larger weddings), as well as the stress that so often accompanies the wedding planning process.”
“Stacey Thomas, owner of the Philadelphia Wedding Chapel, has seen rising demand for elopements and micro-weddings at her East Falls venue. Inside the Sherman Mills complex, her loft space offers six packages that range from the $125 ‘Make It Legal’ — a quick paperwork signing with the couple and an officiant — to the $795 ‘Something Special’ ceremony with up to 30 guests.”
“Micro-weddings remain in the minority, with 13 percent of couples who got married last year inviting 50 or fewer people, according to a recent survey from wedding planning site the Knot.” READ MORE
REGULATION
In Seattle, restaurants are preparing for a big minimum-wage hike: “When Seattle’s bigwigs in business and labor were negotiating the city’s $15 minimum wage more than a decade ago, one major question threatened to derail the entire agreement: whether small businesses should be treated differently from large ones. Facing an angry mayor and the threat of one or more ballot initiatives, the parties involved at the time opted to give small businesses 10 years before fully phasing in the city’s precedent-setting new wage law. Now that time is up, and next year, businesses with fewer than 500 employees may no longer deduct any tips or benefits from their hourly wages. As a result, wages could go up by $3 or more per hour, by far the largest increase since the law took effect in 2015.”
“The long-planned end to a tiered wage system could mean significant raises for thousands of low-wage workers. It’s also sending panic through the restaurant industry and brings yet another hefty political question before a City Council that’s only just moved into the second floor of City Hall. Many of its members won their seats on the promise of friendlier relations with the city’s business world.”
“Restaurant industry lobbyists have pushed council members to extend the deadline and allow small businesses to continue crediting tips and benefits toward the minimum wage. But they are working against massive turnover at City Hall and shifting priorities toward public safety and homelessness.”
“Restaurateur Ethan Stowell’s businesses offer a preview of what the switch will mean. He exceeded 500 employees for the first time last year, meaning he could no longer count tips. The financial hit was significant, he said, and he followed it by switching everyone to an hourly rate and adding a service charge to his checks.”
“The reaction among staff was mixed. For some, it was a positive, because it meant they earned more on sick days or when taking leave. Others quit.” READ MORE
RETAIL
Store owners and customers are fighting over masks again: “Early in the pandemic, retailers faced backlash for mandating face coverings. Now some store owners are demanding customers drop their masks. Police and some small-business owners say people are exploiting the cultural acceptance of masks established by Covid-19 to commit robberies while hiding their faces. In response, some stores and business organizations are calling for bans of face coverings or imposing them on their own. The moves come as state and local governments take steps to enforce mask restrictions. North Carolina last month passed a law increasing penalties for wearing a mask while committing a crime, largely in response to pro-Palestine protesters who covered their faces during demonstrations.”
“Kitson, a retail chain in the Los Angeles area that claims a long list of celebrities as customers, became one of the first stores to restrict masks in the pandemic era when it imposed a ban in 2022 at its flagship store. Owner Fraser Ross said the policy has been enormously effective at reducing shoplifting. ‘It’s like night and day,’ he said.”
“Kitson allows immunocompromised people to enter the store with a mask for a period before or after regular hours but not during. ‘The rules are for everyone,’ Ross said. ‘You never know who the shoplifters are.’”
“Violent crime has largely declined following spikes during the pandemic. Still, retailers across the country say theft has risen, fueled by both in-store robberies and a jump in organized retail crime in parts of the country. Store owners have responded by adding security guards and cameras and locking up more goods.” READ MORE
MANAGEMENT
In the UK, a judge has ordered a business owner who coughed at an employee during the pandemic to pay damages: “Court papers shared publicly this week revealed that an employment tribunal judge in Wrexham found that the businessman, Kevin Davies, must pay his former employee 26,438 pounds, nearly $35,000, for his ‘inexcusable’ conduct. The ruling about the incident, in 2020, served as a reminder of the challenges businesses and their employees faced during the early days of the pandemic, as countries navigated social distancing and in some cases went into lockdown.”
“The former employee, who was not named by the tribunal, had worked for a property company owned by Mr. Davies in Newcastle Emlyn, a town in northwest Wales, since December 2017. The court heard that she suffered from an autoimmune condition that made her particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. She had repeatedly asked colleagues to practice social distancing once the government announced safety measures in early 2020 to stop the spread of the virus — but her requests were dismissed, court records showed.”
“On March 17 of that year — days before Britain went into lockdown— Mr. Davies coughed ‘deliberately and loudly’ in the woman’s direction then loudly commented that she was being ridiculous for requesting social distancing, the court records showed.” READ MORE
OBITUARY
Naomi Pomeroy, 49, who made Portland, Oregon a dining destination died in a river tubing accident: “Her death was reported on Monday evening by Portland Monthly magazine in an article by Karen Brooks, a food critic who had covered Ms. Pomeroy’s career since 2002, when she and Michael Hebb, her first husband, hosted a series of underground suppers in their home. Those coveted gatherings helped start Portland’s renegade restaurant culture and the national pop-up restaurant craze. Although their quirky restaurant empire and marriage blew up in spectacular fashion several years later, they became so revered that W magazine crowned them the prince and princess of the Pacific Northwest food scene. ‘She was kind of like Julia Child as a riot grrrl,’ Ms. Brooks said in an interview.”
“The couple had a child in 2000, and by 2004 were overseeing a collection of ventures called Ripe, which included three of Portland’s most acclaimed restaurants. One day, in 2006, Mr. Hebb told Ms. Pomeroy that the money was gone. He left town that night, leaving her to face angry investors and nearly 100 disillusioned employees as a single mother with little money.”
“Ms. Pomeroy emerged from the ashes with Beast, a tiny French-influenced restaurant that opened the next year with little more than two induction burners and a couple of communal tables. It became a model for a sexy, DIY style of dining and attracted a new generation of young chefs, particularly women, to Portland.”
“Ms. Pomeroy cooked her last formal meal on Friday as part of a summer dinner series called Garden Party, with a $95 menu based on what was growing in her garden. The communal dinners were held in southeast Portland at the site where she and Luke Dirks, her business partner, planned to open a restaurant this fall.” READ MORE
THE 21 HATS PODCAST
Family Businesses Aren’t Dysfunctional. They’re Disastrous: This week, in episode 204, Jay Goltz and special guest Cathy Caroll talk about family businesses, with Jay asserting that they are even more combustible than most people realize and with Cathy offering some smart coping strategies. We start with Cathy explaining how her own experiences in a family business propelled her to write a book, Hug of War, and to become a family business coach. Why are family businesses so difficult? Well, says Cathy, it’s because you’re trying to combine a family mindset with a business mindset, which she says, is like “living in socialism and capitalism simultaneously.”
Of course, she says, it also has to do with mixing love and money—“You’re just gonna get sparks”—and with the brutal challenge of transitioning from one generation to the next, when every decision can feel like a repudiation or rejection. Still, it was that stew of anxiety, resentment, and trauma that helped Cathy find her calling, which is to help others do in their family businesses what she could not in hers.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
Thanks for reading, everyone. — Loren