What if your job paid you to become a creator?
+ we have a new series... Holiday Spend.
Today we gotta start out with celebrating that Rich Future hit #73 Rising in Business on Substack this week! This wouldn’t be possible without… YOU! This is our win.
Thank you to everyone who reads and to those of you who’ve been sharing this with your network. Every time I have an IRL convo with someone in the Rich Future community, I’m always struck by where this newsletter ends up. Forwarded to business partners. Discussed with financial advisors. Group chats. Team meetings.
This… is the stuff that energizes me to keep building.
In the spirit of the holidays, I’m adding a new series here through December: Holiday Spend.
Starting this week, I’ll share anonymous snapshots of how RF readers are approaching gifts this holiday season. Age, industry, household income setup, and your answers to these 3 questions:
Are you spending more or less than last year?
Most expensive item you’re gifting this year?
Favorite thing you’re gifting this year?
The economy’s weird right now so I want to highlight how thoughtful people are navigating this season. Some are spending more. Some are scaling back. Everyone is using money as a tool to express care in their own way. Rich Future’s ethos has always been about living richly beyond net worth. Holiday Spend is that in practice.
First one’s included in today’s Brief.
Starbucks turns baristas into content creators
Starbucks launched two creator programs this week that signal where employer brand strategy is headed: the 1) Global Coffee Creator Program (external creators + select employees traveling to document coffee sourcing) and 2) Green Apron Creators (baristas creating content about working at Starbucks for the company’s social channels).
The Green Apron pilot has been running for a year and Starbucks Chief Brand Officer, Tressie Leiberman, framed it as both content strategy and “relevant development opportunity that resonates with Gen Z, which make up a majority of our baristas.”
I see this as a win-win for Starbucks and the creator economy.
Baristas develop content skills (shooting, editing, storytelling), build portfolios with mega distribution (Starbucks’ channels), and get paid hourly while learning the creator economy mechanics that typically require years of unpaid grinding.
Starbucks gets authentic content at scale and brand loyalty that compounds over time. Employees are storytellers vs. script-followers and become emotionally invested in outcomes. Their friends see the content. Their families talk about it. Their peers think “that’s actually cool” instead of “it’s just a service job.” The halo effect turns every Green Apron Creator into a micro-influencer for Starbucks within their personal network, which is far more valuable than any paid ad campaign targeting Gen Z.
Expect every major consumer brand to clone this model by mid-2026. Chipotle, Target, Sephora… anyone with young frontline staff will launch creator programs. The talent war shifts from “who pays $2 more per hour” to “who gives you the best content creation training and portfolio-building opportunity.”
If you’re building a consumer brand with employees, test this playbook ASAP. The ROI is triple: authentic content, stronger employee retention, and a pipeline of brand evangelists who stay loyal even after they leave because you invested in their skills.
Google turns prediction markets into mainstream financial intelligence
Google announces new partnership with Kalshi and Polymarket to integrate real-time prediction market data directly into Search and Google Finance. Users can now query future events like “will US enter recession in 2025?” and receive live crowd-based probability forecasts with historical trend charts.
This places prediction market data alongside TradFi data like stock quotes and bond yields.
The opportunity I see here is less about trading prediction markets themselves and more about integrating them into your financial strategy, as they become early indicators for capital flow shifts. Matt Levine noted this creates new arbitrage opportunities between “real” markets and prediction markets, where speed to execution determines who profits.
I expect major brokerages like Schwab and Fidelity to add prediction market access to platforms by Q2 2026 and prediction market volumes to surge 5-10x as retail adoption accelerates through Google integration.
For builders in fintech or data, integrate prediction market APIs now before it’s commoditized… market intelligence platforms that synthesize prediction and traditional data will be valuable.
AI revenue eclipses all public SaaS and the application layer finally has an opening
Revenue from AI labs and public AI infrastructure companies surpassed total public SaaS revenue in 2024 (and again in 2025.) On a net new revenue basis, AI infrastructure is growing nearly 2x faster than traditional software.
This shows us something fundamental: the gravity center of tech has shifted from software to compute. SaaS no longer defines what “tech” means in public markets.
For now, AI’s value still lives in the supply chain. Infrastructure providers like NVIDIA and AMD, cloud platforms, and foundational model labs like OpenAI. It hasn’t moved downstream to traditional software companies… yet.
However, I see a massive window opening for AI-native vertical SaaS based on last week’s news.
On October 29, OpenAI quietly restricted ChatGPT from providing specific medical, legal, or financial advice. They’re repositioning themselves as an “educational tool” rather than a consultant to avoid liability risks as they prepare to IPO.
This… is the unlock.
When OpenAI won’t touch medical advice but doctors need AI tools, someone builds the HIPAA-compliant medical AI. When ChatGPT can’t draft contracts but lawyers need workflow automation, someone builds the legal AI with proper liability coverage. When general models refuse financial guidance but advisors need client-facing tools, someone builds the SEC-registered financial planning AI.
The liability question constraining ChatGPT is exactly what creates moat for vertical players.
Medical diagnosis support, legal contract analysis, financial planning, tax preparation. These markets are massive, OpenAI just forfeited them, and regulatory complexity is your competitive advantage.
For allocators, the thesis is shifting. Infrastructure won 2023-2025, but 2026 belongs to vertical AI applications that couldn’t exist without AI and can’t be solved by general models. The companies that win will have domain expertise + AI capabilities + regulatory compliance.
I expect we’ll see the first $100M+ ARR AI-native vertical SaaS companies by end of 2026. Businesses that replace entire professional workflows, not just add AI features. OpenAI will try to partner their way into verticals but will struggle with liability and compliance. The application layer’s moment is here, but only for those willing to go deep in one domain rather than staying horizontal.
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Most readers expense this through their business / education budget.
READER PROFILE
Age: 36
Gender: F
Household: 1 income
Industry: SalesSpending more, less, or same?
“Less overall, maybe 20% less than last year.”Most expensive gift?
Oura Ring 4, black, $349, for my brother. “He’s an optimizer.”Favorite gift?
BÉIS carry-on suitcase, for my mom. “She still travels with a suitcase from 15 years ago with a broken handle. Planning to buy during Black Friday. Waiting to see if they restock Burgundy.”
Want to be featured this month?
Reply with your age, household income structure (1 or 2 incomes), and answers to:
Spending more, less, or the same on gifts vs. last year?
Most expensive gift (item, price, recipient)
Favorite gift (item, recipient, why it’s your fav)
*include specific brand/product name if relevant
Submit by email or send me a DM on Substack
We wrap with a few quick signals on my radar that indicate where capital and culture are headed...
OpenAI will generate over $20B in annualized revenue for 2025, with plans to grow to hundreds of billions of revenue by 2030. For context, Microsoft took 44 years to hit $20B. OpenAI is doing it in year 3.
99.5% of Bitcoin ETF investors held through the 20% drawdown last week.
October saw the highest layoff levels in 20+ years, but private companies added 42,000 jobs… Double the estimate. Talent is moving from corporate to smaller, high-growth businesses.
Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay plan. With 75% support. The package includes metrics tied to AI, robotics, and energy deployment. Tesla’s board argued the package was essential to keep Musk focused on Tesla rather than his other ventures (SpaceX, xAI, and X).
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