The Safety Shot (Idea Edition #11)

🧠 Top of Mind Technology

• Oppo is a Chinese consumer electronics company with a similar offering portfolio to Apple. The company creates smartphones, tablets headphones, and other accessories. One of their recent products is a zero-power tag that acts like the Apple AirTag, but requires no battery. It supposedly leverages key technologies such as “RF signal harvesting, backscattering, and low-power computing…”

• A UK Startup called Materials Nexus has developed a “Ground-Breaking” magnet that does not use any rare-earth metals, potentially paving the way for cheaper and more sustainable development of the thousands of tools and technologies that require rare-earth metals today.  

• Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR) devices have been on the forefront of the tech landscape for a while now. If you are like us, the products are currently too expensive or good enough to warrant purchasing one. In light of that, we wanted to help you keep up with the times with an overview of this year’s 5 biggest announcements and what is in store for the rest of 2024.

🍪 Business Bites

• While the S&P 500 is up over 15% year-to-date, some investors are beginning to worry that the market’s gains are disproportionately driven by AI companies like NVIDIA. A closer look under the hood shows that the energy, financial, health care, industrial, materials, and real estate sectors are all down since March.

• The appeal of the creator economy has expanded beyond travel and beauty influencers. Now tech bros and gals are getting in on the action through Micro-SaaS (Software as a Service) product creation. Essentially, Micro-SaaS creators develop multiple software tools with the hope of generating a more passive/secondary income. The availability of AI and No-Code tools has also made Micro-SaaS more available to a wider variety of people.

• With NBA free agency beginning yesterday, you will continue to see news of massive contracts signed by seemingly average players. That is not a mistake either, as smaller roster sizes allow the NBA to pay players the most amount, on average, in yearly salary out of any league in the world by a large margin.

Idea Journal Feature: The Safety Shot

⚾The Elevator Pitch

The Safety Shot is “the world’s first rapid alcohol reducer that lowers blood alcohol content by supporting its metabolism. The Safety Shot helps you feel better faster – in as little as 30 minutes.”

💡The Idea

We’ll start by relaying the obvious serious effects of excessive alcohol consumption. They can be extremely potent, both in the short-term and long-term. According to the CDC, alcohol related deaths reached almost 200,000 in 2021, and serious illnesses such as heart disease and liver disease are linked to excessive alcohol consumption. Furthermore, excessive drinking that leads to drunk driving causes over 10,000 deaths every year.

The appeal of The Safety Shot is more focused on the potential elimination of the short-term effects of alcohol (i.e. a Hangover or poor decision making). Fortunately, reducing a person’s blood alcohol content could also help reduce the number of deaths associated to alcohol poisoning or drunk driving. The Safety Shot is said to “accelerate the process of detoxifying the body of alcohol.”

How it does this? It is not made clear on the company website or in the media. What is mentioned, though, is the drink includes a “tailored selection of all natural vitamins and minerals and nootropics that assist with rehydration and mental clarity.”

It is also important to note that the drink has not undergone formal clinical validation, nor has the FDA evaluated the statements made on the company website. They do have endorsements from ex-athletes and personalities such as Mike Pouncey and SteveWillDoIt.

Curing hangovers is nothing new, but the claim of actually reducing blood alcohol content while still intoxicated makes The Safety Shot a one-of-kind product. With over half the country admitting to regularly consuming alcohol, the market for such a drink is massive.

👷The Work

The development of such a product typically takes a rigorous amount of research, clinical trials, and approvals from various governing bodies. These are all very expensive endeavors that require a significant amount of capital backing.

To date, while no trials have taken place or formal FDA approval received, the company says that “bits efficacy was established via rigorous blood alcohol content testing on dozens of test subjects.”

The current company acquired The Safety Shot back in 2023 when they acquired GBB Drink Lab (which created and owned The Safety Shot), and renamed their company from Jupiter Wellness to Safety Shot Inc. ($SHOT).

It is worth noting that, “In 2022, GBB drink lab tried to sell itself to FSD Pharma. During the due diligence process, FSD Pharma determined that GBB's proposed product did not meet FSD Pharma's expectations.”

From an outsider’s perspective, there is some concern on just how effective this product really is. More should come to light in the coming years.

💸Revenue

• Per the company website, the majority of revenue will be driven Safety Shot sales

  • They currently sell a 4-Pack for $19.99, along with the opportunity to save 10% for a monthly subscription of the product

🔻Expenses

• Research and Development (R&D)

• Marketing/Partnerships

• Shipping/Supply Chain

• Ingredients – If the product truly contains all high-quality vitamins, minerals, and nootropics, then it should not be cheap to source or create.

👍The Good Stuff

• Product Appeal – Many who drink alcohol would want to reduce their BAC to either prevent a hangover or the effects of alcohol.

• Potential Safety Impact – Lowering BAC levels more effectively could lead to safer drinking environments, and even help prevent drinking related deaths.

👎The Risks

• Is it really effective? – With no clinical trial data, and only hearsay blood testing data available, how could any consumer be sure the drink is effective?

• Abuse of the Product – Assuming the product works as stated, it could potentially be abused by consumers to abuse alcohol and/or assume they are no longer/less intoxicated from drinking the shot than they are.

🤔 Musing of the Week

Why has technology accelerated exponentially in a variety of fields like consumer electronics, computers, and artificial intelligence, but similar gains have not been seen in fields like transportation and energy, and even in categories as specific as home appliances and furniture?

This week’s musing is taken directly from this reddit post from over 3 years ago. Much of what is discussed in the post still holds true today. One quote that stands out is, “Go into a room and subtract off all of the screens. How do you know you’re not in 1973, but for issues of design?” To be fair, things such as beds, chairs, and even cars have seen technological development since the mid-1900s, but in many cases, they are almost obsolete, unnecessary, or too expensive to warrant usage. For instance, a sleep-number bed exists, but many still choose to use a regular mattress. In transportation, electric cars now exist, but those have been around since the 1800s! Perhaps more so than cars, it seems space and air travel have remained somewhat stagnant, aside from enhancements relation to computers and bits. When was the last time we sent astronauts to the moon?

Just something to think about as you start your Tuesday. See you all later this week!

📚For the Road

• Where Are All The Scientific Breakthroughs?

• Study reveals decline in alcohol consumption during and after pandemic