In this solo‑host episode of Hustle Hot Takes, Alexander Hamilton breaks down Lululemon’s $500 million acquisition of the home‑fitness startup Mirror and the recent Disney+ live‑action release of Hamilton. He cites Bank of America’s projection that Mirror could generate $700 million and reach 600,000 subscribers by 2023, while noting the optimism of those numbers. Hamilton walks through three Twitter reactions: John Erlichman’s thread on founder Brynn Putnam’s journey, Moiz Ali’s DTC‑focused take that Lululemon should consider a Peloton‑style integration, and Ram Capital’s joke comparing Mirror to a sideways TV. He then shifts to pop‑culture, highlighting a viral VFX TikTok creator, Julian Bass, whose video prompted a public reply from Disney chairman Bob Iger, promising the world will know Bass’s name from Hamilton. The episode blends business analysis, humor, and cultural commentary, ending with a call for listener feedback.
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Yo, Hustle Hot Takes, we got a great one in this episode, and today we'll be talking about Lululemon acquiring the home fitness startup Mirror, and of course the release of Hamilton. So let's get right to it. My name is Alexander Hamilton. Big news in the athleisure world, Lululemon acquired the home fitness startup Mirror for $500 million. And we're going to get into what this means for Lulu. According to Bank of America, they believe that Mirror can generate $700 million and acquire 600,000 subscribers by 2023. So listen, I've worked in the investment banking world. I can say these are probably optimistic numbers, but even if you're in that ballpark, it's a pretty strong acquisition considering that Mirror's already doing some pretty decent numbers. This is a great tweet from John Erlichman. He kind of goes through Brynn Putnam, the founder and CEO's history before she sold Mirror for $500 million to Lulu. So 10 years ago, she retires from a ballet career and opens a boutique fitness studio. 4 years ago, she pursues the idea to launch a fitness startup. 2 years ago, she releases Mirror, and today, which was last week, she sells the company to Lulu for $500 million. Okay, so the second tweet we have here is from Moiz Ali, host of The Hustle's Exit Strategy. And Moiz, as many of you would know, is no stranger to the DTC game. And he knows a thing or two about 9-figure exits in the DTC space. So Moiz says, "Lululemon buying Mirror is great to see. Congrats to the Mirror team. I think they need a bet the farm mentality though and should buy Peloton." This is probably referring to Lulu. And he goes, "Imagine a Peloton in every store. Imagine Peloton selling Lulu." studios, etc. Lulu would be transformed into digital overnight. You know what, I gotta say, I kind of agree with Maurice here. So Lulu's a $40 billion company. Just go for it, man. Just go for it. I mean, Peloton, a little bit pricey. That's about $16 billion, so not necessarily an easy move, but sometimes you just gotta— nice watch. Okay, all right, third tweet comes from Ram Capital, one of the funniest financial Twitter accounts on the internet. So this one just put me in stitches, actually. Okay, so in September, Ram Capital tweeted, "Imagine turning a TV sideways and calling it a mirror." So he's referring, I'm assuming, to Mirror, the startup. And then on the day of the acquisition, he brought back that old tweet and said, "Imagine turning a TV sideways and calling it a mirror and selling it for $500 million to Lulu." Now, I think this is a lighthearted joke. Some people might be offended, but I, you know, I pulled up a Google Doc just to see if Ram Capital was even on point here. So here you see in the middle is a mirror product, and on the right here I have a flat-screen TV. So Ram's saying that if you turn it sideways, they're a little bit comparable. So I'm gonna go right ahead and do that. All right, okay, this is not super intuitive. Okay, it's there, turn sideways. And, uh, listen, I'm not saying it's the same thing, right? I'm just showing you that it fits inside. Okay, second big thing this week is Hamilton, and we're going to pull it up. A lot of you, I'm assuming, watched Hamilton over the long weekend. And, uh, I'm just going to give the news for anybody that doesn't know. Disney Plus, uh, has a live-action version of Hamilton that that is now available. It's incredible, you should watch it. I was lucky enough to see it in Boston many years ago, not with the original cast though, so no flex there. But if you were to ask me what was the best hot take related to Hamilton that I saw on Twitter this week, it is actually unrelated to Hamilton directly. It is unrelated to Hamilton directly. Okay, that sentence makes no sense. Anyways, let me get to the tweet. It's Julian Bass, A 20-year-old virtual effects TikTok star. He released this video on July 2nd. Swag, right? So amazing VFX video. He's only 20 years old but has been doing virtual effects for 9 years. And he just tweets that video and writes, if y'all can retweet this enough times that Disney calls, That'd be greatly appreciated. So that's on July 2nd. Who responds? Disney chairman Bob Iger, right there. And he says, "The world's gonna know your name from Hamilton." So the best Hamilton-related tweet is about 20-year-old Julian Bass who blew up the internet. Education, don't forget from whence you came. And the world is gonna know your name. What's your name, man? Alexander Hamilton. Amazing video. Julian's an absolute beast, and there's talk now that he may— might be playing Spider-Man. Bob Iger, do the right thing, make this guy Spider-Man. Absolutely incredible. So that's the hot takes for this week. Thank you very much. We'll keep this thing going. Leave your comments, and if there's enough traction, maybe we'll do this more often. Thank you.
