Helloooo all,
We hope you’ve had a a relaxing weekend.
We’re so excited to have Vic back in London and on the podcast this week. To say she has been a BUSY gal would be a major understatement. She’s come with an abundance of research for this week’s Curve Weekly episode.
On today's Curve Weekly episode, Vic and Soph get into Bezos cashing out $4 billion, and whether it's actually anything to worry about. Then there's the women's fashion brand that beat the odds and went public, without leaning on the sustainability pitch everyone expected. On top of that, the cost of living is quietly changing who pays on a first date. And to round it off, SpaceX's stock is sliding at exactly the wrong time.
As always, we’ve read the finance news so you don’t have to.
Have a great week.
Soph, Vic & The Curve team x
Jeff Bezos filed to sell 15 million Amazon shares this week, worth about $4 billion. It happened the same week Amazon's market cap crossed $3 trillion for the first time, roughly the size of the UK's entire economy (which is an insane thing to type).
Why is this important?
A founder dumping billions of dollars of stock sounds like a red flag, but if you crunch the numbers he’s only sold about 1.7% of his Amazon holdings. This is the kind of news that's designed to be clickbait, and knowing how to read past the scary number to what it actually means for the company (and whether you should genuinely worry ) is exactly the kind of financial literacy most of us were never taught. On the pod, we break down what to actually look for next time you see a headline like this.
Reformation listed on the New York Stock Exchange this week, valuing the company at just under $1 billion. Forget the usual row of men in suits ringing a bell, their launch photos looked more like a fashion campaign, and it's refreshing to see finance in a more feminine light.
Why is this important?
This launch bucks the trend that IPOs need all the fanfare to succeed, demonstrating the quiet, steady debuts are often the ones with real staying power. Also, Reformation barely leant on “sustainability” to sell itself, unlike a couple of brands that have flopped since going public (cough cough Allbirds). So has ditching the sustainability pitch actually made Reformation stronger?
New data from Time Magazine shows the average cost of a date in the US has climbed to $189, and unsurprisingly the majority of Americans say they're going on fewer dates because of it, especially Gen Z.
Why is this important?
The "who pays" conversation was already awkward, now it’s a total minefield. No wonder everyone’s suddenly a coffee date convert. When something as fundamental as human connection starts getting priced out of people's budgets, is it fair to judge someone for splitting the bill?
We'd love to know your thoughts, vote below. Quick note: this poll uses the male/female framing from the original research, not our take on who should be dating who.
*Please note voting can only take place in the Substack app.
Literally, a piece of it just crashed into the moon, and its stock has had a rough time of its own. It listed on the Nasdaq in June at $135 a share and popped hard on debut, but has since slipped below its original IPO price.
Why is this important?
There’s more behind the dip than just hype wearing off, making this a genuinely useful case study in ignoring FOMO. At a glance, a huge batch of early investor shares just became free to sell, putting downward pressure on the stocks price. We unpack the full story on today’s episode, so if you were gutted you missed out on the IPO, give it a listen.
Brilliant episode on beauty standards and their financial impact. I am in my mid-40s. I think you nailed the trends, the ebbs and the flows across the decades and why it starts to drop off. Yes, we don't give a shit, but then also we do give a shit. We just don't have as much money to spend because we have children and mortgages and all that sort of stuff that goes with it.
…
I used to work in recruitment. We would say just have less than 10 years on your CV. And then I once had a man tell me that it was really hard for women in the workplace beyond 46. Well, here I am and I am thriving at 46.
Love this comment so much. Vic & Soph responded on today’s episode.
Soph's calling herself desperately in the red. Absolutely nothing is happening this week unless someone else is footing the bill.
Vic's in the red too, straight out of the microneedling clinic the same week Soph's beauty standards episode dropped. Ironic timing, Vic.
ICYMI: our latest Raising the Curve episode is out now
We sat down with financial coach Hannah Mayfield, who swapped a career in fashion for teaching people how to actually build wealth, not just survive month to month.
In this one, we get into why there’s no single right way to manage money, how to invest with an ethical lens without it becoming all-consuming, and the psychology behind panic selling when the market wobbles. We also unpack the singles tax, the real cost of navigating life solo, and the invisible financial gap that opens up for women after having kids. A mother’s earnings drop 42% in the five years after her first child. Men’s earnings, on average, go up.
Everything The Curve crew is loving this week!
Purchase of the week: Emily & Lucy BOTH fell victim to the Estrid reusable razor ads on instagram, and they’re now obsessed!!! Smoothest legs on The Curve team.
What we’re reading: The whole team are absolutely loving Sara Crampton’s latest Substack article A Fashion Girls’ Guide to Investing. Very clever and well done! Def worth a read (and follow).
What we’re watching: We're still planning an episode on Margo's Got Money Troubles. If you haven't had time to read it, it's also available to watch on Apple TV, with Elle Fanning playing Margo, and the money subtext running through it is genuinely so good either way. Come prepared, we'd love all your opinions!
That’s all for this week. We hope you all have a wonderful week!
Soph, Vic & The Curve team x
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