Track 15. 1-Person Unicorns, Apple Robots, Synthetic Wombs

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Hey Bullet Trainers,

You voted and it’s official: Wordle wins it for best daily puzzle.

I’m a classic crossword gal myself, but the real debate we were settling as a team last week was if people actually do daily puzzles — and turns out, the answer is yes. Check out the rest of the puzzle popularity results (as told by Bullet Train readers) in the Train Chatter section below.

Alright, let’s do it. It’s August 28^th , today’s stops include:

• How far away are we from a 1-person unicorn? 🦄 

• Apple is entering the robotics race 🦾

• Will babies eventually be born in synthetic wombs? 🐣 

And don’t miss our #offtherails segment — not so future-focused, just a bit of fun

Weekly coverage of stories shaping the future — brought to you in streamlined bullet points:

How far away are we from a 1-person unicorn?

• What to know: Sam Altman (and his friends) thinks we’ll soon see a 1-person company reach unicorn status — aka a $1B valuation

• Converging trends: this once outlandish concept feels plausible thanks to no-code platforms and generative AI, but it’s also boosted by the rise of influencer power, which has proven that individuals can drive consumer purchasing and engagement (in a big way)

• New success metrics: business growth has long been equated with the ability to continually expand team size, but it feels like we’re seeing a pendulum shift where in the future a small team size will be an indicator of success — and that would be a massive shift in how we view businesses

• Where our minds are going: can someone make a $1 billion solo business from a newsletter? Asking for a friend…

Read more on why a 1-person unicorn isn’t as crazy as it sounds

Apple is entering the robotics race

• What to know: Apple is moving into robotics, as the company shelved their autonomous car project earlier this year and just recruited robotics experts from Technion

• Early days: their initial aim is to develop a robotic arm for iPads to articulate the device as needed for more convenient use (like Meta’s Portal, which failed), but it wouldn’t be available until 2026

• The competition: At the Beijing robotics conference las week, humanoid robots were on display — and while visually impressive, these offerings have lots of technical issues, are rather expensive, and offer limited consumer use

• Where it’s going: we expect Apple to go slow and steady on this race, so don’t expect a competitor to Tesla’s Optimus anytime soon — but we’d keep our eye on this one because (for better or worse) exciting things happen when Apple gets involved in technical innovations

Dive deeper on the topic here

A story that drummed up big emotions and bigger opinions

Will babies one day be born in synthetic wombs?

• What to know: synthetic wombs have grabbed headlines lately — the concept is a medically controlled environment (picture fluid-filled pods) for a fetus to grow and develop in, outside of its mother’s body

• Historical context: the intention of synthetic wombs is to offer life-saving measures for babies born severely prematurely (before 23 weeks) who are not likely to survive outside of the womb

• Testing: synthetic wombs have only been tested on animal populations — but human trials may be available in the near future

• Some problems: however, the list of ethical concerns is long — including fetal viability debates, equitable access to this care (as it’s very expensive), and unknown health risks to both mother and baby

• More radical views: and then of course there are more dystopic visions of what synthetic wombs could offer — like artificial womb facilities that grow babies every year to address population decline (surely there is a sci-fi horror flick about that?)

• Where our minds are going: this one is complicated — while a promising solution for severely premature babies that we know many parents would jump at, it’s hard to ignore the ethical concerns — either way, this technology will certainly be an interesting one to follow

A bit of fun to round out your ride

• Like newsletters? Here are some great newsletters our readers also enjoy

• Can you guess what’s to blame for a nationwide shortage of cucumbers in Iceland? 10 points if you said TikTok

• We liked this refresher on how to optimize time spent in meetings (and which ones to cancel)

• Calling all millennials: clear your calendars for next July and August because Oasis has announced a reunion and will be playing shows in the UK and Ireland in 2025 — ticket sales go live this weekend

• If you like a good Caesar salad (and the stats suggest you probably do) you should read this article

Here’s what Bullet Train readers had to say about last week’s poll:

We asked you all to weigh in on the best daily puzzle, and here the results: 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Wordle (NYT) (35%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Connections (NYT) (29%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Queens (LinkedIn) (17%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ On The Record (Washington Post) (8%)

Worth noting that 11% of you said you don’t play games (👀), and there were a few write-in votes for Strands, Spelling Bee, and the Mini Crossword (our apologies for omitting!)

Please mind the gap as you get off the train ✌️