- Accessories
- Accommodation
- Accounting
- Airline
- Analytics
- Auction site
- Bank
- Beauty
- Bike Rental
- Biotechnology
- Books
- CRM
- Call center software
- Cameras
- Car company
- Cards
- Chrome plugin
- Clothing
- Coffee
- Collaboration
- Community
- Contact lenses
- Crowd funding
- Cryptocurrency
- Customer support
- Dating
- Department store
- Design tools
- Developer tools
- Digital printing
- Direct to consumer
- Domain names
- E-commerce
- E-commerce store builder
- Education
- Electronic signatures
- Electronics
- Email Service Provider
- Email marketing
- Entertainment
- Event management
- Fashion
- Finance
- Fitness
- Flight comparisons
- Food
- Food delivery
- Form builder
- Freelancer tools
- Furniture
- Game
- Gaming
- Gifts
- Glasses
- Greetings cards
- Groceries
- Hair
- Health
- Hiring
- Hotel comparison
- Hotels
- Insurance
- Investing
- Jewelry
- Landing page builder
- Language learning
- Lingerie
- Live chat
- Makeup
- Marijuana delivery
- Marketing
- Marketplace
- Mattress company
- Meal delivery kits
- Media
- Messaging
- Music
- NFT
- News
- No-code
- Nonprofit
- Nutrition
- Online courses
- Online-course-platform
- Outdoor store
- Password manager
- Payments
- Personal Finance
- Pharmacy
- Photography
- Podcast Hosting
- Podcasts
- Productivity
- Project management
- Property
- Proposal software
- Real estate
- Ride sharing
- Running
- SEO
- SaaS
- Sales tools
- Scooters
- Shoes
- Skincare
- Social network
- Software
- Sportsware
- Subscription boxes
- Swimwear
- T-shirt Printing
- Talent
- Telco
- Trains
- Transport
- Travel
- Underwear
- VPN
- Video hosting
- Video streaming
- Voucher/Coupon Sites
- Watches
- Web hosting
- Website builder
- Workforce management
- Writing
- & Other Stories
- &Open
- 1&1
- 1Password
- 3dcart
- 6pm
- A.C. Moore
- ANNA by RadLabs
- ASOS
- AT&T
- AVI-8
- AYR
- Abercrombie
- Accessorize
- Ace Hardware
- ActiveCampaign
- Acura
- Acuvue
- Adapt
- Adidas
- Airbnb
- Aircall
- Airtable
- Alaska Air
- All Saints
- Allbirds
- Along
- Amazon
- Ambronite
- American Airlines
- American Apparel
- American Red Cross
- Anchor
- Ann Taylor
- Anthropologie
- Antidote Street
- Apple
- Aritzia
- Armani Exchange
- Armogan
- Asana
- Asphalt Green
- Astley Clarke
- Audemars Piguet
- Auverture
- BBC iPlayer
- BECCA Cosmetics
- Baremetrics
- Barnes and Noble
- Basecamp
- Bath & Body Works
- Beans
- Bearbottom Clothing
- Beaver Brooks
- Ben Sherman
- Bend
- Bespoke Post
- Best Buy
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
- Big Cartel
- BigCommerce
- Binance
- Birchbox
- BitClout
- Bite
- Black Opal Beauty
- Blinkist
- Blue Apron
- Bluehost
- Bobbi Brown
- Bonlook
- Bonobos
- Boohoo
- Booking.com
- Boots
- Box
- Bravissimo
- Breaker
- Breitling
- Brightedge
- British Airways
- BrowserStack
- Bubble
- Buffer
- Busuu
- Bynder
- CVS
- Cadillac
- CafePress
- Calendly
- Calm
- Candy Club
- Canny
- Canon
- Canva
- Carbonmade
- Care
- Careem
- Carrd
- Cars.com
- Cartier
- Cash App
- Casper
- Caviar
- Charity Water
- ChartMogul
- Chevrolet
- Chilewich
- Chococurb
- Chubbies
- Circle
- Claire's
- Clarks
- ClassPass
- ClickFunnels
- ClickUp
- Clinique
- Cloudflare
- Clubhouse
- Clue
- Coach
- Coastal
- Coda
- Coinbase
- Common Sense
- Conductor
- ConvertKit
- CopyAI
- Costco
- Coursera
- Cover FX
- Craft
- Craigslist
- Crypto.com
- Cult Furniture
- Customer.io
- DFS
- Daisy Jewellery
- Daniel Wellington
- Debenhams
- Deliveroo
- Delivery.com
- Delivra - The Inbox
- Delta
- Depop
- Deputy
- Descript
- DesignByHümans
- Designer Shoe Warehouse
- Discord
- Disney+
- Djusie
- DocuSign
- Dollar Shave Club
- Domino's
- DonorsChoose
- DoorDash
- Dorelan
- Dorothy Perkins
- Drip
- Dropbox
- Dropbox Paper
- Drops
- Duda
- Duolingo
- Dwell
- EasyJet
- Eaze
- Elevate
- Environmental Defense Fund
- Etsy
- Eurostar
- Eventbrite
- Everlane
- Evernote
- Expensify
- Express
- Express Glasses
- Eye Buy Direct
- FabFitFun
- Fabletics
- Facet
- Fancy
- Farm Rio
- Fashion Fair
- Fashion Nova
- Feedly
- Feelunique
- Fenwick
- Figma
- Finimize
- Firebox
- Fitbit
- Fiverr
- Fleur & Bee
- Flipd
- Flodesk
- Fluent
- Flybe
- Foodvisor
- Ford
- Forest
- Forest Nation
- Forever 21
- Fort Myers
- Fortnum & Mason
- Fossil
- Framebridge
- Framer
- FreeCodeCamp
- Freedom Japanese Market
- Freetrade
- Front
- Ftsny
- Fullstory
- Furniture Village
- Fyrn
- GMC
- GameStop
- Gap
- GatherContent
- Ghost
- Ghost Bed
- GitHub
- Glasses USA
- Glo
- Glossybox
- Go-Jek
- GoDaddy
- Goat
- Gobble
- Goggles4u
- Goldsmiths
- Gorillas
- Gousto
- Grab
- Graham and Green
- Grammarly
- Graze
- Greats
- Green Chef
- GreenRush
- Groupon
- Grubhub
- Guess
- Gumroad
- Gymshark
- Gyroscope
- H&M
- H.Samuel
- HVMN
- Habitat
- Harrods
- Harry's
- Harvey Nichols
- Hastens
- HauteLook
- Headspace
- Height
- Helix
- HelloFresh
- Help Scout
- Help for Heroes
- Hey
- Hipmunk
- Hobby Lobby
- Home Depot
- HomeGoods
- Honda
- Honest
- Honey
- HostGator
- HotelTonight
- Hotjar
- House Curious
- House of Fraser
- Houzz
- HubSpot
- HubSpot CRM
- Huel
- Hulu
- Hungry House
- Hutch
- InMotion Hosting
- InVision
- Infoempleo
- Infojobs
- Instacart
- Interact
- Intercom
- Ipsy
- J.Crew
- JCPenney
- Jaguar
- Jessops
- Jet2
- JetBlue
- Jira
- Job Today
- Jump Bikes
- Just Eat
- Kay
- Khan Academy
- Klarna
- LTHR Supply
- Lancôme
- Landbot
- Lane Bryant
- Launchaco
- Leadpages
- Leesa
- Lemonade
- Lexus
- Liberty London
- Lifesum
- Lime
- Linear
- Linjer
- Linktree
- Litmus
- Loaf
- London Virgin Hair
- Lookfantastic
- Loom
- Loot Crate
- Lowes
- Lululemon
- Luma
- Lyft
- MAC Cosmetics
- MDMflow
- MVMT
- Mack Weldon
- Macy's
- Made
- Magento
- Mailchimp
- Mango
- MapMyGut
- Marley Spoon
- MasterClass
- Mayvenn
- MeUndies
- Meadow
- Medium
- Memrise
- Menards
- Mercari
- Mercedes-Benz
- MetaMask
- Michaels
- Microsoft Teams
- Mini
- Miro
- Miss Selfridge
- Missguided
- Misto Box
- Mitsubishi cars
- Mixpanel
- Monday
- Moneybox
- Mont Blanc
- Monzo
- Moo
- Moonpig
- Morning Brew
- Morning Recovery
- Muttonhead
- My First Wig
- MyFitnessPal
- N26
- Nars Cosmetics
- NerdWallet
- Nest Furniture
- Netflix
- New Look
- Newegg
- Nicely Noted
- Nike
- No Mercy / No Malice
- Nomatic
- Noom
- Nordstrom
- Nordstrom Rack
- Notion
- Notonthehighstreet
- Now TV
- Nugg
- Ocado
- OfferUp
- Officevibe
- Old Navy
- Omega
- OpenSea
- OpenTable
- Otiumberg
- Outdoor Voices
- Overstock
- Ozone Socks
- PandaDoc
- Pandora
- Patreon
- Paula's Choice Skincare
- PayPal
- Peloton
- Picniic
- Pier 1
- Pipedrive
- Pitch
- Pizza Express
- Plated
- Plum
- Pluralsight
- Podia
- Poshmark
- Postmates
- Pottery Barn
- PrettyLittleThing
- Primark
- Process Street
- Puma
- Purple
- QVC
- Quibi
- QuickBooks
- Quill
- Quizlet
- Quora
- REI
- Racket
- RallyUp
- Raymond Weil
- Redbubble
- Reflectly
- Replit
- Retool
- Revolut
- Revolve
- Rezi
- Ripcurl
- Road Scholar
- Robinhood
- Runkeeper
- SNKRS by Nike
- Sally Beauty
- SavvyCal
- Scentbird
- Scribd
- Seamless
- Search Metrics
- Selfridges
- Sephora
- ServiceNow
- Shein
- Shop.com
- Shopify
- Shpock
- Shudder
- Shwood and Stanley
- Simba
- Skillshare
- Skims
- Skyscanner
- Slack
- Slite
- Smiley Movement
- Snapchat
- Society6
- Sock Fancy
- SoloLearn
- SoundCloud
- Southwest
- Soylent
- SpeedWeed
- Spotify
- Spreadshirt
- Square
- Squarespace
- Squarespace Scheduling
- Staples
- Starbucks
- Steam
- Stitch Fix
- Stone Forest
- Strava
- Strikingly
- Stripe
- Substack
- SumUp
- Sun Basket
- Sunsama
- Superdrug
- SurveyMonkey
- Swarovski
- Sweatcoin
- Swoon
- TRNK
- Tag Heuer
- Tally
- Target
- Taste Trunk
- Teachable
- Teachlr
- Techcrunch
- Ted Baker
- TeePublic
- Tempur
- Tempur-Pedic
- Tesla
- The Hustle
- The Jewel Hut
- The New York Times
- The Ordinary
- The White Company
- Thinx
- Threadless
- Thryve
- Tidal
- Tide.fm
- Tiffany & Co
- TikTok
- Tinder
- Todoist
- Tommy John
- Topshop
- TouchNote
- Trainline
- TransferWise
- Trello
- Triibe
- TripAdvisor
- Trivago
- Trustpilot
- Tuft & Needle
- Tunnel to Towers
- TunnelBear
- Twitch
- Typeform
- UNIQLO
- Uber
- Uber Eats
- Udacity
- Udemy
- Ulta
- Unbounce
- UncommonGoods
- United
- Universe
- Upwork
- Urban Outfitters
- VSCO
- Vessi
- Victoria's Secret
- Vimeo
- Vinted
- Viome
- Virgin Atlantic
- Vistaprint
- Voog
- Vueling
- WE
- WW (Weight Watchers)
- WalMart
- Walgreens
- Wallapop
- Wallshoppe
- Warby Parker
- Watch Shop
- Watch Station
- Watches.com
- Wattpad
- Wayfair
- Waze
- Wealthsimple
- Webflow
- Weebly
- West Elm
- Whimsical
- Williams Sonoma
- Winc
- Wise
- Wistia
- Wix
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
- World Market
- Wowcher
- YNAB
- YouTube
- YouTube Music
- Zales
- Zapier
- Zara
- Zazzle
- Zendesk
- Zero
- Zoe & Morgan
- Zoopla
- Zulily
- eBay
- eToro
- uBiome
The Hustle Newsletter subscriber
Subscribed 7 years, 3 months ago
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>
</title>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, minimum-scale=1, maximum-scale=1" name="viewport"/>
<!--[if !mso]><!-->
<meta content="IE=Edge" http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible"/>
<!--<![endif]-->
<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]>
<style type="text/css">
table {border-collapse: collapse;}
table, td {mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;}
img {-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" data-attributes="%7B%22dropped%22%3Atrue%2C%22bodybackground%22%3A%22%23FFFFFF%22%2C%22bodyfontname%22%3A%22arial%2Csans-serif%22%2C%22bodytextcolor%22%3A%22%23000000%22%2C%22bodylinkcolor%22%3A%22%231188e6%22%2C%22bodyfontsize%22%3A%2214px%22%7D" style="background: #FFFFFF; color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0; min-width: 100%; padding: 0;" yahoofix="true">
<center class="wrapper">
<div class="webkit" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<table bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="wrapper" style="-moz-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100% !important;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="100%">
<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]>
<table width="600" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<![endif]-->
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="outer" data-attributes="%7B%22dropped%22%3Atrue%2C%22containerpadding%22%3A%220%2C0%2C0%2C0%22%2C%22containerwidth%22%3A600%2C%22containerbackground%22%3A%22%23FFFFFF%22%7D" role="content-container" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="100%">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]>
<table width="600" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<![endif]-->
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 600px; padding: 0 0px; width: 100%;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" role="modules-container" style="color: #000000; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" width="100%">
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="module preheader preheader-hide" data-type="preheader" role="module" style="color: transparent; display: none !important; height: 0; opacity: 0; visibility: hidden; width: 0;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td role="module-content">
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="module footer" data-attributes="%7B%22dropped%22%3Atrue%2C%22columns%22%3A1%2C%22padding%22%3A%2210%2C5%2C10%2C5%22%2C%22containerbackground%22%3A%22%23ffffff%22%7D" data-type="footer" role="module" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" style="padding: 10px 0px;">
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="padding: 0 5px;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<!-- START DYNAMIC CONTENT -->
<!-- START SUNDAY HEADER -->
<tr role="module-content">
<td align="center" class="templateColumnContainer" valign="top" width="100%">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr id="intro">
<td colspan="2" style="color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 1px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 120%; padding: 20px 0;">
A lesson on the perils of inventing something nobody asked for
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="vertical-align: bottom;">
<td bgcolor="#000000" class="leftColumnContent" role="column-one" style="background: #000000; height: 100%; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-top: 20px;">
<a style="color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 100%; text-decoration: none;">
The Hustle
</a>
</td>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" class="rightColumnContent" role="column-two" style="background: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; height: 100%; line-height: 18px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: right;">
Issue #7
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="module" data-attributes="%7B%22dropped%22%3Atrue%2C%22child%22%3Afalse%2C%22padding%22%3A%220%2C0%2C0%2C0%22%2C%22containerbackground%22%3A%22%23ffffff%22%7D" data-type="text" role="module" style="table-layout: fixed;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fsmell222_20180602063937.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="display: block; height: auto; width: 100%;"/>
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" style="background: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 10px 0; text-align: center;">
Sunday, June 3, 2018
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="font-family: 'Courier New',sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding-top: 10px;">
Brought to you by
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
GE
</a>
… changing the world one layer at a time.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END SUNDAY HEADER -->
<tr>
<td>
<h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 36px;">
<strong>
The failed quest to bring smells to the internet
</strong>
</h2>
<p style="color: #737373; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px;">
A lesson on the perils of inventing something nobody asked for
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 24px;">
<strong>
BY
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">
Zachary Crockett
</a>
</strong>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In November of 2001, the smell of success began to fade for Joel Bellenson.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
His invention, the iSmell, promised to bring scent to the internet. He’d developed cutting-edge sensory technology, assembled a dream-team of Fortune 500 execs, and raised $20m. Video game companies, Hollywood studios, and internet giants were lining up for partnerships.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
But he’d forgotten to ask a crucial question: Did anyone actually want this?
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
This is the story of the long, winding, unsuccessful quest to marry smell and technology — and the dangers of building something that nobody asks for.
</p>
<h4 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 16px;">
<strong>
Digital scent tech: a history of failure
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Long before smell debuted on the digital tundra, entrepreneurs raced to bring it to film. The first attempts were made as early as 1906, using huge cotton balls that were dipped in fragrances and dangled in front of fans.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In 1959, two competing devices — the AromaRama, and the Smell-O-Vision — promised to create a “new immersive experience” in theatres across America.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
A series of perfume containers were triggered by by cues on a roll of film; through little pipes affixed to seats, audience members were blasted with more than 100 aromas, ranging from grass to the “scent of a trapped tiger.”
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fsmellovision_20180602062817.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
Smell-O-Vision inventors Michael Todd, Jr. (left), and Hans Lube (right) show off their system in 1960 (via Getty)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Both were panned as technologically deficient, impractical, and unnecessary.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In a scathing
<em>
New York Times
</em>
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
review
</a>
in 1960, Smell-O-Vision was deemed an ineffectual stunt: “The odor squirters are mildly and randomly used,” wrote the paper, “and patrons sit there sniffing and snuffling like a lot of bird dogs trying hard to catch the scent.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
They were also astronomically expensive: A full “smell rig” could cost anywhere from $15k to $1m ($124k to $8.3m today) to implement.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Ultimately, the Smell-O-Vision was
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
ranked
</a>
by
<em>
Time Magazine
</em>
as one of the 100 worst technological inventions in history — and would-be smell-preneurs were thrown off the scent for decades...
</p>
<h4 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 16px;">
<strong>
Until two men brought it back in the digital age
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In the winter of 1998, Stanford grads Joel Bellenson and Dexster Smith were on vacation in South Beach, Florida when inspiration struck.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“There were all these hot ladies, nice beaches, good vibes — and the smells were just
<em>
hitting
</em>
me,” Bellenson tells us. “I took a deep breath and said, ‘Man, is there some way I can capture this and give all the other loser geeks on the internet a taste of the outside world?”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Bellenson (a molecular biologist) and Smith (an industrial engineer), had previously
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
launched
</a>
a successful gene sequencing software company. If anyone had the technical chops to digitize scent, it was them.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ftheguys_20180602062901.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
Joel Bellenson (left), with co-founder Dexster Smith (via Digiscents)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Their aim was grandiose: to bring smell to the internet by breaking down thousands of smells into chemical components, “encoding” them into files, and transmitting them digitally through a USB-powered desktop device.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“We wanted to create the printing press for smell,” says Bellenson. “It wasn’t just tech — it was a quest to reimagine the sensory experience.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
The duo assembled a dream-team: execs from Sega, TransAmerica, NEC, Sprint PCS, and Bath & Body Works; “scentography” experts from the perfume industry; top-level olfactory scientists, and some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent tech gurus.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In February 1999, they launched
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
Digiscents
</a>
, and set out to “revolutionize the entertainment-media space one smell at a time.”
</p>
<h4 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 16px;">
<strong>
The birth of the iSmell
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In the midst of the dot-com bubble, Digiscents was crazy and bold enough to attract the attention of venture capitalists.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
According to Bellenson, the company was able to raise $20m from Asian investors and build a state-of-the-art smell-dispensing prototype called the iSmell.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
The device hooked up to a computer via a serial cable. Inside, dozens of tiny vials of oil — each carefully developed by a team of “scentographers” — were selectively heated and fanned out through a vent. These “primary odors” could be combined into thousands of unique scents, from orange peels to camp fires.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fismell_20180602062933.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
A prototyped iSmell device (via Digiscents)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Avery Gilbert, a “sensory psychologist,” was recruited by Digiscents to help develop these scents.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“You can break down any smell — rotten bananas, fresh sardines — into 100 or so key fragrances,” he tells us. “From those materials, you can recreate the smell of almost anything in the natural world.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
And that’s exactly what they did.
</p>
<h4 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 16px;">
<strong>
“The porn industry loved me”
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
By the end of 1999, the iSmell was generating hype — for better or worse.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In October, the still-unreleased iSmell landed a
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
scratch-and-sniff cover
</a>
story in
<em>
Wired
</em>
magazine. They secured partnerships with Sony and Microsoft to bring their tech to video game modules. Dreamworks, Dolby, and IMAX were eager to give film integration a shot.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
They were set to work with the producers of Shrek to “bring all the disgusting smells” to life, give Tomb Raider's Lara Croft a “signature scent,” and even disrupt the porn industry.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“The porn companies were all over us,” says Bellenson. “I sat at the guest of honor table of the Adult Video Awards several years in a row.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
More than 5k game developers downloaded “ScentTracker” (a tool for interactive games), and the Digiscents website was attracting 4m pageviews per month.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
There were also grand plans to launch a “scent-enabled Web portal” called
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<ins>
Snortal
</ins>
</a>
, where visitors could design and send each other their own smells, and whiff in collaborative bliss.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fpad_20180602063017.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
An iSmell mousepad (via Flickr user MurderWithWords)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
At the same time, the iSmell became the butt of jokes.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
While industries embraced it with unadulterated excitement, the public, who had yet to experience the device, seemed perplexed by how it could be used for anything other than “making custom farts.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
It also came with its share of technical faults.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“It had a fatal flaw,” one person who worked on the device tells us. “The residue from the previous smell would linger...that residue polluted the palate and turned the second (and subsequent smells) into the smell of shit.”
</p>
<h4 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 16px;">
<strong>
The downfall
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Bellenson and his team were spending massive amounts of cash on “intensely systematic testing,” and further developing the cartridges, but less time actually asking the public if it was something that they wanted.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In late 2001 — just 2 years after launching a prototype — Digiscents ran out of capital, and the company shuttered.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
As Bellenson tells it, the iSmell was ultimately “too complicated to get through testing.”
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ftrademark_20180602063045.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
Notice of abandonment for the iSmell trademark (via Justia)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
But Marc Canter, a tech consultant who was hired to work on “bringing the product from 0 to 1,” tells us the iSmell’s failure can be chalked up to a lack of demand.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“There was a bit of ‘If we build it, they will come’ aspect to Digiscents,” he wrote, via email.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Avery Gilbert, the scientist who worked on the scents, mirrors this sentiment.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“They were constantly talking about immersiveness — it was tech boom and everyone was all pumped on what we could do,” he says. “But it wasn’t really what people wanted.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
During the peak of Digiscents’ success, a plethora of other digital scent companies sprouted up, with names like the AromaJet Pinoke (2000), the TriSenx Scent Dome (2003), the Kaori Web (2004), the Thanko P@D Aroma Generator (2005).
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
But when Digiscents crumbled, it took with it the confidence investors had in the success of digital scent technologies.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“Our death killed it for everyone,” says Bellenson. “And our death continues to scare people to this day.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Today, the science, tech, and hardware for such devices has infinitely improved — but continued efforts to bring digitize smell still fall flat. Researchers across the world, from Japan to
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
San Diego
</a>
, have tried, without success, to bring the concept to market.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fophone_20180602063133.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
David Edwards shows off his oPhone, which sends digital scent messages (via AMNH/D. Finnin)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
In the past decade, the focus has shifted from the internet to smartphones. Scentee, which launched in 2013, abruptly flopped after promising to bring “bursts of rose, lavender, and buttered-potato” to mobile.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
The
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
oPhone
</a>
is currently trying to convince the world it needs scent-based text messages, and the Cyrano (a “digital scent speaker”) aims to create “smell tracks” with names like “Thai Beach Vacation,” which can be played to the aromas of coconut and suntan lotion.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“Right now, nobody’s waking up at 3 a.m. saying, ‘I really want to send a scent message,’ ” oPhone founder, David Edwards, told
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<em>
The New Yorker
</em>
</a>
. “But one day they will.”
</p>
<h4 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 16px;">
<strong>
Will they?
</strong>
</h4>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Eric Ries, author of
<em>
The Lean Startup
</em>
, cites this mentality as one of the major impeders of successful innovation.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“The biggest source of waste in a startup is building something that nobody wants,” he
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
said
</a>
in a talk at Stanford University. “Startups don’t fail because technology doesn’t work; they fail because nobody wants what they’re trying to build.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Companies still fall prey to this today (remember
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
Juicero
</a>
, or “crunch-less”
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
Doritos
</a>
?). One could even argue that virtual reality is a niche product rather than a revolutionary technology: the hype is there, but interest, by certain
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
measures
</a>
, has stagnated in recent years.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fvrchart_20180602064052.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;"/>
<p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 8px;">
Some cite virtual reality as an example of a cool technology with lackluster public demand
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Silicon Valley has long since shifted toward a model of iterative design — releasing a product early, constantly testing it, and refining it based on the public’s demand, rather than secretly developing tech and running occasional focus groups.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
The demise of digital scent companies reminds us of what can happen when public interest isn’t kept in the forefront of the design process.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<!-- START EXTRA HTML -->
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" style="background: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 10px 0; text-align: center;">
***
</td>
<!-- END EXTRA HTML -->
<!-- START BODY TEXT -->
<tr>
<td>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Today, Bellenson’s a bit sour looking back on Digiscents’ failure. He insists the idea isn’t dead, but has merely “just been injured.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“People just wanted to dance on our grave because we were so ridiculous,” he defends. “They were just afraid of our greatness.”
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
Nearly 20 years after the downfall of the iSmell, that greatness isn’t so apparent. The device is omnipresent on nearly every “worst inventions of all time” list and is universally heralded as a technological feat with no practical application — a paradigm of the dot-com bubble’s ugly bravado.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
This is something Bellenson seems to take in stride.
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
“My old piano teacher used to tell me, ‘Joel, if you’re going to play a wrong note, play it LOUD!’” he says. “It’s better to have one of the worst ideas than a forgotten idea.”
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END BODY TEXT -->
<!-- START PADDING -->
<tr>
<td style="padding-bottom: 20px;">
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END PADDING -->
<!-- START SHARIES -->
<tr>
<td style="padding-top: 20px;">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" style="background: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding: 5px; text-align: center;">
Share and discuss this story
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table style="border: 2px solid #000000; border-spacing: 0px; padding: 20px; width: 100%;">
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#797979" style="background: #797979; border-bottom-color: #4e4e4e; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 12px 12px 9px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ffffff; font-size: 16px; padding: 12px; text-decoration: none;">
ON OUR WEBSITE →
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding-top: 20px;">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#3050a5" style="background: #3050a5; border-bottom-color: #19347c; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 12px 12px 9px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ffffff; font-size: 16px; padding: 12px; text-decoration: none;">
ON FACEBOOK →
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding-top: 20px;">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ed374d" style="background: #ed374d; border-bottom-color: #c51f33; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; padding: 12px 12px 9px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ffffff; font-size: 16px; padding: 12px; text-decoration: none;">
ON POCKET →
</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td id="ender" style="padding-top: 80px;">
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END SHARIES -->
<!-- START ADVERTORIAL_WITH_IMAGE -->
<tr>
<td align="center" style="font-family: 'Courier New',serif; text-align: center;">
This edition of The Hustle was brought to you by
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<center>
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252FGE_20180510191800.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: 100px; width: 250px;"/>
</a>
</center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr id="sponsored">
<td bgcolor="#ffffff" role="module-content">
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
<br/>
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
<br/>
</p>
<center>
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252FGEfinal_20180601170945.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXPMn:fqJVo0ZmxVv9pmVhcybKSbbY4pmBEMyyoOKI4aZB3Vg" style="height: auto; width: 100%;"/>
</a>
</center>
<br/>
<br/>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 12px;">
<strong>
Note:
</strong>
This gif is presented by our friends at GE -- bringing the future closer one layer at a time. Learn more
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
here
</a>
.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td id="ender" style="padding-top: 54px;">
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END ADVERTORIAL_WITH_IMAGE -->
<!-- START SONG -->
<tr>
<td style="padding-bottom: 20px;">
<table>
<tr>
<td rowspan="3" style="vertical-align: middle;" valign="middle">
<img src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Fmusic_bars.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="height: auto; width: 20px;"/>
</td>
<td rowspan="3" style="font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 3px; vertical-align: middle; width: 64px;" valign="middle">
Now Playing:
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<strong>
Sunday Candy, Chance the Rapper
</strong>
</a>
. Try not to smile during that piano intro. We dare you.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END SONG -->
<tr>
<td>
<table style="border-spacing: 0;">
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" style="background: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 100%; max-width: 100px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; text-align: center;">
0
</td>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" rowspan="2" style="background: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px 10px; text-align: right; width: 100%;">
<a style="background: #ff5938; border-radius: 3px; color: #ffffff; font-size: 12px; padding: 12px 10px; text-decoration: none;">
SHARE THE HUSTLE
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center " bgcolor="#000000 " style="background: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: 100%; padding: 4px 20px 10px; text-align: center;">
REFERRALS
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" colspan="2" style="background: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%;">
<a style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; text-decoration: none;">
//ambassadors.thehustle.co/?ref=950fce10a7
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" colspan="2" style="background: #ffffff; border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; color: #000000; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: 100%;">
YOUR UNIQUE URL
</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr id="credits">
<td>
<table style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="padding-top: 20px;">
<table style="text-align: center; width: 100%;">
<tr>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; min-width: 130px; padding: 5px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="Zack" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Ffooter_zack.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="padding-bottom: 10px; width: 60px;"/>
</a>
<br/>
Zack Crockett
<br/>
<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px;">
NEWS WRITER
</span>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; min-width: 130px; padding: 5px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="Kolby" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Fkolby_footer.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="padding-bottom: 10px; width: 60px;"/>
</a>
<br/>
Kolby Hatch
<br/>
<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px;">
AD WRITER
</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="line-height: 120%;">
<td align="center" style="font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding: 20px 0; text-align: center; width: 50%;">
<a style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none;">
Lindsey “Good to put a face to a smell” Quinn
</a>
<br/>
<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px;">
MANAGING EDITOR
</span>
</td>
<td align="center" style="font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 100%; padding: 20px 0; text-align: center; width: 50%;">
Rod N. Eggs
<br/>
<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: uppercase;">
Fridge Sanitation Inspector
</span>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr id="classifieds">
<td align="center" style="border-top-color: #000000; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 3px; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; padding: 12px 0; text-align: center;">
<table style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; padding: 5px 0; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #000000; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0 8px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">
SUBSCRIBE
</a>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; padding: 5px 0; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #000000; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0 8px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">
JOBS
</a>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; padding: 5px 0; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #000000; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0 8px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">
ADVERTISE
</a>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; padding: 5px 0; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #000000; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0 8px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">
EVENTS
</a>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; padding: 5px 0; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #000000; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0 8px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">
SHOP
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding: 20px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="Facebook" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Ffooter_facebook.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="padding-bottom: 10px;"/>
</a>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding: 5px 20px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="Instagram" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Ffooter_instagram.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="padding-bottom: 10px;"/>
</a>
</td>
<td align="center" style="display: inline-block; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding: 5px 20px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="YouTube" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Ffooter_youtube.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="padding-bottom: 10px;"/>
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 10px;">
<a style="background: #ffffff; border: 2px solid #000000; border-radius: 3px; color: #000000; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -0.5px; padding: 10px 15px; text-decoration: none;">
Join our Facebook community →
</a>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" style="background: #000000; border: 0; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Courier New',courier,monospace; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; padding: 8px 5px; text-align: center;">
You opted in by signing up, attending an event, or through divine intervention.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" style="border-bottom-color: #000000; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 120%; padding: 4px; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none;">
771 CLEMENTINA STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, UNITED STATES
</a>
•
<a style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none;">
415.506.7210
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" role="module-content" style="color: #a9a9a9; font-size: 12px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding: 10px 0px; text-align: center;" valign="top">
Never want to hear from us again? Break our hearts and
<a style="color: #a9a9a9; text-decoration: underline;">
unsubscribe
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" style="padding-bottom: 20px; padding-top: 20px; text-align: center;">
<center>
<span style="display: block; float: none; text-align: center;">
<a style="color: #ed4d1f; text-decoration: none;">
<img alt="The Hustle" height="22" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fthdaily%252Fth_daily_email_logo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzMy11cy13ZXN0LSJ9:1kXPMn:XaKmFQayuy1twvGh2esaBqfGPgMUAGfvkFhMbdyEkqI" style="height: 22px; width: 100px;" width="100"/>
</a>
</span>
</center>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- END DYNAMIC CONTENT -->
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<![endif]-->
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<![endif]-->
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</center>
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/http%253A%252F%252Fclick.thehustle.co%252Fwf%252Fopen%253Fupn%253DEbKgGdJ-2FyaBjZnYkL-2Fp0p-2FUYy8lG93ajcqsz7HMox3LAz9p-2BDw08m4nPbBpkCfn0K6dTvyQQ-2BOWIAnS5vMSEsgnOZHhnV8QINq8ol9asUj68rYVi1k3Oal6cMYR9Qh8RWt8yucbMvAPBekuZfGFpOyh4-2BLGCVBTFp-2F7LfhnAf1ogqvscEBxzmF3ABDcCiTxfTS4E-2BvPHgW6I3GcHK22sNtGJMijpkrZFiv4bZIOvOwPK6PGQ9XzZkRdfUZFy6yHXt66VRPHsudFesU2TbixCrU0ZdoF-2FftdgthhhqV-2F7PhhJERdP1Gw2MW6ppwzLJUJ50-2BJGZHqNyjB4pAhfp111ktdBc-2FQWJ-2FdIWC1eFzapIGQucxmf2wkWrMQsjvEY71Ibv5Y8O2O-2Ff7n7KJjj7QtWEKTR7cM6Mzp3pwAs0jkTg0I-3D/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRmNsaWNrLnRoZWh1cyJ9:1kXPMn:yaNWWk8qx6cYbOxri2MybbUHl5Yu05v146nIwqfr2pY" style="height:1px !important;width:1px !important;border-width:0 !important;margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;" width="1"/>
</body>
</html>
7 years ago - The Hustle <news@thehustle.co>
When you invent something nobody wants
A lesson on the perils of inventing something nobody asked for The Hustle Issue #7 Sunday, June 3...