This Week in M&A Issue #242
June 22, 2026
Hey hey!
Today’s trend of the week is “water sports”. 🌊
What do kayaks, paddle boards, and wing foils have in common? They’re all riding a wave of demand.
Shopify sales data shared with Retail Brew shows a sharp increase in orders across a range of water sports products in May. Foils led the pack with a staggering 538% increase in orders, followed by wing foil boards (+191%) and folding kayaks (+148%). Demand also surged for wakeboards (+133%), row boats (+92%), stand-up paddle boards (+91%), inflatable kayaks (+70%), water sport helmets (+55%), and life jackets (+46%).
While seasonal, the growing appetite for outdoor and water-based recreation can be very lucrative for business owners.
While the biggest gains were seen in specialized equipment like foils and wing foil boards, demand was strong across both premium gear and essential accessories. The opportunity isn’t limited to selling large-ticket items. Safety equipment and complementary products also saw significant growth.
Today we have for you:
- Anthropic shuts down Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after government order
- Just 1% of TikTok Shop sellers drive 60% of all sales
And:
- How one founder rebuilt after losing everything
- How to use AI to speed up your business exit
- Pinterest brings Amazon Storefronts directly into creator profiles
Alright, let’s dive in.
AI
Image Source: Giphy (fuzzyghost)
The Anthropic Shutdown and the AI Infrastructure Risk It Exposes
The latest battle over advanced AI is a reminder that the biggest risk to many AI-powered businesses may not be the technology itself, but access to it.
The dispute centers on Anthropic’s newest AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Reports suggested researchers had found ways to bypass some of the models’ safety measures, raising concerns about their ability to identify software vulnerabilities.
Amazon reportedly shared those findings with U.S. government officials, prompting the government to issue an export control order preventing foreign nationals from accessing the models. Rather than trying to enforce different rules for different users, Anthropic chose to shut both models down globally, including for users in the United States.
Anthropic has pushed back on the decision, saying it was not given detailed information about the national security concerns behind the order. They also argue that the capabilities in question are already available in other AI systems.
Today, countless SaaS companies, agencies, content businesses, and startups depend on AI models from providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. The sudden shutdown of Fable 5 and Mythos 5 shows how quickly access to a critical technology can change because of government action, policy decisions, or factors completely outside a business owner’s control.
For businesses built around a specific model, losing access could mean higher costs, product disruptions, unhappy customers, and a rushed migration to an alternative provider. In some cases, it could threaten the viability of the business itself. Businesses serving international customers may face even greater challenges if future restrictions vary by country.
As a result, more businesses are exploring ways to reduce dependence on a single AI provider. Some are adopting multi-model strategies that allow them to switch between providers when necessary. Others are experimenting with open-weight models that can be hosted independently.
AI can create significant advantages, but it is increasingly becoming infrastructure. And like any critical infrastructure, businesses need contingency plans for when access changes unexpectedly.
The Opportunity podcast
![Rebuilding From Bankruptcy to $50K Months as a Solopreneur With Moe Choice [Ep.215] (1)](https://1745913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/1745913/Rebuilding%20From%20Bankruptcy%20to%20$50K%20Months%20as%20a%20Solopreneur%20With%20Moe%20Choice%20%5BEp.215%5D%20(1).png)
The Entrepreneur Who Refused to Quit
The average founder fails around four times before they find success.
The difference between those who eventually make it and those who don’t often comes down to one thing: resilience.
In this week’s episode of The Opportunity Podcast, we’re joined by entrepreneur and solopreneur mentor Moe Choice to discuss the lessons he’s learned from building 12 businesses, experiencing bankruptcy in Dubai, losing businesses during COVID, and rebuilding from scratch more than once.
Moe shares why being great at your craft isn’t enough if you don’t know how to market and sell your expertise. He explains how focusing on a single customer acquisition channel helped him rebuild his business, why founders should carefully vet investors before taking their money, and how chasing growth at all costs can often lead entrepreneurs in the wrong direction.
This episode offers practical lessons on resilience, focus, client acquisition, and building a business that’s designed to last.
eCommerce
TikTok Shop Sales Are Highly Concentrated Among a Small Group of Sellers
TikTok Shop was designed to give small sellers a chance to grow quickly through viral content. In theory, a single video could turn an unknown seller into a major business overnight.
But new data from Marketplace Pulse shows that most of the money on the platform is actually made by a very small number of sellers.
Out of roughly 100,000 U.S. sellers, the top 1% generate about 60% of all sales. Even more extreme, the top 0.1% (fewer than 90 sellers) make over 25% of total sales on their own.
On the other end, half of all sellers together account for just around 0.1% of total sales. That means most sellers are barely getting any meaningful volume.
This level of concentration is even stronger than Amazon. On Amazon, about 1.6% of sellers drive half of third-party sales. On TikTok Shop, just 1% of sellers already control around 60%.
So why does this happen on a platform built for discovery?
TikTok Shop doesn’t rely on search like Amazon. It relies on algorithms pushing videos to users. That means success depends heavily on content going viral, not just having a good product listing.
While this sounds open and fair, in practice it leads to a few sellers repeatedly getting most of the attention. Once a seller starts doing well, TikTok’s system tends to push them even more, especially if they earn badges like “Official Store” or “Gold Star.”
This creates a feedback loop: early success leads to more visibility, which leads to even more sales.
So if you’re thinking of selling on TikTok, getting in early helps, but it’s not the edge. The real advantage comes from figuring out how to reliably drive attention on the platform before the competition does.
Read All About It!
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📈 Impact’s affiliate marketing research report: $1 trillion ad market
💵 7 proven tips for selling an unprofitable business: turn the odds in your favor
Events
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Exits, 7-Figure Businesses, and How AI Speeds It All Up
The Unleash AI For Business Summit is bringing together 30+ entrepreneurs to share how they’re using AI inside their businesses right now.
Our Director of Marketing, Greg Elfrink, will be speaking about a topic most operators eventually face but rarely plan for early enough: exits, and what it actually looks like to build toward a 7-figure outcome.
The discussion covers why owners choose to exit, what a 7-figure business sale typically looks like in practice, and how AI can vastly speed up the process.
The session also includes a practical demonstration showing how AI can be used to rapidly create lead magnets and tripwires, illustrating just how quickly core growth assets can now be produced and tested.
Across the rest of the summit, other founders and operators will be sharing practical ways they’re using AI to move faster across content, marketing, automation, and sales.
THE EVENT IS FREE and takes place on June 23rd and 24th.
eCommerce
Amazon Sellers Get a New Traffic Source Through Pinterest
Pinterest has added a new integration that connects Amazon Storefronts directly to creator profiles, making it easier to go from inspiration on Pinterest to buying on Amazon.
Creators who use Amazon’s Influencer or affiliate programs can now connect their Amazon Storefront to Pinterest. Once they do, the storefront automatically shows up on their Pinterest profile. When they tag eligible Amazon products in Pins, affiliate links are created automatically in the background. That means less time spent generating and managing individual tracking links.
Instead of handling multiple steps to monetize content, creators can tag a product once and let the system take care of the rest. It also gives their Amazon Storefront more visibility on Pinterest, letting users browse a full set of recommendations in one place instead of clicking through Pins one by one.
Pinterest says more than half of its users come to the platform with shopping in mind, with billions of product-related searches happening every month. So this update fits directly into how people already use the platform by making the path from discovery to purchase shorter and smoother.
For now, the integration is focused on Amazon, though Pinterest has suggested that more shopping partners could be added in the future.
Overall, it’s a small but meaningful update. It gives sellers another traffic channel at a time when SEO-driven discovery is getting harder to rely on, while also testing how far product search can move beyond traditional feeds into something more intent-driven and personalised.
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