Your Weekly B2B is Here! 💡

Welcome to this week’s edition of Blank2Bank - your power-up to build smarter, grow faster, and stay ahead. Whether you’re launching a startup, scaling your side hustle, or mapping your career path, this is where you get sharp, no-fluff insights and tools to fuel your next big move. Let’s build. 🚀

Table of Contents

• This Week in Business & Tech 🗞️

• Tool of the Week 🛠️

• Career & Hustle Tips 💼

• This Week in AI 🤖

• Your Newsletter, Your Paycheck: Start Earning with beehiiv 📧

• Bonus Tools 💎

• Quote of the Week 💬

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This Week in Business & Tech 🗞️

1️⃣ Business: WTO Revises Global Trade Forecast Up Sharply, Lifting AI-Driven Goods

The World Trade Organization raised its 2025 forecast for global goods trade growth to 2.4%, citing strong imports of AI-related hardware (semiconductors, servers) and pre-emptive stockpiling by U.S. firms. AI goods now account for ~42% of trade growth despite being ~15% of volume.

🔍 Tip: This underscores how AI is no longer just a hype sector - it’s becoming a backbone of global trade dynamics.

2️⃣ Finance: UBS Faces $500M+ Hit From First Brands Collapse, Exposing Private Credit Risk

Switzerland’s UBS disclosed over $500 million in exposure via its O’Connor fund to the collapsed auto parts firm First Brands, including indirect holdings. The incident highlights the growing dangers in private credit markets, where transparency is limited and downside risk is rising.

🔍 Tip: For investors, this is a red flag: opaque credit strategies may harbor hidden stress points.

3️⃣ Marketing: Advertisers Push Big Tech for Transparency in Digital Ad Auctions

Leading marketers are pressing platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon to adopt voluntary standards that would force disclosure of auction mechanics: winner determination, bid weighting, price drivers-parameters that currently remain largely opaque.

🔍 Tip: This could change how digital ad spending is evaluated and shift leverage toward more accountable platforms.

Tool of the Week: Product Hunt 🛠️

Product Hunt is the go-to platform for discovering new tech products, apps, tools, and startups. Every day, makers and founders launch their creations to an engaged community of early adopters, investors, and product enthusiasts. Whether you’re looking to stay ahead of tech trends or showcase your own project, Product Hunt is the place to be. Ideal for startups, indie developers, and marketers, it provides visibility, feedback, and traction from a highly active user base. Launch, explore, and connect with innovation in real time.

Career & Hustle Tips 💼

Ship Small, Win Big: The Micro-MVP Playbook 🚀

Big launches are sexy. Small launches pay the bills. Instead of perfecting a product for months, build a micro-MVP - the smallest, sellable version of an idea that proves demand.

How to do it:

1. Pre-sell the problem, not the product. Create a simple landing page or email form that explains the outcome and a price. If people sign up, you’ve validated demand before building.

2. Build a 48-72 hour prototype. Use no-code, a one-page site, or a simple manual process (“concierge MVP”) to deliver the promised outcome. Real delivery beats vague roadmaps.

3. Use revenue as your roadmap. Let paying customers tell you which feature to build next - iterate fast, charge early, and keep improving.

🔑 Takeaway: Shipping small reduces risk, accelerates learning, and turns ideas into income faster than waiting for “perfect.”

This Week in AI 🤖

Mattel Taps Sora 2 to Generate Product Videos - But Deepfake Risks Blow Up

Toy giant Mattel has partnered with OpenAI to begin using Sora 2 to auto-generate short video clips for brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Polly Pocket - turning sketches or concepts into animated promos.

At the same time, backlash over unauthorised deepfakes is mounting: families of deceased celebrities (Robin Williams, MLK Jr.) have publicly condemned the use of Sora 2 to recreate likenesses without permission - highlighting the legal and ethical firestorm ignited by the tool. Sora 2 has also rolled out new “cameo control” guardrails that let users restrict where their AI duplicates appear (e.g. no political content), but many early users say the rules are already too aggressive, triggering false violations for innocuous prompts.

🔍 Tip: Sora 2 is surging into commercial use before its boundaries are settled. Brands may gain powerful video tools, but trust will hinge on how transparently and responsibly OpenAI handles misuse and control.

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Bonus Tools 💎

Discover 3 handpicked tools that bring extra value to your business toolkit. These bonus picks are carefully selected to help you boost productivity, streamline your workflow, and unlock new growth opportunities. Check them out and level up your game!

Quote of the Week 💬

Turn customer feedback into evidence that moves your product roadmap faster

Enterpret unifies tickets, reviews, and surveys in one place; auto-tags themes using AI. Helping PMs size impact by revenue; quantify affected users and why; package insights with verbatim quotes stakeholders remember; and track sentiment after launches.

Used by Canva and Notion to align stakeholders and ship higher-impact work, faster.

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That's it for today!

Before you go, we’d love to know what you thought of today's newsletter to help us improve The Blank2Bank experience for you.

Until next time,

Blank2Bank Team