Hey folks!

Ever noticed how walking into a trial room almost guarantees that you’ll end up buying something?

Turns out, shoppers who use trial rooms are over 7 times more likely to make a purchase than those who don’t. But the problem is, many of us might not want to enter them. They could be cramped, poorly lit, have long queues, no staff around to help and sometimes… even raise privacy concerns. (You know, like when women instinctively tap a trial room mirror with a fingernail just to check if it’s not see-through? Yup, that’s a real thing.)

That’s a big problem for retail stores because it could mean fewer conversions and lower sales.

But a Bengaluru based startup might have a fix.

Just a sidebar: We’re not promoting this startup, okay?

Meet Dharpan.ai, a fashion-tech company that’s built six-foot virtual mirrors that could change the way we shop. Think of them as sleek, digital trial rooms that you just stand in front of. No queues and no struggle with trying on denims in stuffy cubicles.

Their mirrors use in-house tech (not third-party AI) to scan your body and let you try out different styles and colours, all virtually, in just 2.5 seconds! That’s way faster than the 5–8 minutes we typically spend inside a trial room.

That’s a game changer, not just for customers, but for lifestyle stores too, because it boosts the chances of a sale.

In fact, some Indian retailers who have introduced older versions of virtual trial rooms about a decade ago have seen sales jump by 15–25%. And although this figure might be outdated, it just goes to show how much revenue is lost when shoppers skip the physical trial room.

Here’s where things get interesting though. A typical trial room in a place like South Mumbai could cost ₹150–275 per sq. ft. in rent. At 25–30 sq. ft., that’s ₹4,000–8,000 per month. Now, virtual trial rooms still need some room — about a quarter of that space for screens and equipment. So you’re not completely eliminating the rent for trial room space, but you could still save a decent chunk. Say, around ₹3,000–6,000 a month.

But here’s the catch. A virtual mirror subscription from someone like Dharpan.ai could cost you ₹25,000–35,000 a month.

Plus, there isn’t much to save on staffing costs either. Traditional trial rooms usually need 1–2 attendants, and virtual ones would still require a couple of tech-savvy folks to help customers and manage the system.

So yeah, it’s not exactly cheap or cost-efficient, which means smaller retailers might not jump in just yet. But if bigger brands lead the way, scale could bring costs down. And maybe one day, even your friendly neighbourhood boutique might have a virtual mirror too.

Do you think you’d try on clothes this way?

Here’s a soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Chürienuo Mevi by Colored Keys

What caught our eye this week 👀

Butter can now be made from air. Wait… what?

Can you imagine spreading butter on a crisp slice of toast — butter that’s not made from milk or even plant-based fats… but from air?

Yup, you read that right.

A California-based startup called Savor has developed a unique way to make butter using nothing but gases from the air. More specifically, from greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

Here’s how it works. They take CO₂, combine it with hydrogen from water, and run it through a high-heat, high-pressure process to create fatty acids. Those acids are then turned into butter. The US FDA has already given it the green light. And it’s also backed by none other thanMicrosoft billionaire Bill Gates.

Now, we know this sounds crazy, but the idea of synthetic butter isn’t new. During World War II, the Nazis were rumoured to have experimented with making “coal butter”, when dairy supply chains broke down. They tried converting coal into synthetic fuels and other chemicals, some of which could be used in margarine production.

So Savor’s attempt is more of a modern-day remix with cleaner goals in mind.

You see, regular dairy butter comes with a heavy environmental price. Producing just 1 kg of it releases nearly 17 kg of CO₂ equivalent into the atmosphere, thanks to methane from cows and land-use changes. Savor claims that their process emits less than 0.8 grams per kg. That’s over 95% lower!

And sure, plant-based butter already exists. But many of those rely on palm or coconut oil, which come with their own problems like deforestation. CO₂-derived butter, on the other hand, skips crops entirely. That means less demand for farmland, which is a big deal because agriculture alone accounts for nearly 12% of global emissions.

Freeing up land could also make space for more carbon sinks — natural areas that absorb carbon instead of releasing it.

Plus, this butter uses less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture needs.

Sounds like a win for the planet and a big business opportunity, right?

Well, not so fast.

Savor still has to convince people to actually buy synthetic butter. It has to scale production, keep emissions low and compete in a market dominated by big food giants.

And let’s not forget that biotech like this needs brand-new supply chains, which aren’t cheap.

Some even argue that the same money could instead improve existing agricultural systems like promoting agroforestry or crop diversity that already help trap carbon.

So, will air-butter become a thing?

We’ll have to wait and see.

Infographic 📊

This Day in Financial History 📜

16th of May, 1929 — The Oscars begin, but not quite how you think

The Oscars today are a glitzy celebration of movies, money and speeches. But when the first Academy Awards debuted on this day in 1929, it wasn’t quite the Hollywood glamour. There was no red carpet (that came much later in 1961) and no acceptance speeches. Just 270 guests in a ballroom at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, dressed for dinner. The tickets cost just $5, and the ceremony was wrapped up in about 15 minutes.

But here’s the interesting bit. The Oscars weren’t created purely to celebrate great cinema. They were also designed to control it.

See, back in the late 1920s, Hollywood was messy. Labour unions were stirring. Strikes were brewing. And studio heads feared losing their grip over actors, writers and crew.

So the powerful Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or the MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer came up with a rather clever fix. He created the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927 — a shiny institution with a not-so-shiny purpose.

His logic? “If I got them cups and awards, they’d kill themselves to produce what I wanted.”

That’s a real quote. 

And just like that, the Oscars were born. Not as a celebration of art, but as a brilliant corporate management tool dressed in gold.

That first ceremony handed out 15 awards, including “Best Actor” to Emil Jannings, and “Best Actress” to Janet Gaynor. There was no suspense either as winners were announced months in advance.

And oh, no one called it an “Oscar” back then. So how did the nickname come up?

Well, in true Hollywood fashion, there’s no single origin story. Some say Margaret Herrick, a librarian at the Academy, thought the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar. Others credit columnist Sidney Skolsky, who mockingly used “Oscar” in a report to deflate the ceremony’s growing self-importance. And then there’s Bette Davis, who said that the statuette’s bare butt reminded her of her husband Oscar.

Whatever the truth, the nickname stuck. And by 1939, the Academy had officially adopted it.

Fast forward to today, and the Oscars are no joke for the business side of showbiz. A Best Picture win can significantly spike box office sales and send stock prices of entertainment companies moving.

And what started as a $5 dinner to keep Hollywood in line became a billion-dollar media event, broadcast in over 200 countries, raking in hundreds of millions in sponsorships and ad revenue.

So yeah, the Oscars weren’t just about movies but about power, perception and PR done right.

Readers Recommend 🗒️

This week, our reader Adityakumar Prajapati recommends watching This Giant Beast That Is The Global Economy, a docuseries that dives into some of the more serious (and bizarre) forces shaping today’s world. It unpacks the complexities and often shady sides of the global economy.

Thanks for the rec, Adityakumar!

That’s it from us this week. We’ll see you next Sunday!

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