MLB’s most valuable teams compete against each other in the World Series

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Good morning,

Even for people trained in sales, cold calling is difficult. A new AI startup wants to make this process easier.

Founded by three colleagues from Stanford University, Nooks raised $43 million for automation manual sales tasks such as searching for contact information, leaving voicemails, writing emails, and conducting research.

One sales representative executive at a legal software company says the platform’s dialer assistant has helped him increase the number of calls he makes per day from two to 10. “The the sales pipeline is the lifeblood of the company,” said Nooks CEO Daniel Lee Forbes.

Still, it has to contend with giants in the space like Salesforce and Microsoft.

FIRST

Two Major League Baseball the most valuable teams will face each other in the first game of the World Series tonight and expectations are high on both sides. Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ billionaire principal owner, and his siblings inherited the franchise from their late father in 2010, and their tenure has been defined by early playoff exits and a disgruntled fan base. Meanwhile, under an ownership group led by Mark Walter, CEO of investment firm Guggenheim Partners, the Los Angeles Dodgers committed more than $1 billion last offseason to acquire key contributors such as Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

BUSINESS + FINANCE

Colorado resident accused McDonald’s of negligence after he tested positive for E. coli shortly after eating food from the fast food chain, which is the first lawsuit against McDonald’s since its founding hamburgers have been linked to the epidemic bacterial infection. Attorney Ron Simon says he represents at least 10 other “victims of the outbreak” and said other lawsuits will be filed.

WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Tesla the company’s shares rose about 22% on Thursday. following its latest earnings report, representing the company’s second-largest percentage increase ever enriched Tesla CEO Elon Musk by $26.4 billion. Musk is the richest man in the world as of Thursday, it was $269.8 billion in the afternoon, according to Forbes real-time billionaire tracker.

MONEY + POLITICS

Donald Trump He didn’t spend any of his money in his 2024 campaign; rather, the former president’s campaign and political committees supporting his candidacy donated more than $7.1 million to Trump’s businesses by the end of September, according to FEC records, with most of the money going to Trump’s 1991 Boeing 757. A total of 16 companies owned by the former president received money from his political committees for services such as lodging, meals, ground transportation and parking.

Bill Gates recently donated approximately $50 million to nonprofits from the super PAC Future Forward, which supports Kamala Harris, the New York Times – was said after emphasizing bipartisanship and decades of staying away from large political donations. Forbes found 13 other billionaires who have donated a total of $50 million to Future Forward this election cycle, although unlike Gates’ donation, their contributions are public because they gave them directly to the super PAC.

TRAVEL + LIFESTYLE

Southwest Airlines will restructure its management board, giving in to a multi-month campaign from Elliott Investment Management, which acquired shares in the carrier worth USD 1.9 billion in June. Former Southwest CEO and executive chairman Gary Kelly and six executives will accelerate their retirement and leave on Nov. 1, although the airline’s CEO Bob Jordan will retain his position.

TRENDS + EXPLANATIONS

Princeton University the equity fund observed a return of 3.9%. for investment in fiscal year 2024, lagging behind six other elite Ivy League schools. The university said that the equity fund closed the period with USD 34.1 billion, after two years of investment losses.

DAILY COVER STORY

This startup has a new way to quit smoking. Will this be the one that works?

TOP LINE Qnovia, worth about $350 million, hopes to become the newest player in the market $3 billion nicotine replacement (global annual sales). therapeutic market. But first, his device must gain FDA approval.

This month, the regulator approved Qnovia for an investigational new drug application and plans to begin clinical trials in humans before the end of the year. If it wins FDA approval, it would become the first federally approved smoking cessation drug in nearly two decades.

The biggest advantage of founder Mario Danek’s product, RespiRx, is that it does not use combustion or heat to atomize nicotine liquid, as heat creates carcinogenic byproducts. Rather, the Daneka device is a vibrating mesh nebulizer that uses a circular disk moving 150,000 times per second to convert pharmaceutical-grade nicotine liquid into an inhalable vapor.

Over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy products, such as nicotine patches, gums and lozenges, have been available on the market for decades, but none are particularly effective, with success rates hovering around 10%.

Brian Quigley, CEO of Qnovia, says that with 28 million American cigarette smokers, not enough is being done in the pharmaceutical industry to address smoking, which remains a major problem leading cause of preventable death asecond disease in the country – kills 480,000 people a year.

“Where else in medicine is the standard of care from 20 years ago good enough?” Quigley asks. “It’s just kind of shocking that we’re in 2024 and this problem hasn’t been solved.”

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT “Potential novelty a drug that helps people quit smoking cigarettes it’s a big deal,” he says Forbes staff writer Will Yakowicz. “Since 2006, the FDA has not approved the smoking cessation drug Chantix, Pfizer’s blockbuster pill. “This problem is compounded by the fact that the FDA has approved 45 new tobacco and nicotine products over the last decade, and cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.”

MORE How Zyn conquered America

FACTS + COMMENTS

Maybe it’s only October, but Hallmark Channel has already started its annual program “Countdown to Christmas”. The the channel dominates even the most popular one sports and information programs during the holiday season:

32: The number of films that will appear online this season, six of which will be released by the end of this month

7.8 million: Hallmark’s holiday season unique viewers so far

3.3 million: How many people watched Merry Scottish Christmas last season was the most popular Christmas movie this year

STRATEGY + SUCCESS

The results of the latest Gallup survey showed a surprising paradox for managers: They report higher levels of engagement, but also slightly higher levels of anger, sadness, worry, loneliness and stress than their non-managerial counterparts. People who have been promoted management positions are often characterized by high standards, which may lead to these people putting additional pressure on themselves. Being a great leader means accepting the paradox: be strong and vulnerable, decisive and collaborative.

QUIZ

There has been much speculation about whether the “whale” placing multi-million dollar bets on the Polymarket betting platform was doing so illegally in the US. However, the company confirmed that the person behind the four accounts that placed bets on Trump with a total value of $28.6 million is What country?

A. Russia

B. France

C. Germany

D. Canada

Check your answer.

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Thank you for reading! This issue of Forbes Daily was edited by Chris Dobstaff and Caroline Howard.