• Qatar Airways brought a unique Boeing 777 to the Paris Air Show.
• The same plane transported the PSG soccer team days before the huge industry gathering.
• I toured its award-winning business class and the large cockpit.

I might never have achieved my childhood dream of becoming a world-class soccer player, but at June's Paris Air Show, I had the chance to see how some of them travel.

Qatar Airways exhibited a Boeing 777-300ER dressed in a unique blue livery, decorated with the logos of the Champions League and Paris Saint-Germain.

The airline sponsors the French soccer team, which is also owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund. This particular plane was used to transport them to the US for this year's FIFA Club World Cup. PSG play in Sunday's final against Chelsea.

While the interior was the same as a typical Qatar Airways 777, it was certainly an added highlight knowing that some of the world's best athletes had been flying on the same jet just a few days earlier.

Regardless, it's also safe to say that the interior is best-in-class. The day before my tour, Skytrax named Qatar Airways the world's best airline.

From the cockpit to the award-winning QSuite business class, here's what it was like on board the jumbo jet.

Qatar Airways' Boeing 777 attracted a lot of attention at the Paris Air Show.

Unlike most of the other planes on display at the Paris Air Show, anybody could line up to see on board without an appointment.

However, only some of us were allowed to sit inside the cockpit.

Just the week before, the plane took PSG to Los Angeles for the FIFA Club World Cup.

In May, PSG won the Champions League, the highest honor in European club soccer, for the first time.

They then also made it through to Sunday's FIFA Club World Cup final after beating Real Madrid 4-0 on Wednesday.

Qatar's vast wealth has allowed PSG to buy the two most expensive players ever. Neymar moved from Barcelona for 222 million euros in 2017, and Kylian Mbappé joined from Monaco a year later for 180 million euros, although both players have since moved on.

It was an imposing aircraft to walk around.

The Boeing 777-300ER is over 240 feet long and has a wingspan of 212 feet 7 inches. Qatar Airways' layout can accommodate 354 passengers, with a maximum range of nearly 8,500 miles.

That's enough to go nonstop from New York to Thailand.

I boarded the plane in the business-class section, checking out the QSuites.

Business takes up a sizable portion of the plane, with 42 suites.

Qatar Airways' business class was named the world's best for the fifth year in a row by Skytrax, considered the Oscars of the industry.

It's won many plaudits thanks to the quad layout in the center of the cabin.

The TVs can slide to the side, opening up the divider with two rear-facing seats. Privacy dividers also go all the way down, which can make passengers feel like they're sleeping in a double bed, a comfort usually reserved for only the very most expensive airplane seats.

With all the dividers down, the quad seemed like its own enormous, unique suite.

I took a moment to sit down and was impressed by the atmosphere it created, making the Quad a clear selling point for families compared to competitors' offerings.

Even traveling solo, QSuites are a cut above much of the competition.

I had the opportunity to fly in a QSuite on a Qatar Airways A350 last year, and was also impressed by the friendly service and Diptyque amenities.

The spacious suites and privacy doors make for a luxurious experience.

The seats have an array of different positions, and can lie flat at 6 feet 7 inches long.

Plus, the area on the left can be raised for use as an armrest and opened up for stowage.

The 10-abreast economy cabin looked pretty comfortable, too.

Some rows offer huge amounts of legroom.

The first two center rows are only three seats wide. This means seats 19D, 25D, and 37D can offer plenty of legroom — perhaps the best choice for economy travelers.

The plane has just two classes, as Qatar Airways doesn't have premium economy, while first-class is uncommon.

Rival Emirates was relatively late to the premium economy game, only introducing it in 2021, while Qatar Airways doesn't have any plans for it.

Meanwhile, it maintains that its QSuites are better than some other carriers' first-class cabins.

Some of its older planes, like the Airbus A380, don't have QSuites, but instead have a more traditional business and first-class setup.

At the end of my tour, I also got the chance to check out the flight deck.

It was a fun moment to take a breather and chat to the pilots.

I was impressed with how friendly they were, pointing out the various bells and whistles of the intimidatingly large flight deck.

One button, at the top left, controls the WiFi, provided by Elon Musk's Starlink.

Qatar Airways announced Thursday that it has completed rolling out Starlink WiFi on 54 of its Boeing 777 jets, with its Airbus A350s up next.

Business Insider previously tried it out on the airline's Starlink launch flight last October and found speeds of up to 215 Mbps — faster than most home internet connections.

• Joan Nguyen co-founded Bumo to help parents book last-minute childcare.
• The app features vetted childcare providers and works similarly to Airbnb.
• The pitch deck has raised $10 million so far, with another $10 million seed round coming up.

Modern life makes it easy to order late-night cars home, book spontaneous vacation rentals, and get lightning-fast takeout. But getting childcare on short notice? For many that's still a pipe dream.

Joan Nguyen founded Bumo, an app that allows parents to book empty slots at local childcare centers, after starting two childcare ventures during the pandemic.

From working with parents, Nguyen said she realized that they often needed what she calls "fractional childcare," such as when their nanny called in sick or something pressing came up at work.

"As a parent, I also felt the pain of not being able to get childcare when you absolutely needed it," Nguyen told Business Insider. "Why is it easier for me to find a dog walker than it is to find a sitter or a nanny?"

Launched in 2024 after raising $10 million, the Bumo app was co-founded by Nguyen and Chriselle Lim. It's a continuation of a joint co-working and childcare center they launched in late 2019, followed by BumoBrain, an online learning platform they created at the height of the pandemic to help working parents.

This week, Bumo is preparing to announce a $10 million seed funding round, led by venture capital firms Offline Ventures and True Ventures, Bumo shared exclusively with Business Insider.

The app, which has about 10,000 users and offers services in 200 locations within 13 states, works similarly to Airbnb. Parents can filter and sift through childcare options from drop-in daycares to summer camps, some of them offering same-day availability.

Nguyen said Bumo also fits in with the consumer demand "to want things instantly," now accustomed to quick bookings and deliveries. Meanwhile, "you see childcare as this kind of monolithic thing that hasn't really changed a lot," she said.

Filling a gap in childcare demands

Bumo aims to offer more convenience and fill a gap in the US childcare system.

Parents are more isolated than they have been in generations, not always being able to rely on family members to help them. Many also can't afford full-time daycare, but still need some part-time childcare options.

To ensure safety, Nguyen said every service listed on Bumo is licensed by their respective state and has a "digital footprint" including past reviews. Bumo staff also interviews with each facility at least once a year (sometimes virtually depending on the provider's location) to make sure that they're up-to-date on background checks and that all staff have proper certifications.

Nguyen said that Bumo only uses original photography and videos for each facility instead of stock photos. Parents can also upload photos in their reviews.

Bumo's next step is to keep expanding in other cities; right now, Los Angeles has the highest number of childcare offerings on the app. The goal is to increase Bumo's density in San Francisco and to introduce its service in New York City.

Read the 16-page pitch deck Bumo used to secure $10 million.

Bumo opens with a positive press quote.

It sums up the key benefit of Bumo: expediency.

Introducing the founding team and each member's accomplishments.

The slide features the team members' experience levels, follower counts, and press mentions.

It defines the app and what makes it stand out.

The slide includes a graphic of the app in action.

It addresses the core childcare problems working parents face.

A simple graphic illustrates the obstacles parents face in securing childcare.

It then shows how childcare providers benefit from the app.

It highlights the practicality of the app: childcare providers have empty slots they want to fill, incentivizing them to use Bumo.

The next slide demonstrates how simple the app is to use.

It uses a similar calendar booking system to Airbnb or Rover.

The deck emphasizes lower costs.

Parents don't have to commit to full programs they can't afford.

Another slide sums up the key benefits for everyone.

It emphasizes the mutual relationship between parents and childcare providers.

The deck then transitions into Bumo's accomplishments.

It addresses how many families currently use Bumo, the number of providers, and the social media reach. It also shows investors the opportunities for growth.

Another slide highlights Bumo's commitment to digital outreach.

It shows a concerted strategy to promote the app in smaller parenting communities on Facebook and Instagram.

The presentation winds down by zooming out on the market.

It illustrates how big the childcare market is.

It draws comparisons to other successful apps.

It also asserts that, unlike the other apps, Bumo has no competition so far.

The second-to-last slide shows Bumo's projected growth.

It includes other methods of revenue and its target numbers for childcare service expansion.

The deck ends with a strong tagline.

It brands Bumo as a company that also cares about parents' well-being and understands their struggles.

• Tech is hiring again, but the roles and skills in demand look different this time around.
• Atli Thorkelsson, head of network at Redpoint Ventures, put together a slide deck on hiring trends.
• The top of the market is "the most competitive it's been in years," Thorkelsson said.

The tech industry is now split between two starkly different job markets.

On one side, there's a stalled job market where more workers are staying put. On the other there is a rapidly expanding artificial intelligence sector that's reshaping the talent landscape.

To help founders understand the situation, Atli Thorkelsson, head of talent network at Redpoint Ventures, created a slide deck on the state of tech hiring. He presented it at the firm's third annual InfraRed Summit, which brings together founders of up-and-coming companies in cloud infrastructure.

The deck includes data cobbled together from Pave, a compensation management tool; TrueUp, a tech jobs marketplace; and SignalFire, an early-stage venture capital firm.

Thorkelsson notes that the charts throughout the deck represent fast-growing tech firms. Since Redpoint used data from vendors that mainly serve tech clients with open roles, those companies end up overrepresented.

Here's an exclusive look at the 13-slide deck that Redpoint shared with founders.

Tech is hiring again, but the roles and skills in demand look different this time around.

The top of the market is "the most competitive it's been in years," Thorkelsson said.

Throkelsson said more employees are staying put in a tougher job market.

Retention is key. An analysis of pay data suggests companies are burning more equity and cash to keep people happy.

The companies that are hiring are hiring across the board.

The bulk of new hires have gone to AI companies.

Entry-level hiring is on the decline. An efficiency drive means leaner teams packed with battle-tested veterans.

AI companies tilt toward technical talent more than their peers at the same stage.

Premium talent is landing at AI firms, and with that comes premium paychecks.

Machine learning engineers are pulling in more cash and equity than their software engineering counterparts.

Red lines show individual contributors; white lines indicate managers.

Interviews are getting more AI-focused. Candidates are being asked about their AI skills far more often than a year ago.

In recent years, some HR teams toyed with shorter or front-loaded vesting schedules. Now, most are reverting to the standard linear vest, sticking with what candidates already understand, Thorkelsson said.

San Francisco still leads for AI jobs, but New York City is gaining ground as a tech hub.

We're nearly at the midway point of the year, and the S&P 500 is essentially flat through June 17, up just 1.7%.

The broad market index nearly entered a bear market in April, following the announcement of the "Liberation Day' tariffs, but has rallied back since then to recoup those losses.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

However, not every stock on the index has been a winner. In fact, one popular footwear stock is down nearly 50% for the year through June 17.

That's Deckers Outdoor (NYSE: DECK), the maker of Hoka running shoes and Ugg boots, which is down 49.5% year-to-date. Over a long time frame, Deckers is one of the best-performing stocks on the market -- it had returned more than 10,000% at one point.

After delivering strong growth in recent years, Deckers stock hit a wall in January when its guidance was worse than expected. When the company provided its following update in May, its growth was clearly slowing, and it faced a new challenge with President Donald Trump's tariffs putting pressure on the apparel and footwear industries.

Image source: Getty Images.

Deckers' current challenges

In its fiscal fourth quarter, ended March 31, Deckers' revenue rose just 6.5%, which compared to nearly 20% growth in the first three quarters of the year.

Growth at Hoka slowed from nearly 30% in the first three quarters of the year to just 10% in the fourth quarter, potentially a sign that a resurgent Nike is grabbing back market share in running. Ugg, which remains Deckers' largest brand, grew just 3.6% in the quarter compared to 13% for the full year.

What really threw investors off was the company's guidance, as management did not give full-year guidance due to macroeconomic uncertainty related to tariffs. For the first quarter, the company expects revenue of $890 million to $910 million, representing 9% growth at the midpoint. However, it expects earnings per share to fall from $0.75 to between $0.62 and $0.67.

It sees its gross margin falling 250 basis points due to higher freight costs from tariffs, increased promotional activity, and channel mix headwinds with wholesale outgrowing DTC, and it faces difficult comparisons with a year ago.

For its two core brands, Deckers expects Hoka to grow by at least low double digits while Ugg sales should increase by at least mid-single digits.

Why this could be a great buying opportunity for Deckers

A 50% sell-off in less than six months often indicates a broken business, but that isn't the case with Deckers. The company seems to face a mostly temporary setback due to pressure related to tariffs and a cooling off in the growth rate at Hoka.

With its share price cut in half, Deckers now trades at an attractive price-to-earnings valuation of just 16, meaning it trades at a substantial discount to the S&P 500. Management is also taking advantage of that by buying back stock, increasing its share repurchase authorization to $2.5 billion, which represents 16% of its market cap.

In fiscal 2025, the company repurchased $567 million worth of its stock, and bought back $85 million in the first quarter through May 9.

Deckers is well-positioned to buy back its stock as it has no debt, $1.9 billion in cash, and a reasonable assets-to-liabilities ratio of 3.5.

Over the long term, Deckers looks well-positioned to recover as its two core brands, Hoka and Ugg, have differentiated themselves, and have long track records of growth. Ugg also overcame an earlier slowdown amid concerns that its brand was a fad.

At the current valuation, even modest profit growth will be enough to make the stock a winner. The tariff-related headwinds will eventually fade, and Deckers' growth should return at that point.

Should you invest $1,000 in Deckers Outdoor right now?

Before you buy stock in Deckers Outdoor, consider this:

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Jeremy Bowman has positions in Nike. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Deckers Outdoor and Nike. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

One weakness of Valve's Steam Deck gaming handheld and SteamOS is that, by default, they will only run Windows games from Steam that are supported by the platform's Proton compatibility layer (plus the subset of games that run natively on Linux). It's possible to install alternative game stores, and Proton's compatibility is generally impressive, but SteamOS still isn't a true drop-in replacement for Windows.

Microsoft and Asus' co-developed ROG Xbox Ally is trying to offer PC gamers a more comprehensive compatibility solution that also preserves a SteamOS-like handheld UI by putting a new Xbox-branded user interface on top of traditional Windows. And while this interface will roll out to the ROG Xbox Ally first, Microsoft told The Verge that the interface would come to other Ally handhelds next and that something "similar" would be "rolling out to other Windows handhelds starting next year."

Bringing a Steam Deck-style handheld-optimized user interface to Windows is something Microsoft has been experimenting with internally since at least 2022, when employees at an internal hackathon identified most of Windows' handheld deficiencies in a slide deck about a proposed "Windows Handheld Mode."

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Shares of Deckers Outdoor (NYSE: DECK) continue to tumble. The parent company of footwear brands including UGG, HOKA, Teva, and Ahnu has fallen roughly 50% since peaking early this year at over $200 per share.

It never feels good to buy a stock that continues to go down. It's only human to want to buy winners. The reality is that all companies face adversity at times; the trick is knowing when the company is working through minor bumps or if there are serious problems underneath the surface.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

So, I took a peek into the business to see which side of the coin Deckers Outdoor lands on. Here is whether you should invest $1,000 into Deckers stock today.

Image source: Getty Images.

Core brands continue to lead the way despite some industry headwinds

Deckers Outdoor's two primary brands are UGG, a California lifestyle brand most known for its boots, and HOKA, a premium running shoe brand. Together, UGG and HOKA combined for $4.76 billion of the company's $4.99 billion total sales in fiscal 2025.

The good news is that both brands continue to perform well. Sales of UGG and HOKA increased 13.1% and 23.6%, respectively, in fiscal 2025. But Q4 sales growth was much lower, just 3.6% for UGG and 10% for HOKA in Q4. In other words, sales momentum has dramatically slowed.

Slowing growth isn't ideal, but there is a fair amount of evidence that Deckers is dealing with industrywide headwinds rather than internal issues. Uncertainty regarding tariffs has complicated the supply chain for footwear companies, which primarily manufacture outside of the United States. Deckers manufactures most of its products in Vietnam.

Management estimated that the company's cost of goods sold may increase by $150 million in fiscal 2026 due to tariffs, and is unsure how that may impact consumer demand. The company declined to offer financial guidance for the upcoming year.

The stock's decline may have created a buying opportunity -- though risks exist

Shoes are a discretionary spend for most consumers, so economic uncertainty can easily disrupt business. However, it could be a buying opportunity for the stock if these challenges are temporary and the brands themselves remain strong with buyers.

Deckers is holding up far better in this operating environment than Nike, which reported a 9% year-over-year sales decline in its most recent quarter. I think it's a positive sign that HOKA is Deckers Outdoor's fastest-growing brand, while Nike, the industry leader, is struggling.

If you zoom out, the HOKA brand's recent growth is no fluke. The brand's sales have skyrocketed from just $352 million in fiscal 2020.

Deckers is also well-equipped to navigate a challenging business climate, with a debt-free balance sheet and nearly $1.9 billion in cash on hand. Management re-upped the company's share repurchase program in Q4 as well, bringing its authorized buybacks to $2.5 billion, or 15% of its current market capitalization. That's going to do wonders in establishing a solid floor for earnings-per-share growth.

Whether it's sneakers or apparel, fashion brands are a popularity contest. The risk in these stocks is that the brands lose their appeal. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Should you invest $1,000 in Deckers Outdoor stock today?

Things could always change in the future, but Deckers Outdoor seems poised for a bounce-back once the economic landscape improves. Consumer sentiment has taken a clear hit amid the uncertainty in recent months.

The negativity is weighing on shoppers, and the stock's steep decline could be as simple as the market lowering growth expectations. Earlier this year, analysts were anticipating approximately 15% annualized long-term earnings growth from Deckers. Those estimates have dropped to just 6.4% today.

Deckers traded at a price-to-earnings ratio of 37 in January, but that has plunged to just 17. Even modest sales growth coupled with those massive buybacks should generate the mid-single-digit earnings growth analysts now expect, and there could be significant upside potential if growth eventually reaccelerates and drives that valuation higher again.

The stock can always go lower, but the long-term risk-to-reward dynamic looks attractive here, making Deckers Outdoor a fine buy-and-hold candidate to park $1,000 in.

Should you invest $1,000 in Deckers Outdoor right now?

Before you buy stock in Deckers Outdoor, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Deckers Outdoor wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $868,615!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

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Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Deckers Outdoor and Nike. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

• Ciroos builds AI agents that act as site reliability teammates to find and fix software errors.
• The startup just launched from stealth with $21 million in seed funding from Energy Impact Partners.
• Business Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Ciroos used to raise its seed round.

A team of enterprise tech veterans just raised $21 million to introduce an AI fix to some of the most painful software engineering problems: middle-of-the-night outages and other critical system failures that require immediate attention.

Ciroos, a new startup founded by former Cisco, Amazon Web Services, and Gigamon executives, just launched from stealth with its seed funding round, led by Energy Impact Partners.

Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, Ciroos builds AI agents that act as site reliability engineering (SRE) teammates. Traditionally, it can take a long time and many people to keep software systems running — and to find a fix when something breaks. When a website breaks down overnight or during a holiday weekend, it's up to a team of unlucky, on-call engineers in triage mode to find a fix as quickly as possible.

Ciroos's agents work alongside a company's operations team to detect problems before a human is officially alerted, identify the root cause, and either fix them autonomously or help their human teammates fix them faster.

Considering that the median size of a seed funding round in the first half of 2024 was just $1.3 million, per Crunchbase data, Ciroos's $21 million round is staggering in comparison. The startup's CEO, Ronak Desai, told Business Insider that he and his co-founders connected with investors who agreed that enterprise operations needed a new approach, which AI agents could achieve.

"We saw deep curiosity from investors on the customer anecdotes we shared, and everybody noted our focus on cross-domain correlation as our point of differentiation," he said. "Investors also readily recognized our execution track record, our relentless customer focus, and the deep experience we had assembled — all necessary ingredients to build enterprise-class products."

Desai said that with its funding round completed, Ciroos will focus on hiring: the startup plans to staff up with AI engineers, full-stack engineers, and salespeople in the San Francisco Bay Area and India.

AI agents are booming in 2025, and Ciroos faces stiff competition from a multitude of enterprise tech startups that build AI teammates to help software and computer engineers. In May, no-code AI agent startup StackAI announced it raised $16 million from Lobby VC, and in April, AI debugging agent startup Spur announced it raised $4.5 million from First Round Capital and Pear.

Other startups offer general AI agents that can complete a variety of workplace tasks, including those traditionally handled by software and computer engineering teams. For example, the startup Artisan announced it raised $25 million in April, and Coworker announced a $13 million round in May.

Here's an exclusive look at the 11-slide pitch deck Ciroos used to raise $21 million in seed funding.

• Hedra, a generative AI platform, creates images, video, and audio, with a focus on characters.
• Hedra raised $32 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz's Infrastructure fund.
• Read the pitch deck the startup used to raise its latest funding.

A video of a baby interviewing a dog on a podcast went viral last month.

No, it wasn't real. It was an AI-generated video created by comedian Jon Lajoie, who used Hedra, an AI video generation platform, to make the animation.

Hedra's platform allows users to generate images, video, and audio with its web-based content creation studio.

"Our model and technology focuses on the most controllable, compelling characters, whether that's a hyperrealistic human or an animated character or even an animal," Hedra's CEO, Michael Lingelbach, told Business Insider.

On Thursday, Hedra announced that it raised a $32 million Series A fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz's Infrastructure fund. The round included returning investors such as A16z Speedrun, Abstract, and Index Ventures.

Since its launch in 2024, the AI video startup has rapidly raised capital. In August, it announced a $10 million seed investment round. In March, Amazon's Alexa Fund announced that it invested in the startup and several other AI companies. Hedra said it has raised a total of $44 million but has not disclosed a valuation.

Competition in the generative AI is hot, with buzzy companies like Captions, HeyGen, Synthesia, and Runway building tech around video and avatars (Hedra specified that it is not an avatar company).

"We're not trying to compete with Google Veo, we're not trying to compete with Sora," Lingelbach said. "We're focusing really firmly on building the best character models, and that's something that with this additional capital we can make another step function in doing."

Hedra's Character-3 "omnimodal" model combines images, text, and audio to generate video. Creating a character with Hedra begins by uploading an image and then uploading audio that they've either already recorded (like a podcast) or generated using text-to-speech models like ElevenLabs.

"Both voice and video are seeing rapid evolution right now," Lingelbach said. "We took a big leap forward on naturalness of expression with our current model."

Hedra's platform is also users to integrate outside models like ElevenLabs, Google Veo, and Flux "all in one workflow," Lingelbach said.

Expanding beyond the creator economy

Hedra's core user base has been professional creators and marketers, Lingelbach said.

"We're already seeing a massive influx of AI-generated content," Lingelbach said. "My Instagram and TikTok feed are filled with various memes and also more serious content now that's AI-generated."

From comedy skits to faceless creator content to … talking babies, Hedra's already seen a wide range of use cases. Podcast content, particularly, has been a popular application of Hedra's tech.

"It's not really something that we anticipated initially, but it definitely has been driving a lot of our usage," he said.

In addition to the viral trend of AI baby-hosted podcasts that people have been creating using Hedra, others have used Hedra to create Studio Ghibli-style videos of the classic podcast interview clip.

With its recent raise, Hedra plans to expand into more enterprise marketing applications, expand its team, and open an office in New York City.

Read the pitch deck Hedra used to raise its Series A:

Note: Some slides have been redacted in order to share the deck publicly.

Hedra is focused on storytelling and characters.

Here's what the slide says:

Every good story is crafted around characters.
But until now, creating compelling characters has been the most challenging part of content creation.

The deck explains Hedra's 'omnimodal foundation model' that lets people quickly generate digital characters.

Here's what the slide says:

At Hedra, we've built the world's best character performance model that uniquely combines video, voice, motion, and emotion in a way never before possible.

• Hedra's Character-3 model is the world's first omnimodal foundation model in production.
• The only model that supports human, animated, and animal characters. And it works with any angle or framing.
• Built to prioritize efficiently scaling unified models
• The entire model was developed with a budget of under $2 million

Hedra's customers range from everyday consumers to creators and marketers.

Here's what the slide says:

We've seen three key customer segments rely on Hedra for their various character performance needs.

Consumers

Consumers love the fun content they can create on Hedra — ranging from memes to music videos to short films.

Prosumers

Prosumers are using Hedra for use cases such as video podcasts, social media, and developing IP.

Marketing Teams

Marketing teams are using Hedra to create UGC, product tutorials, and other content to drive sales conversions.

Hedra has plans to expand into more enterprise offerings.

Here's what the slide says:

And we've already gotten heavy inbound interest from businesses for professional use and have signed notable early enterprise customers.

Upcoming Enterprise Features:

• Teams management
• IP Guards
• Enterprise-level security

The deck highlights Hedra's research team and its proprietary tech.

Here's what the slide says:

Hedra is poised to be the first company to shatter the "uncanny valley."

• We have a best-in-class research team that enables us to train proprietary omnimodal models that no competitor can develop
• We're a product focused company that builds foundation models for real world applications, listens to our users, and ships frequently.
• We're a capital efficient team that built Character-3 on under $2M in capital and a small research team.

Then the deck introduces the team.

Here's what the slide says:

We've assembled the best team to own this category — marrying deep research with AI-Native product design.

Key Leadership Team:

Michael Lingelbach: Founder / CEO

• Stanford PhD student of Fei-Fei Li and Jiajun Wu. Senior author of 3 real-time diffusion papers. Recipient of prestigious Stanford Graduate Fellowship.

Hongwei Yi: Head of Research

• Former PhD Student of Michael Black, principal researcher behind first audio to video diffusion model to hit the market in the US.

Wei Li: Research Lead

• Core contributor to Google Bard/Gemini, PaLM-2 and T5, with 8+ years experience at Google Brain/Deepmind.

Jason Wilson: Head of Engineering

• Previously led engineering at Nava Benefits (Thrive-backed Series B startup) and engineering manager at Descartes Labs.

Alan Guo: Chief of Staff

• MBA from Harvard Business School. Previously worked in growth & strategy at Disney, Jubilee Media, and Firework.

Ramin Keene: Principal Engineer

• Former CTO at StockX and two-time founder.

Hedra concludes its deck by saying 'we're just getting started.'

Here's what the slide says:

We're on a mission to build the world's best end-to-end storytelling platform. And we're just getting started.

• We've already built the world's leading character performance model on just a $2M budget.
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After a record-breaking rally in 2024 when shares of Deckers Outdoor (NYSE: DECK) soared by 82%, the stock slammed into a brick wall in early 2025 and is now down 53% from its 52-week high as of this writing.

Even as the footwear company posts strong financials, it hasn't escaped the broader stock market turbulence, with concerns about the impact of looming trade tariffs emerging as the latest headwind. Still, investors considering abandoning this footrace might be stepping away too soon.

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Here are three reasons Deckers Outdoor could be a great portfolio buy now.

1. A phenomenal growth story

Deckers Outdoor is best known for its footwear brands, including the iconic Ugg sheepskin boots and high-performance Hoka running and athletic shoes. The latter has been a game changer for the company. It is projected to generate over $2 billion in sales this year, more than doubling its size in just three years. Its unique style has driven the success, managing to cross over into the lifestyle category as a fashion phenomenon.

In its fiscal 2025 third quarter (ended Dec. 31), total net sales rose 17.1% year over year, accompanied by a 19% increase in earnings per share (EPS) to a quarterly record of $3. Hoka brand sales were even stronger, surging 24% compared to the prior-year quarter, covering the holiday shopping season. Deckers expects the momentum to continue with an ongoing expansion internationally as a key growth driver.

The results stand in stark contrast with broader industry trends, as competitors like Nike are facing declining sales while blaming weak consumer spending. By this measure, Deckers is gaining market share at rivals' expense.

Beyond the ups and downs of the stock market, Deckers' fundamentals are solid, with $2.2 billion in cash on its balance sheet cash and zero debt. Investors confident in the company's long-term potential have ample reasons to stick with this industry leader for the long haul.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Hope for tariff relief from Vietnam

Like most footwear and apparel companies, Deckers depends on overseas manufacturers in China and Vietnam, a setup now strained by the Trump administration's sweeping tariffs: a 10% baseline tax on all U.S. imports, plus higher rates like 46% on Vietnam and 34% on China. Experts predict short-term disruptions from the tariffs -- which the administration has framed as addressing trade imbalances and economic fairness -- as companies such as Deckers are forced to pass their higher costs on to consumers.

Yet, there could be a way for Deckers to escape most of these consequences. In a message posted to social media, President Donald Trump described a "very productive call" with Vietnam's leaders, suggesting open dialogue toward a potential trade deal could be reached, with the possibility of tariffs being reduced to zero. This is key since Deckers, per its 2024 annual report, sources most of its footwear from Vietnam.

While nothing has been confirmed, if tariffs are rolled back sooner rather than later for this crucial Southeast Asian manufacturing hub, it could restore the market's confidence in Deckers' growth, a catalyst for the stock to rebound.

3. A bargain valuation

The sharp decline in the company's stock price since Deckers' last earnings report may be attributed to market concerns that profit margins have peaked, sparking skepticism about the company's ability to sustain its exceptional growth. If macroeconomic conditions worsen, investors face the risk of a sales slowdown that could force a reset of earnings expectations.

Nevertheless, the silver lining of the recent sell-off is that the stock's valuation has fallen to a seeming bargain, trading at just 16 times its estimated full-year EPS as a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). Though uncertainty clouds how earnings will evolve into fiscal 2026, that alone doesn't justify the steep discount to peers like Nike and On Holding, which trade at a forward P/E of 27 and 33, respectively, despite facing similar challenges. Deckers stands out as the value pick in the group.

DECK PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

Final thoughts

What I like about Deckers Outdoor as an investment is its compelling mix of brand momentum, strong growth, and value that position it to reward shareholders over the long run. I'm bullish and believe the stock represents an excellent buy-the-dip opportunity and could be a great option for diversified portfolios.

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Dan Victor has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Deckers Outdoor and Nike. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.