The Best One Yet - 🥨 “A Pod About Nothing” — Netflix’s Seinfeld strategy. Climate’s North vs South. ButcherBox’s bootstrapped brisket.

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

Season 5 of The Crown is getting all the buzz, but Netflix’s strategy is all about comedy series. The COP27 Climate Summit gave us a new financial framework to fix Climate Change: Northern Debt paying for Southern Credit. And ButcherBox does $600M in sales delivering meat to your door, because its business is as lean as prosciutto. $NFLX $PEPFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, November 14th, and today's pod is the best one yet. Ah, the crowd's going wild. It's a T-Barr. Actually, it's a Supremium Pod. Today's pod is a supremium episode. You ready for the first story?

It's our first story, Jack. Now that Netflix has ads, it's time to talk about their Seinfeld strategy. It's a takeaway about nothing. For our second story, we just saw the perfect formula for understanding climate change. Here it is. The equator. is the banker. And our third and final story is Butcher Box. They ship $600 million a year of meat, meat, meat, and more meat. The profits are fat. The strategy is lean. Ah, that should be their company

slogan. Slightly Marble. But Yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix. I love this mix. I didn't know what we were going to do. I love what we're doing today. It's a great mix. Me too. But we got to go first to Horters' Almanac Week 136. Things were running out of because the pandemic. Jack and I been keeping track for you. McDonald's is running out of happy meals right now. Specifically, the adult happy meals are M-I-A. This was noticed by Yeti Bradley down in Florida who tried to get one and couldn't. Because Yeties, remember, we covered on this pod the adult happy meals.

It was a limited edition collaboration for adult happy meals the first time ever. Last month, Ronald whipped up some happy meals for us grown-ups. It's about time. But this month, those adult happy meals are going. Weird. They're already sold out and will never come back. Here's the funny part. That unhappy shortage has led to a happy meal black market. A happy meal black market. Let that sit in. You want a happy meal, Yiddies? You're going to have to know a guy.

Meet me in Washington Square Park and bring cash. Make sure they're unmarked bills. Get this, Yeties. The toys from those few adult happy meals that were produced. They're in such high demand. They're selling for $300,000. Jack, I'm sorry, can you please repeat that number? People are paying 300 grand on eBay for those adult happy meal toys. Basties, we're talking about $300,000 for Ronald's Regalia.

$300,000. You could buy three Porsches. Oh, we're two boats. Or a house. Or this pod. But instead, people are buying a hamburger toy. Yeah, doesn't sound very happy, Jack. Doesn't sound like much of a meal either. But-a-p-papa, let's just hit up through stories.

years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast and red to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. For our first story, Netflix just had its biggest weekend of the year, but one thing in particular stood out to us. Netflix's Secret Seinfeld strategy. Yeties last weekend, Jack, last weekend.

It wasn't just any weekend. What kind of a weekend was last weekend, Jack? It was a weekend for watching, Nick. It was a weekend for watching. What were we going to do? You're going to throw in the Net Leisure Wear, maybe a little bit of pajamas? I was in Sconsonston Velvet because, Netflix did more in the last week than they've done in the past year.

Yes, Saturdays are for the Shmovies. Get this. First, The Crown, season five, that dropped on Netflix. I've been eagerly awaiting the show. And spoiler, Princess Dye Stylis deserves some kind of knighthood. Also, Lindsay Lohan, she dropped her Christmas movie also on Netflix. Her first major hit since Mean Girls. Plus Parent Trap, more Hallmark card.

But yet, he's forget those movies, forget those shows, forget those schmoo. And why is that, Jack? We want to talk about comedy, because comedy series are critical to Netflix's business. Because comedy, it turns out, has the longest shelf life of any content in all of media, according to the Puck Newsletter. Let's step back to three years ago. That's when Netflix dropped to a reported $500 million for the exclusive rights to Seinfeld. $500 million for all nine seasons of a show about nothing.

Because at the time, Netflix was about to lose the rights to... the office. And if Netflix loses the rights to the office, why would that be a problem, Jack? Well, year in, year out, before the office went to Peacock, the office was the number one show on Netflix. And that reveals why Netflix started pursuing its Seinfeld strategy. Netflix realized that comedy doesn't decay. Yeah, honestly, the way Jack and I see it, comedy is the great equalizer, right, Jack? We like to think that humor is universal. It's not a lie if you believe it.

And that's why comedy became the true king of streaming content and it still is today. And we can see it in the data. For example, if you compare Seinfeld to Gray's Anatomy, you get some interesting numbers, Jack. Well, Puck News compared the two, and they found that Seinfeld was twice as good at attracting new subscribers than Gray's Anatomy was. And interestingly, also, it was 18% better at retaining the old subscribers, too. But it's not just George, and it's not just the pretzels which are making me thirsty.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's the format of comedy that is. so sticky on streaming. Because each Seinfeld episode is designed for ads because Seinfeld launched in the era of cable TV. Perfect timing. Because Netflix just launched ads last week. It's lewd.

It's lascivious. It's salacious. It's outrageous. Yada, yada. So, Jack, what's the spongeworthy takeaway for our buddies over at Netflix? For the first time ever, binging has true value. Yeties, historically, Netflix actually didn't care if you're being. Like, binging did not boost Netflix's sales.

As long as you paid $14 a month to be a subscriber, it didn't matter how much you watched. You could have watched a minute or a million shows, and it's the same money for Netflix. But if you're on Netflix's brand new ad-supported plan, then binging now has value to Netflix. Yeah, because the longer you watch, the more ads you'll see, which is the more revenue Netflix will make. And that is why 30-year-old Seinfeld is perfect for Netflix, because each episode has natural breaks in the the plot for the ads. That means Netflix gets to double-dip that chip with their secret Seinfeld strategy. Because old cable comedies are the go-to shows for bingers. And those old-school cable comedies are perfect for ads. So for the first time ever, binging truly has value for Netflix.

For our second story, the United Nations is hosting the biggest climate summit of the year, and it just gave us a new formula for climate change. Think of the equator. as the planet's broker. Okay, first of all, Jack, last week, loaded. Still feeling it. Crypto had the worst week of the year. Okay, but then stock markets had their best week of the year. Powerball, $2 billion jackpot went down.

He had Elon this. He had Twitter that. Jack tried that new sweater. It looked fantastic. I love the way it looked, man. Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General said something truly shocking and captured some headlines last week. Doesn't take anything away from your sweater.

But here's what he said, Jack. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator. Tell us how you really feel. You can't put that on a tote bag, Jack. Okay, so he said that at COP 27. Brutal acronym, Good Cause. Cop 27, the annual United Nations summit to stop the world from melting beneath us.

Cop 27, 27th times a charm. Well, given the urgency in that aggressive quote, America sent its elder statesman and Captain Planet John Kerry to the event. And here's the plan that John Kerry presented on behalf of the United States. All right, here it is. Here it is. It's called the energy transition accelerator. That thing is a financial plan to create a global market for carbon credits.

Okay, so here's how this would go down. Jack, let's use Pepsi as the example here. Let's say Pepsi wants to get involved in this energy transition accelerator to save the world. All right. So Pepsi's issue is that they're pumping out a bunch of plastic bottles, which are made by refining oil. Well, Pepsi wants to go carbon. neutral. It wants to be like a good soda company, but it can't cut the bottles and still stay in business. I mean, Pepsi has to make bottles. So with this plan, Pepsi would buy carbon credits to offset their

carbon footprint from those bottles. Which means paying money because it's using so much plastic. And the money that Pepsi paid for those credits, that would go to developing economies to build clean energy projects like wind turbines. Ifso facto, that is the transition of energy in the energy transition accelerator. It's a simplified plan we just described. Not a perfect plan. No, it's not, but it has some big back. Microsoft, Bank of America, Pepsi, Jeff Bezos's Earth Fund. They're into it. She's into it. Exactly. Exactly. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the entire world? Here's a new way to think about climate change. Northern debt, southern credit. Okay, besties north of the equator, that's where the most developed, wealthy economies have.

to be. But centuries of humming factories up north is responsible for almost all the carbon in the atmosphere. All right. On the other hand, Jack, south of the equator, that's where we get the less developed, less wealthy economies of the world. They're not nearly as industrialized as the north, so they've contributed less to climate change. Which means, Yetis, we have a new way to think about climate change as a financial formula. The global north has most of the money, but also most of the carbon debt. Well, the south doesn't have the money, but it has the carbon. credit. Credit, debit. Like two sides of any financial deal, we have a clear split in the world. And right in the middle, you got the equator, which is like brokering the whole thing.

If a global climate deal goes down, it's probably going to require northern debt and southern credit. The financial framework for handling climate change. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of Yetis don't realize how much prep work goes into this pot. We spend hours every morning jumping in T-boy style to earnings reports, CEO tweets, breaking news, heaven. Jack and I are toggling tabs like you toggled IM Convo's in 2004. Having eight tabs open can be stressful. You don't need that, especially when invested.

Robin Hood offers it all in one app. Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stocks through Robin Hood Financial, or you want to buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto. You can do it all on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash t-boy and choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash TBOY. Limitations apply.

LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood. We are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story before we kill Independent George, we just learned that Butcher Box Ships $600 million a year of meat to your door. The margins are fatty, but the business model is lean. Oh, Yeties when Jack and I jump in T-Boy style. Honestly, sometimes we start with a company's mission. mission, make high quality meat more accessible to all. Which sounds like a shirt our buddy Timmy used to wear to the gym, right, Jack? It does sound like your weightlifting shirt senior year. Well, it actually happens to be the mission statement of Butcher Box, a Boston-based subscription

meat startup. Mike Salgaro founded Butcher Box in 2015 because... And this guy, he's got a passion for humane meat. He wanted humanely raised meat. Basically, he wants to take a free-range farmer's market meat and scale. this thing nationwide. We're not talking about like a Tucson T-bone, Jack, right? No, we're, no, no, we're not.

Butcherbox takes the Casper direct-to-consumer business bottle, but he swapped out the mattress for a couple of pounds of meat. Basically, took out the twin bed, replaced with a tenderloin. Both products come in a box. Gavagoole, but Jack, can we talk about the numbers on this company, please?

Butcherbox is shipping $600 million a year of meat to its customers. We repeat, that is over half a billion dollars of free-range rib-eyes. Now, funny things, sometimes a meat company isn't a meat company. Yeah, here's what Jack and I found fascinating. Like, you know, Airbnb, they don't own any rooms.

Uber, they don't actually own any tax. Butchibox sells meat, but they don't own any meat. Exactly. Butchurch box doesn't raise livestock. It doesn't process any meat, in fact. So butcherbox isn't a meat company at all. No, it's not what is butcher box, Jack? Really?

It's a dry ice company. Butcher box. is really a dry ice company from what we discovered. The founder, Mike, he told TechCrunch in an interview recently that without lots and lots of dry ice, this business can't operate. Yeah, so the biggest investment by Butcher Box isn't in farming and isn't in Best the Cow, it's in dry ice factories. This company built two dry ice factories because without the ice,

you can't ship boxes of meat? No dry ice, can't preserve that porterhouse, can you, Jack? No, you can't. Well, you could. Yeah, you could. But it'd be disgusting. when it gets to your dog. It would really be salmonella box. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Butcher Box? A lean startup can still become a huge startup. All right. Yeties,

this pod, it runs lean. Like it's Jack, Nick, that's it. In 10 years of entrepreneurship, Nick and I have loved a lean company. We keep the cost low and it lets us be nimble. And let's us be super nimble. So the surprise for us was that this $1 billion butcher box startup has been lean from the start. The financing of this company was lean as pursuit out. Yeah, the founder bootstrapped the company with a low-key Kickstarter campaign never took any venture capital money at the start. He ignored the big-time VCs. He crowdsourced from regular old carnivores getting money that actually represented pre-orders for the first boxes. So Butcher Box, it proves just how huge a lean startup can truly get. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways to kick off the week?

secret Seinfeld strategy is all about comedy and commercials. And for the first time ever, binging has value. Serenity now. For our second story, COP 27 is focused on Northern money funding Southern clean energy. Here's the new framework for climate change. Northern debt, Southern credit. And our third and final story is Butcher Box. They now do 600 million a year in sales thanks to those dry ice factories. It is wild. How huge a lean startup can truly be. come. Now time for the best fact yet built on a story from last week from Nikita Triperana in lovely

Princeton, New Jersey. Push and play. Here we go. Did you know that Rice Krispy Treats were originally invented in 1939 by Milita Jensen and Mildred Day at the Kellogg Company and were called marshmallow squares before it was renamed in 1940? Part two of this best fact yet. The record holding largest Rice Krispy treat weighs 10,460 pounds and used 5,000 pounds of Rice Krispies and 7,000 pounds of marshmallow. That's a big Rice Krispy treat. That's on a treat check. That's a challenge is what that is. Is it? It's the only dessert where like the icing is on the inside. It's pretty innovative if you think of that. By the 100th year anniversary of Rice Krispy. Talk to me, Jack. In 2039. Okay, let's do it. I don't know. Should we break that record? I had a dream that the Rice

Krispy was eating me. Yeah, it is, you look fantastic today. And before you go, Jack and I, we got a little bit of a challenge for you, don't we, Jack? We are 54 reviews on Apple Podcasts. We're 54 reviews away from 9,000 reviews. 9,000 reviews. Jack, what should we do if we get 9,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts? Well, 9 is the Kramer family number.

Okay, let's roll. And Kramer's love, like, push-ups and stuff. So you want to do 9 push-ups? We'll do 9,000 push-ups. There we go, Jack. All right, here we go. 8,998. Yes.

8,99. Yetis, your move. Jack and I got to go practice some play. One hand. And before we go, congratulations to the three new inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame. Light bright. Okay. The top, which you spin on a tabletop.

Nice. And Masters of the Universe action figures. And a happy two-year anniversary to Caleb and Tierra over in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Congratulations to Christian Racinos for getting a new job at Google's wing in San Francisco. And Megan Friend just got promoted over in Chicago. And happy birthday to Adam Brink from Hingham Mass, just outside of Boston. Who's really a

Baltimore, Natty Bow's guy. And happy Dirty30 to Zach Vidland celebrating down on Bourbon Street. And Rishi Lockenpaul, happy 34th birthday watching the Toronto Raptors beat the Pistons. Happy 28th birthday to Sandy Shoe in Boston Mass. Which is also just outside Boston. And to anyone

else, celebrate something today. Make it a team. Boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of you listen to our show while you're driving. Two hands on the wheel. Keep it ten and two. You might be cruising, Chris, no rush. Stay in the right lane. Or you might be doll lane from Duncan, dotting from lane to lane.

And there are different drivers on the road. They're different investors too. Maybe you're cruising down the long-term lane with stock investing, or maybe you're a more advanced full speed trader. Well, the Robin Hood app helps put you in the driver seat wherever you're at in your investing journey. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robinto Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robinhood.