The Best One Yet - 🫰 “Andreessen-In-Chief” — Trump’s Venture Cabinet. Netflix’s Live Adele Quarter. Trump’s Executive Orders.

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, SaVice Wednesday, January 22nd. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. You know, Jack, I don't want to take any credit. But for the second straight year, stocks hit a record high on my birthday.

Starting point is 00:00:21 Is that true? I mean, I want to say you're welcome, but like, I don't want to take credit. But I am going to take credit on this one. No, it's not your quarter birthday. It's not your half birthday. It's your real 37. with the birthday, right? It is. Four straight quarters, Jack. I wasn't 37 your jersey number when you were playing lacrosse in college?

Starting point is 00:00:38 It wasn't, but to go back to stocks being in a record high. You're welcome for mentioning on the pod that you played the cross in college. It was bound to happen, Jack. I appreciate it. Yeah, it is. We're going to keep the birthday bounce going. In the meantime, we got three fantastic stories. Jack, what's on today's tea boy? Happy birthday, Nicholas. Thank you, for our first story. The theme of Trump's brand new cabinet is venture capital. guys. The inauguration were full of CEOs. Trump's White House will be full of VCs. For our second story, Netflix just told us the results of its most wild quarter ever.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Its first live streaming quarter. So Jack and I have made a connection between Netflix and Adele. And our third and final story. The White House issued a record number of executive orders on day one. Executive orders. We're going to tell you why presidents love them, businesses hate them, and oil stocks are confused by them? But yet,ies, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. It's a news-packed week. Jack, what a mix of stories. Love the mix today.

Starting point is 00:01:40 The most important rule of science was just disproven. Not the law of gravity, not the theory of relativity. Jack, what are we talking about? The five-second rule. Ah, the five-second rule. The greatest completely unscientific rule of science is toast. The five-second rule states that if one drops food on the floor, it's clean for up to five seconds. Besties, one has only five seconds until bacteria grab on to your frozen, fallen, cheese it.

Starting point is 00:02:08 But according to a new article in popular science, the five second rule is apparently wrong. Oh, and the five second rule, it is not even close. A 2014 study at Aston University in the UK says the longer the food is on the floor, the more bacteria latches onto it. But get this, another new study from Clemson University found that some bacteria transfer instantaneously. By five seconds, 99% of the germs on the floor had transferred onto the food, according to Clemson. So what Jack and I were saying is that they tested the five second rule with baloney. And determined that the rule is baloney. Besties, hold on to your ham sandwiches today. Because if it falls and you follow the five second rule. Oh, that's now a salmon

Starting point is 00:02:50 ella sandwich, isn't it, Jack? So grab those grapes and clutch those Clementines, man. Don't let go. The five second rules, 50 years of fame. is officially over. And honestly, Jack, it's kind of like the planet Pluto. I already miss it. If you know, you know, Yetis, let's hit on three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. 50%. That's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show.

Starting point is 00:03:37 First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, the biggest voices in the brand new White House are from one specific group, venture capitalists. Silicon Valley investors now run the White House. And we're going to tell you just how deep this goes. But yeties, for anyone who has planned a dinner party, you know that the seating chart? Oh, that says a lot, doesn't it, Jack? So let's look at the seating chart from the presidential inauguration that happened on Monday. All right, so the first row was Trump's family.

Starting point is 00:04:14 Makes sense. They're closer to him, of course. The third row behind the inauguration was Trump's cabinet appointees, basically the heads of the future federal agencies. But Jack, who sat in front of the future Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury? A bunch of tech bros. Yeah, it was Zach Bezos and Google Sunder Pichai. Even the TikTok CEO was up there in the second row. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pachai, and the CEO of TikTok. Oh, plus Elon Musk.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Have we ever seen more nerds at a party, man? Over $9 trillion of market cap, it was represented by those four men we just mentioned. Oh, also looking at the seating chart, Apple's Tim Cook sat in front of Trump's head of homeland security. That tells you a lot. And Sam Altman, the head of Open AI, he was in the cheap seats, but he was still there. Sam Alman's everywhere. And why were they all in the first or second row, Jack? Because Donald Trump's Washington, D.C. is pay and praise to play.

Starting point is 00:05:10 CEOs, they donated millions, and they're flattering him to get out his good side. policy affects all of their products. But let's move on from who is at the inauguration to who is in the White House starting this week. This is what Jack and I found fascinating because it really is one specific group. Venture capitalists. Yeah, VCs. Trump's cabinet has more VCs than a Stanford MBA class. They should change the official White House like dress code from Brooks Brothers to Albirds and Patagonia. Yeah, Jack, if you want to work in the West Wing, you're going to have to cut the sleeves off your suit so it looks like an Arcteric's vest. I don't think that's a good luck, man. I didn't say it looked good, but it's what's going to happen, man. Now, of course, the VC invasion

Starting point is 00:05:53 of the White House all begins with Elon Musk, who is running the new Department of Government Efficiency and is likely getting an office in the West Wing. But it doesn't stop with Elon, because he created the idea for this new department with Vivek Ramoswamy, who, now running for governor of Ohio, is a biotech startup investor. Nick, who is the the new AI and Cryptozar, which Donald Trump named. That would be David Sacks, also a venture capital investor from San Francisco. And the tech and policy advisor of the White House? That would be Sriram-Krishnan, a former venture capitalist at Andresen Horowitz. How about the director of personnel management? That would be Scott Cooper, also a venture capitalist from Andresen Horowitz.

Starting point is 00:06:34 Speaking of Andresen, Mark Andreessen himself has spent half of his time since the election with Donald Trump at Marlago. Funny you should say that, Jack, because Because Mark Andreessen has been advising Trump with his buddy Peter Thiel, who's also a venture capitalist. Okay, you ready for this? The new vice president, J.D. Vance, he was a venture capitalist too, working at Peter Thiel's venture capital fund. And Jack, where did all these venture capitalists now in the White House make all their money? Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and David Sachs were all co-founders of PayPal 30 years ago, known as the PayPal how much. Besties add it all up and it's like one big venture capital family just moved into the White House and writing checks from there. But instead of a down payment on a mortgage, they're paying

Starting point is 00:07:20 with RSUs, apparently. Someone's about to place a big order for Patagonia size medium. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies trying to understand the Trump White House? Washington, D.C. is now Washington SV for Silicon Valley. Yeties, there's an inside joke in business. A about the New York Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs. Insiders called it government sacks because so many Goldman alums ended up running our federal government. It's been the case from even before Jack and I worked in finance. Like Goldman Sachs alums ran the Treasury departments for presidents George W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, President Trump's first term.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Goldman loved it and they encouraged it because it gave the bank prestige and it got the finance industry a role in shaping policy. But here's the new twist. Now it is Silicon Valley alums who are taken over government positions. These venture capitalists have a huge amount of money invested in crypto and AI startups, so they're going to ensure first and foremost that regulations stay out of the way of those cutting-edge technologies. And we'll probably see them bring their move fast and break things style to the federal bureaucracy too. Washington, D.C. It's now Washington S.V.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Washington, Silicon Valley. For our second story, Netflix just announced the live quarter. their first ever quarter with live sporting events. And it shows that Netflix is conquering the TV world like a game of risk, going from fanbase to fanbase. And that reminds us of the singer Adele. But Jack, before we jump into this story, we should point out we have covered Netflix's earnings for years now, but this, this may be the most important and sentimental one. Because last year, Netflix told investors they're going to stop announcing the number of subscribers. They're not going to tell us anymore. They think that revenue and profit is the more important number that Wall Street should care about.

Starting point is 00:09:16 So yesterday, for the last time ever, we got the total number of subscribers at Netflix. And Jack, what was that critical big key number? 302 million paying subscribers. Jack, could you sprinkle on some more context to the Netflix subscriber numbers? Spotify is the only content streamer in the world with more subscribers. But Spotify's profits don't touch Netflix's profits. So Jack, maybe you could now tell us The financials of our buddies over at Netflix. In the final three months of last year, Netflix set a record $10.4 billion of revenue. That's a lot of subscriptions. And $2.3 billion of profit.

Starting point is 00:09:53 Both smashed expectations so the stock jumped 12% yesterday. Now, yet is in case you're not clear in how big those financial numbers are? That's twice as much profit as Disney on half the amount of revenue. Because Netflix isn't an entertainment or Hollywood company. It's a tech company at its core. with tech profit margins. Now, Yetis, Jack and I got even more curious. Why is Netflix adding more subscribers than ever in just the last three months? Because the last three months were Netflix's first quarter with live sports. That's right. 2024. It was the year Netflix reneged on their

Starting point is 00:10:28 promise to never do live stuff. Just in the fourth quarter, here's the live content that got added to Netflix. Jack, strap on your jock strap. You ready for this? Okay, five million people watch the debut of WWE Raw Wrestling on Netflix live. 65 million people watched live as the NFL football was on Christmas Day on Netflix. And 108 million people watched live as Mike Tyson boxed Logan Paul. Yeah, it was full of tech litches, but it was still record setting live in streaming. Next up, the SAG Awards. They're going to be exclusively shown on Netflix.

Starting point is 00:11:04 Recorded? Live. Live. Yes, again, there were those Love is Blind. Glitches. The TV froze while Mike Tyson was winding up a haymaker hook punch. But in the last three months, Netflix went through product puberty. And they did it quick because those NFL games on Christmas, they were live and crystal clear without a hitch. Product puberty is over. They've worked out the growing pains. The acne's gone and Netflix is ready for prom. Live prom. So Jack, what's the

Starting point is 00:11:33 takeaway for our buddies live over at Netflix? Adel chases pavements. Netflix fan bases. Yeties, Netflix convinced 200 million households to pay 10 to 20 bucks a month for Netflix. Those subscribers, that was the easy part. Then organic growth stopped. So in the last few years, Netflix has had to get strategic. Now Netflix is growing subscribers by putting one piece of content on the platform at a time, one fan base at a time. First was live wrestling, then was live boxing, then was live NFL football. Oh, hey Netflix. Would it tell you to put some live Ivy League lacrosse on TV one of these days? No one's putting live Ivy League across on TV.

Starting point is 00:12:16 Yet, Jack. Yet. And why is Netflix doing this? Because the Netflix streaming holdouts, they finally joined once their favorite sport moved to the platform. Next up, we bet that Netflix adds a UFC fight live or the Oscars live, maybe even Howard Stern, live. Because the Oscars, UFC, and Howard Stern each have distinct fan bases that Netflix might not have gotten yet. Besties, the way Jack and I see it, Adele chases pavements, but Netflix chases fanbases. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, big newsday, as we said. Trump's first full day was defined by one action, executive orders, and Wall Street is reacting right now.

Starting point is 00:13:03 You're not going to believe it, but big oil stocks are down. Big, and we'll explain why. So Trump's first day on the job, and he already set a record, as in a record number of executive orders signed. 50 executive orders signed triples the previous record from any previous president. And then Trump actually tossed his Sharpie pens out into a crowd, so you're probably going to see Trump's Sharpies up on eBay pretty soon. And Tuesday was the first day that Wall Street could react to Trump's executive orders. So how did they react? Well, Walster React to Jack with clean energy stocks got cleaned out.

Starting point is 00:13:42 The biggest theme of the executive orders was energy. For example, Trump halted the leasing of federal lands and waters for wind energy projects. And we saw that in the markets. Shares of the biggest wind turbine company in the world. Orsted fell 11% after Trump signed those papers. Get this, Trump blamed offshore wind for killing whales, although there's no evidence of that actually happening. So in the meantime, Trump is taking.

Starting point is 00:14:05 land that Biden had leased for wind energy and instead giving it to the oil and gas industry. Trump also declared that there's a national energy emergency and said that the United States would drill baby drill to solve it. Although, as our Yeti listeners know, the United States is already number one in producing oil and gas worldwide. We actually produced twice as much oil and gas as the number two country in the world does. But Yeti's Jack and I sifted through this record number of executive orders. And here's the theme that we thought was the most interesting. He said that to lower the cost of living for Americans, we need to drill more oil. Here's what Trump is thinking. If we add oil supply to the markets, then the prices of gas and heating bills will fall across the country.

Starting point is 00:14:51 That'd be great for American consumers who pay for gasoline and pay for their propane bill. Fantastic for your commute. But if the price of oil falls, that's actually bad for big oil. Which leads to the most surprising part of Trump's very first day. Exxon Mobil stock is actually down 6% since Trump was elected. And Jack, why are oil stocks down despite a pro-oil president being in the White House? Because our oil giants don't want more oil supply, and they don't want lower oil prices either. Eddie's what Jack and I are saying is that Trump's Drill Baby Drill is potentially good for consumers, but surprisingly bad for big oil. And of course, we should point out, drill baby drill is bad for planet Earth, which needs less fossil fuels burned, not more.

Starting point is 00:15:33 Well, Jack, on that point, Trump also already exited the Paris Climate Accord, which limits global warming. Just like he did in his first term. The United States is once again the only major country in the world, not in that climate deal. And that back and forth of us being in and out when it comes to energy leads to our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies curious about executive orders? Presidents love executive orders, but corporations actually hate them. Yeah, it is another reason that Big Oil is. down on Trump's executive orders? Because executive orders are temporary. Executive orders are unilateral moves a president can take, but they only last for four years. Yeah, because most executive orders

Starting point is 00:16:15 that President Obama, President Trump, and now President Biden had made, they were overturned immediately by the next administration. For 10 years, executive orders have swung American policy from the left to the right to the left and now back to the right. Now look, it is actually harder for a president to get a policy through Congress as a bill, but a bill signed into law, that would be more permanent than an executive order. Business leaders want policy consistency, which requires bills. They don't really want executive order whiplash. So as Trump issues more and more executive orders this week, their impact symbolically may be bigger than their impact in reality. Add it all up, presidents love executive

Starting point is 00:16:55 orders, but corporations actually hate them. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? The Trump White House is absolutely. absolutely packed with VCs and investors. It's not Washington, D.C., it's Washington S.V. For our second story, Netflix just had its best quarter ever, as live sports brought new fan bases to the streamer. Adele chases pavements, but Netflix chases fan bases. And our third and final story.

Starting point is 00:17:24 The economic theme of Trump's day one executive orders, fossil fuels are in, renewable energies are out. Executive orders. Presidents love them, but corporations hate them. But yeties, this pods. not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, other news from Trump's first day in the White House. What do we got, Jack? 18 states have sued to block Trump's executive order that attempted to end birthright citizenship. Also, the January 6th rioters convicted of crimes are being released from

Starting point is 00:17:52 prison as Trump pardoned 1,600 of them. And finally, Trump's meme coin is down 36% from its high, but it still minted the president billions of dollars in just one single day. Like we said, a lot of news from the White House. But our second update for you is on Colossus, the startup bringing back the woolly mammoth. They just hit a $10 billion valuation. Last year we covered their fundraise. It's basically a Jurassic Park startup. They like extract DNA from fossils and in a lab recreate the extinct animal. But Colossus now says they are 99% of the way to bringing back their first extinct animal. I got to say, it's that last 1% that's the hardest part, though. And finally, check your weather apps because an Arctic blast has now gone as far south as Houston, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Starting point is 00:18:41 Houston is getting snow, which is a problem because they have no snow plows. Zero snow plows. Lafayette, Louisiana, got nearly 10 inches of snow. Oh, and New Orleans, they got four inches of snow the most ever in the city on the bio. Sending warm, cozy vibes. Yeah, we are. To our listeners in the deep south. And the gators out there, literally. True. Gators are swimming in snow. Swamp freeze? I don't think they're ready for that. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by me as a surprise for Jack for my birthday. Jack, you've even seen this one yet, but I got you. I love this birthday tradition.

Starting point is 00:19:14 What do you got? Okay, so you know, every year for my party, I like to surprise the guests with something, okay? The surprise this year, the theme is pizza dough. I'm not going to tell you more. I'm just trying to involve pizza dough. I think it's a build your own bake your own pizza party. Don't go crazy on the predictions over there, Jack. I don't want to give it away for everybody.

Starting point is 00:19:32 Geez. Well, it turns out that with pizza making, pizza was always a street food in southern Italy going back 200 years to Santa Margarita. Now, Naples is the first place where they've documented folding the pizza slice. Okay. When you consume it, it was in New York, it goes back to Naples. But did you know that there is one type of flour that is specifically to be used in pizza, but it's really only used in Naples?

Starting point is 00:19:56 I didn't know. What's it called? It's called Double Zero Flower. And it is a special type of flour that has the ideal balance. of gluten and protein critical for a stretchy pizza crust. Which is key, because I've tried to do what the pizzerias do when they throw it up, you know? Didn't work, Jack, didn't it? Didn't work at all. I didn't have the zero double zero flour.

Starting point is 00:20:16 Yeah, it is actually the only type of flour that is protected by the United Nations UNESCO World Heritage. Wow. You can eat a world heritage site? Unless you're gluten-free. Yes, you can. In the meantime, Yetis, you'll look fantastic. And if I've got one request for you for my birthday, Jack, we'd love if the Yetis would rate and review the show. We'll take five stars for the birthday pod.

Starting point is 00:20:41 We're pretty close to 10,000 reviews on Apple. That'd be pretty cool. So drop down and give us five stars. And if you drop this podcast, remember the five-second rule doesn't apply. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Emmy Beale, the Princeton Tiger, down in Greenwich, Connecticut. Happy birthday to Claire Botarocco's puppy, who's got a birthday in Sanford. Francisco. P-U-P-Y and Melody Bryan's got a birthday over in Nashville with some live music.

Starting point is 00:21:13 Copy birthday to John Loopke, the pickleballer in Charlotte, North Carolina. And Alvale-Lay-Bray in New York City is celebrating a belated best birthday yet. And a big shout-out to Danielle, who wishes that AI would take out the grunt work of charting off her plate. It would free up three to six hours a day so that she could spend the time with patience. And Sean Cody runs an organ-moving helicopter business. in Boston called Med Flight. Jack, he's been a listener for six years on the show. Happy six year of T-Boyversary, Sean Ombia, who's been enjoying our weekly show, the best idea yet. And Grace Murray of Milanoct at Maine is celebrating a new summer internship. She already locked it in.

Starting point is 00:21:53 Congratulations, Grace. And to anyone else celebrated something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wits. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Netflix. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify, and we both own that Trump meme coin. Just kidding. I thought you were number 37 at first. 38. 38. You were in the stands, man. You were in the stands.

Starting point is 00:22:23 38. I'm sorry, dude. There was a good reason why I chose 38, Jack. What's a story for another five?

The Best One Yet - 🫰 “Andreessen-In-Chief” — Trump’s Venture Cabinet. Netflix’s Live Adele Quarter. Trump’s Executive Orders.

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