The Best One Yet - 🩷 “Barbie, born in 1959” — Barbie’s disruptive history. Netflix’s strike advantage. RIP Starter Homes.

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

Everyone’s talking about the Barbie movie, but we want to talk about the Barbie doll — Because Barbie isn’t just a doll, she was an early disruptor. Zillennial 1st-time homebuyers aren’t buying “Starter Homes,” they’re buying “Forever Homes” — The solution to our housing problem is “build baby build”. And Netflix is the best-positioned entertainment company to weather the Writers’ and Actors’ Strike — Because Netflix gave consumers more, but Hollywood less. Play this week’s TBOY Quiz: go.tboypod.com $MAT $NFLX Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn 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. It's Friday, the Real Friday, July 21st. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy, Jack. I love the Real Friday. But Jack, it is also Barbenheimer weekend, baby. Yes, it is.

Get your tickets? That's the big question. What movie you're starting with? I bought a Friday night ticket for me and two buddies. We're going to get a ton of popcorn and the biggest I-Pepsy to have. You're building it up, which movie you see in first? What do we got? Oppenheimer.

Even though IMAX hasn't made it up to. Vermont, yeah. That's fair. That's fair. But, Jack, that's the right move. You don't want to start with Barbie and end on Oppenheimer. That's, that's a dark situation. I'm actually saving Barbie for next weekend, so no spoilers, please. You end on the high note. Pancakes first, Cupcake Second. I'm not following, but I'm also following. Cigarettes before Stilettos. First story, what are we got on the show, Jack? Everyone's talking about the Barbie movie, but we want to talk about the Barbie doll. Because Barbie's not just a doll. No, Barbie is a serial businesswoman. our second story. We have a housing update for all the

zillennials out there. The starter home is dead. But Yetis, we're not building a solution. Building is the solution. And our third and final story is Netflix. Of all the companies in entertainment, Netflix is best positioned for the writers and actors strike. Because the way we see it, Netflix

gave consumers more and it gave Hollywood less. Yes, it did. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. A perfect mix of stories to go into a weekend with Jack. I love this mix. Are you an entrepreneur trying to raise money right now. Yeties, if you are trying to raise money right now,

the most important skill isn't sales, isn't your network, and it isn't an MBA. That's right. The number one skill for fundraising right now is ink. It's ink because Yetis, the number one skill for fundraising is tattoos. Tattoos raise money. According to the Journal of Business Venturing Insights,

tattoos help founders raise more money. Get this, apparently more tattoos, more mullah. Must be nice. The professors for this study looked at 1,500 different crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter.com. Here's what they found. Apparently, those founders who displayed tattoos, on average, raised $27,000 more dollars. Apparently tattoos are a signal to investors of individualism and creativity.

Just what you want in a visionary founder. And nothing screams creative like a cap tat that says, mom. So, to ink your next round, ink your thigh first. Anchor on your bicep, cash in the pocket. That's not a lower back tat, Nick. That's a friend. and family round. I'm sorry, Jack, who's on your forearm over there? Oh, that's Mark Andresen right there. I don't even know what this Chinese character means. But it screams

return on investment. Yiddies, are you an entrepreneur struggling to raise money right now? Just get a tattoo of your pitch deck on your chest. 60% of the time, it works every time. We didn't write the rules. You did. Jack, let's in our three stories. 15 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. I don't even think they need to practice. 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. Start the show. For our first story, the Barbie movie just came out. But do you know the origin story of Barbie? Because Barbie isn't just a doll.

Barbie was an early toy disruptor. Yeties last month we told you the world had a shortage of pink paint. because of the Barbie movie production. And last week, we told you about the Barbie movie's master class in marketing. Barbie movie had a hundred plus brand collaborations. But Jack, just because you're wearing some kind of slam and salmon over there, can we talk about the Barbie numbers, my friend? Barbie doll from Mattel brings in one and a half billion of revenue every single year.

All right, Jack, can we sprinkle in a little more context here, maybe with a stopwatch? A Barbie doll is sold every 30 seconds. A Barbie Dreamhouse on Malibu is sold every two minutes. Yetis, get this, Barbie represents one quarter of all the revenues of Mattel. And Mattel happens to be the biggest toy company in the world. So everyone is talking today about the Barbie movie. But what about the Barbie doll? What about the history of the Barbie doll?

Because Yetis, the Barbie doll is not just a doll. The Barbie doll is a capitalist pioneer. Barbie doll was created in 1959 by Mattel's co-founder, a woman named Ruth Handler. Ruth, she was the president of Mattel. back in the 1950s and she noticed something interesting in the doll market. She noticed something missing in the doll market. Every single doll that you could buy back in the day was a baby. Little girls would play with baby dolls.

So girls were trained at a young age to nurture. That was the point of the dolls. Ruth's Barbie doll was the first doll that was actually based on an adult. Like Ruth's Barbie was older than the girls playing with her, not younger. So since the doll was older, she was a role model for the girls playing with her. And the girls could think about the career the doll had, not just caregiving for the doll. So, Ruth named the Barbie after her first daughter, Barbie, and then she named Ken after her first son, Ken. And she priced it at $3 per doll and sold $300,000 in that first year of 1959.

Here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. From day one, Barbie was a marketing machine. Ruth Handler pioneered advertising toys to children. Actually, just advertising to children at all. Yeah, we discovered that Barbie was the first toy to sponsor an entire TV show, a kid's TV show. Barbie was the exclusive doll of Disney's Mickey Mouse Club. That made Barbie's creator, Ruth, a savvy entrepreneur. Her Barbie was a billion-dollar creation that changed toys, it changed children, and it changed marketing of toys.

Barbie, the doll, became more strategic than an NBA. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Barbie? Barbie's greatest strength isn't selling a product, it's selling a feeling. Yeti's, the top criticism of Barbie is around her body, that it promotes an unrealistic ideal for girls. It's a fair point. Like, the physics of the Barbie doll's body would not work in a human being. But Yetis, when you look back on the history of Barbie, the product, she was also a symbol of independence. Yes, Barbie bought a whole bunch of stuff and had a whole bunch of cars and houses, and she was materialistic.

The house and the car and the Malibu home. But she bought those things with her own money. And Mattel's Barbie wasn't focused on boys or her body. She was focused on her business. That's right. There's 250 different Barbie dolls where she has a different career. 250 different careers. Astronaut Barbie, she came out four years before Neil Armstrong even set foot on the moon.

Yet he's Barbie doesn't depend on Ken. Ken is actually Barbie's accessory. Back in 2004, Barbie broke up with Ken. And what did Barbie get it? And guess what? Barbie kept the dream house. Yeah, Barbie got the home. And kicked Ken out the door.

Enjoy the beach, buddy. So yet he's Barbie? Besties' greatest skill isn't selling a look, a style, or even that color pick. No, besties, the core appeal of Barbie, like any great product, is to sell a feeling. And that feeling for Barbie was independence. For our second story, we get an update on the housing market for Zillennials, and what is it, Jack? The starter home isn't a thing anymore. Yeah, it's just not a thing anymore. It's frustrating.

The only solution to our housing crisis is build, baby, build. Jack, take us over to the... Lovely starter home right over here on Maple Avenue. This is a great one. Yeah, a starter home is like a house that has training wheels. The idea is you're going to grow out of this thing. A starter home is the kind of home where it's not a jacoo. You're not going to have a jacuzzi in a starter home, are you, Jack? No, you're not. It has room for a weed whacker, but it doesn't have room for a lawnmower. Boomers bought starter homes when they were about 20 years old because they started all life stepping stones before we did. Pretty sure

baby boomers could buy starter homes with internship money back in the day, Jack. And here was the plan for the boomers. Have a couple kids at their starter home. And then when the third kid's on the way, upgrade to a bigger house. That's how it went. Must be nice. Starter homes were small, modest, probably in the suburbs, and a great way to stop renting and start building home equity. Yadis, the starter home was the stepping stone to the American dream for generations. But here's the news. That stepping stone is gone. Apparently, we're missing a whole rung on the ladder these days in the housing market. And here's the data to back it up. According to the National Association of Realtors, 40% of Zillennial home buyers who bought their first home plan to live in that first home

for 16 years or more. 16 years, Jack, you're not just having one kid or two kids. You're like having grandkids at that point in the home. Yet he's a big reason starter homes aren't a thing anymore is that there are simply none for sale. And yeah, we found the data on that as well. According to Redfin, just 1% of homes in America sold so far this year. That is low. That is historically low. That is actually down a third from what should be normal home sales on a given year. And the homes that have sold are simply unaffordable. According to Zillow, a starter home should be 180 grand or less. But get this, so far this year, only 11% of the homes that have been sold are under $300,000. Much less $180,000 for a starter home. Add it all up, Yeties, and that is another reason why young people are

living with their parents and rent in with their roommates for longer. No starter homes. When they finally buy their first home, that's turning out to be their forever home. They're skipping the training wheels, going straight to the two-wheeler. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the housing market? The only solution to housing is build baby build. Yet he's the fundamental housing crisis issue in America right now. It's simply this.

We haven't built enough homes. Yet he's since the year 2000, the population of the United States, United States has grown by about two million people per year. But the population of new homes has not been keeping up with that pace. Yeah, we have way more humans added to this country than new homes added to this country. And the reason tends to be local zoning laws and regulations that block development a whole new houses. Yeah, not in my backyard. It's too easy for too many people to block too many homes with that excuse. So Jack and I were looking at this situation and we're like, you know what? The housing market is kind of like a game of musical chairs right now, isn't it, Jack?

Yeah. It's a nationwide. game of musical chairs, but it's not chairs people are looking for. It's homes. The music stops and people don't have homes. Yeah, there are simply more families than there are homes available, so somebody's going to be left out. Not enough homes is why prices of homes and rent seem to only go up. Homeowners and landlords, they simply have an advantage when it comes to supply and demand. And that is why the only solution to housing is to build baby builds. Give me a construction helmet. All hammer are those nails. We'll do it, baby. For our third and final story before the weekend. Netflix is the winner of the Hollywood strike and Netflix is the cause of the Hollywood strike.

Thanks to Netflix, Yetis, Hollywood's profits are smaller and that's why we have a strike. Some things gotta give. But yet is to jump in T-boy style here. First, Jack and I noticed, you know, Netflix reported earnings yesterday, but we don't want to talk about the revenues, we don't want to talk about the subscribers, we don't want to talk about the growth. We want to talk about this one detail. Netflix announced that the current Actors and Writers Strike in Hollywood will save Netflix one and a half billion dollars in production costs this year. Not too shabby for Netflix. They're saving a billion and a half bucks because of the writer's strike. You wouldn't have thought the strike helps the studio, but a number of shows

won't get produced because of the strike. The actors and writers, they're not collecting paychecks. So if you're Netflix, this strike could actually be good short term for profits. And that's not just Netflix. Every studio stands to save some money from the strike's production freeze. Ladies, here's what Jack and I are noticing. Out of all the studios, out of all the businesses that are involved in the entertainment industry, Netflix is uniquely positioned to survive this Hollywood strike. Because long term, viewers are going to start to notice the lack of new shows because of the production freeze, because of the strike. I mean, Jack, like six months from now, what are you going to be seeing when you sign on to watch some stuff on a Saturday afternoon?

If you look at HBO Max or Disney Plus in six months, you might see the same stuff that you've been seeing there on the homepage that, last six months. Oh, great. Season three of Entourage. Again, I wonder if Vinnie's going to do the movie. Oh, wait, Vinny did the movie. Oh, he isn't going to do the movie. And that's stale homepage from the streamers, it might cause you to unsubscribe and think like, I'll wait till the strikes over and they produce something new. And that's a risk to the studios. But Netflix won't have a stale homepage. And here is why. The first reason Netflix is going to look better during this strike than the other streamers is its technology. Yeah, because Netflix, they got a deep inventory of shows that its algorithm knows you'll like.

Netflix's competitive advantage is curation. Netflix's Silicon Valley tech will present your new stuff. Disney's Florida tech will show you the same old stuff for the whole six months. Sorry, Mickey, just not interested in this one. And the second reason Netflix is going to look better during the strike than other streamers is its foreign production. Because Netflix has studios in Korea, in France, in Australia, in the United Kingdom. They got them worldwide.

And those are still running because it's only U.S. actors and writers that are on strike. right now, not the rest of the world. Right. So, like, Netflix can whip up Squid Game season infinity for the next whatever number of years. They can just keep going, going, and going. Netflix's superior tech and its global production resources make it best position to survive this strike. Oh, and by the way, Netflix's stock? It's up 50% this year. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Netflix?

Netflix gave us consumers so much more, but it's given Hollywood less. Oh, Yeties, the olden days of cable TV. in movie theaters, that was a hugely profitable era. So much money. The studios loved that era. But the current day of cord cutting and streaming, studios don't like this era as much. No, they don't because Yeti's streaming, it's been better for us, consumers. No question, the era of binging, fantastic. We bingers, we have an unbelievable set of choices for platforms to stream on. It's so

convenient to watch anything you want with way fewer commercials than in the past. But funny thing, there's a flip side to that. While streamers, Streaming is better for us consumers, it's less profitable for the studios. And that's the fundamental reason that Hollywood is on strike. The streaming revolution made Hollywood's pot of money smaller. Yet he's in a streaming world, someone has to take less money, but no one wants to be the person who takes less money. And that's why we have a strike right now.

Netflix's era of streaming has been great for the consumer, but awful for Hollywood. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for the real Friday? Barbie was created 64 years ago, and now she's the most important brand at Mattel. Barbie wasn't selling a doll. Barbie was selling a feeling. For our second story, Zillennials can't buy starter homes. There aren't any available. No, they're not. The only solution to that is to build baby build.

And our third and final story is Netflix. They're uniquely positioned to weather the strike. But Netflix is also the reason we have a strike. Streaming has been so good for consumers, but so, awful for Hollywood. We're not done yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, wheat prices rose a third straight day

as Russia blocked ships from leaving Ukraine. The Ukraine war is not over. Neither is its disruption on global markets. And second, do you hear that? That's TikTok, which just unleashed its new music app to take on Spotify. It's starting abroad, testing in Australia and Mexico. You're eventually going to see it here in the U.S.

And finally, we actually got another IPO on Wall Street. Get this, it's oddity, the makeup company that uses artificial intelligence. The company behind Ill Machiaj and Spoiled Child enjoyed a 40% jump on their first day of trading. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Terran Cycle from lovely Savannah, Georgia. Push and play. Here we go. Hello, Yeties. By now we all know about the iconic releases of Oppenheimer and the Barbie movie this weekend. But did you know that a similar instance occurred 15 years ago when Mamma Mia and the Dark Night were released on the same day as well. Dark Mama walked so Barbenheimer could run. I clearly remember the Dark Night's premiere

because you and I went together. I was sitting right next to you, wasn't I, Jack? Summer of 2008, you and I were living in Burlington where subletted that place from UVM kids. It was quite a place. It was an interesting spot. I don't remember Mama Mia's premiere quite as much. But Jack, it kind of feels like we're living in Christopher Nolan's universe this entire time. Like he's controlling what we do. He has me in his back pocket. I'll be honest. Which also feels like the plot of a Christopher Nolan movie. You know they called the dark night mamma Mia thing, dark mama as opposed to Barbieheimer. Dark mama walked so Barb andheimer could run. Yeties, you looked fantastic this week. And if you want to celebrate some wins, you can play our weekly pop biz pop quiz, right here on our website.

Check it out at go.t.tieboypod.com and see if he can beat us. Takes one minute, five questions. It's the best quiz yet. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a congratulations to Nick and Alexa Marino, who just had a new baby boy, Max Marino, over in San Francisco. The funny thing is Nick is good buddies with this Nick, and they both have names that start with Nick Marr,

and now their kids both have names that start with Max Mar. Yeah, yeah, it's a thing now. It's a unique copy-and-paste situation. And Amanda Vogel song just won an interesting. international weightlifting competition, and it's her birthday. Congratulations to Christine Jones, our favorite employee at the DMV, celebrating a birthday down in Virginia. And Karen Samaya, happy 29th birthday over in New Hampshire.

Happy birthday to Jorge Garza in Oklahoma City. And happy engagement to Scarlett Peretti, also in Oklahoma City. Happy 25th birthday to Vanessa Urbina in the hills of Laguna Beach, California. And Stephanie in New Jersey is celebrating her birthday by watching. watching the Barbie movie first and the Oppenheimer movie second. And this one is a thank you. Thank you to Adam Worms for listening to all 1,000 episodes of T-Boy over in Seattle, Washington.

And Anthony Alexander O'Neill Hudson is turning one week old down in Charlotte, North Carolina with some good barbecue. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Spock. Spotify and Zillow. We didn't write the rules.

You did. You said that so confidently. It's going to be just a random, bold, confident finisher. It's kind of like you write. No, it's kind of like the participants

of the fundraising campaign. Like you write. Dude, it was actually very deep. It was actually very deep.