The Best One Yet - 🧍🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️ “Big Dumb Line” — Our retail line obsession. Trump’s $100k pay-to-tweet. TopGolf for Pool. +TechNeck

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Americans are waiting in line for everything… and a velvet rope is a self-fulfilling business prophecy.Truth Social is selling early access to the President’s tweets to hedge funds… Wall Street can turn milliseconds into millions.Poolhouse raised $50M to turn billiards into date night… Don’t mess with 2nd-Time Founders.Plus, forget diarrhea parasite lettuce at Taco Bell… the next health outbreak is “Tech Neck.”$DJT $META $SPYGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, July 20th. And today's pod is the best one you out of this is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, we talk about the best days. How do you define the best days?

When you get all three S's. Surf, sand, and studio time recording this podcast. Because we're on Nantucket all week. This is the T-boy team offsite, hopefully the first of a new company tradition. The accountant said it's a right-off, so it better be, Jack. We have the whole family's here. We do. seal in the water. That's the fourth S. Which signals a shark?

Potentially the fifth S. Oh, baby. Nick hasn't given me a straight answer on the shark situation in these waters. They can neither confirm nor deny their existence, Jack. In the meantime, we got three fantastic stories for the funnest place to finance. Jaggle, what have we got on the pod? For our first story, the hottest marketing move in retail is putting up ropes outside for people to stand in line. Is this one for matcha? S&L calls them big dumb lines. But they're actually smart business. Oh, it's Kronaut. And we'll tell you why. For our second story. Truth Social is selling hedge funds a $100,000 head start on Trump's market-moving tweets. Because Wall Street turns a millisecond of advantage into millions of bucks.

And our third and final story is Pool House. Pool House just raised $55 million to create top golf, but for billiards. Because there's nothing more dangerous than a second-time founder. Actually, a third-time Patrick. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a mix to come back to. Love the mix for the Monday, Jack. Full disclosure.

Yeah, Jack. On the way to Nantucket, I stopped at five guys. And what did you eat? lettuce on my burger. Everyone's still talking about the explosive diarrhea lettuce disease. Well, here's an update. The FDA found the source, which is Taylor Farms. Big agro company, supplying Taco Bell with all that lettuce. Now, I'm still in the incubation period, but I think I'm in the clear from the lettuce from five guys. Either way, Jack, Yumb brand stock, not very yummy right now. But we need to talk about another health outbreak that's facing each and every one of us.

Oh, Tech Neck, A.K.A. News Feedneck. Or Reddit wrinkles. Or Jack and I like to call them four U-page folds. Jack, what is the core symptom of tech neck? Rinkles on your neck. And the core cause? Looking down at your phone. But the prognosis? Negative. Because Americans spend on average five hours and 16 minutes every single day on our phones. And according to dermatologists, all that looking down is leading to necklines on our necks at young ages. Okay, maybe we call this epidemic Zuckneck. Yeah, because the better his algorithm, the worst the symptoms. So true. But the besties, when you say tech neck, the pharmaceutical industry here is profit. puppy. Because Proctor and Gamble noticed this skin disease two years ago. And just started selling

a face and neck lifting treatment for iPhone users. No joke. They claim it reverses six months of scrolling with their $34.99 cent moist. Applied with a $27.99 cent quartz roller. Another tech neck treatment did 500 grand in Amazon sales last. One New York City plastic surgeon has seen a 25% jump in necklifts. Necklifts. Yeah, that's a real procedure. From 30 year olds. We're not trying to stress you out yet. But we all have Technic. We got some degree of it. Tupacukuk used to say, keep your head up. Now, so is the search in general. Technic. Jack, let's hit our three store. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best that's it. 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 First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, we're living in line nation. Americans are waiting on big, dumb lines more than ever, to get exclusive things. But a wild truth of marketing is that if you build a line, people will stand it. That's right.

You can design the line. But besties, the reason Jack and I are covering the story is because we were recording the show recently down at Soho. New York City, where food, fashion, fitness trends tend to start. So we were walking down Lafayette Street, and we ran into a line. Blank Street coffee, a tiny coffee shop with trendy matcha, had a line out front. Okay, but then we saw another line. It was New York or nowhere, an apparel store with cool merch for trendy tourists. Okay, but then across the street, we saw another line.

No joke. The third physical line on the sidewalk this last time was for Mimi's $30 frozen yogurt, which is made with imported manuka honey. Yeah, what's that, Jack? I just got to wait for this Lindistry pizza. for a three-hour wait before we finish the shelf. It was bizarre. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and each of these three physical retail outlets looked like the hottest club in New York City.

There were bouncers tending the doors at 2 p.m. Apparently, people are putting it in the counter. I need to spend two hours online, probably, for that Krona-Latay-Polatti store that just opened up. The wait for brunch is longer than your actual brunch. According to Bloomberg, 60% of Gen Z waited last year for at least 30 minutes, at least once, to have some food. And 74% of them said it was actually worth it. And 84% of these line waiters, they discovered the thing that they wanted to wait in line for

on TikTok. The line in the video made them think it was worth it to wait on the line. It must be good if so many people are waiting. Now, besties, we've told you on the pod before about professional line sitters. If you got spare time on your hands, you can charge 1,500 bucks to wait in a line for some rich person who doesn't want you. I mean, Jack, there is a sneaker brand that also just dropped a bagel collab inside of a yoga studio.

Of course, we're getting on the line. I want that sneaker bagel, but I don't want to wait five hours. It's a bagel sneaker, Jack. It's a bagel sneaker. We went over this. So that's the insight from the consumer side. Lines are everywhere, and consumers are happy to wait in line for them. So our takeaway, which we'll tell you in a second, is for the business side.

But first, let's sprinkle on some context. Lines are so crazy right now that Saturday Night Live just did a parody of it. It was a skit called Big Dumb Line. Hey, guys, we could ride a bike today, we could have a fling, or we could do our favorite thing. Wait in a Big Dumb Line. Besties, you knew we were Peak Stanley Tumblr. when SNL did the skit, big, dumb, cup. Now we know we're peak lines outside of stores

because SNL did big, dumb line. But besties, this is what we find fascinating. If you dive into the data, the dumb line is actually pretty smart. The physical line outside your store is a modern economic growth hack. And here's why. First, consumers actually want friction.

Standing in line forces us to slow down in this crazy fast world. And those lines become a community that people crave as well. Yeah, the guy behind you and the gal in front of you, We're all in this together. That's the feeling. But for the business, it's also a win, right, Jack?

A study by the Journal of Hospitality found that people who waited for something in a physical line end up placing a bigger order when it's finally their turn. I mean, Jackie, waited so long for that Kronut Pilates double bagel sneaker. I'm not just going to get one bagel. I'm going to get the whole menu. It's a bagel sneaker. You got to get your money's... It's a bagel sneaker, not a sneaker bagel.

Okay, I get the point. And yeties, the economics of this are also influenced by chemistry. A Stanford University study found that the more effort you put into getting a treat, the bigger the dopamine hit when you finally get it. So, Basti's out all up, and the line is a rare but powerful advantage that physical retail has over e-commerce. And here's the wildest part. Your product doesn't have to be cool to earn a line out front. Anyone's business can get a line. You can design a line. You can will it into existence. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies waiting? What is it? Three hours? Four hours now online. a velvet rope, they will come stand in line. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeties, the line is

counterintuitive, limiting the number of customers, but ironically, you sell more stuff. But you don't even need demand to create a line. You just need the appearance of demand. Ah, for example, DeSum, the restaurant in London with the viral dice game, they added a bouncer at their door. A fine dining restaurant with a bouncer? That drew more attention and helped the restaurant go viral. Or how about New York or nowhere? The apparel brand. They got a permit to put a red velvet rope on the sidewalk outside the store. You walk past it and you're like, wow, nobody's in line yet. I should probably get in line because this is going to be a line soon. There's a red velvet rope. Oh, and then once you have the beginning of a line, those TikTok

videos help extend it even longer. Nobody wants to be the last person in line. No. So you post online to get more people online. Best ease is like a rolling stone. The line will gather momentum and any business could will it into existence. You can manufacture demand by setting up. a line. If you build a velvet rope, maybe get a bouncer, they will come to stand online. And by they, we mean we. We're the consumers who fall for this too. For our second story, you can now get early access to President Trump's truth social tweets for $100,000 a month. Because hedge funds will move mountains for milliseconds, literally. All right, Jack, if we're going to tell this story, let's go a little rewind here, back to April this year. Warning,

Iran dominating markets. If the president posted about bombings, the markets fell. If you posted about peace, the markets rose. You had the taco trade. Trump always chickens up. And then you got the nacho trade. Not a chance hormoos opens. And all of it capped off a 12-month stretch when the 10 biggest stock market moving days were

driven by a single sentence said by Trump. Both the biggest up days and the biggest down days on the stock market were driven by Trump's posts. But if you knew what President Trump was going to post before he actually posted it, you'd be rich. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be rich. Yeah, you would be, yeah. Because you could beat the market by selling before everyone else sold and buying before everyone else bought. Now, Jack, we should point out that the president obviously knows what he will tweet before he does. And he and his advisors made 21,000 stock market trades in the first year of his current presidential term. Another example, but by far the biggest yet of government insider trading. But yeties, here's the news. President Trump is now selling that advantage to Wall Street in a new techified subscription. Reportedly for a price tag of $60,000 to $100,000 per month. It's the Trump Media and Technology Group, the $2.5 billion publicly traded business that owns Truth Social. That business is owned by the Trump family mostly,

and they confirmed the news on Thursday. The Trump media stock, it rose by 13% when they announced this specific idea. And here's the idea. The Trump company hasn't confirmed the price yet, but reportedly for $60,000 to $100,000 a month, hedge funds can get early access to read Trump's tweets. I mean, Jack, that would be the most expensive subscription like we've ever seen, too. Can you spring on some context? Crunching the boy math here? That'd be 3,705 Netflix subscriptions without ad. To be precise, but besties, that would easily pay for itself if you happen to be a hedge fund. And not just because it'd be a write-off like your Bloomberg terminal subscription. No, it would pay for itself because on April 9th, President Trump canceled his tariffs via tweet. Remember that? Stocks rose 9.5% when they realized

all those tariffs he announced a week earlier all got canceled. Well, here's the key. Trump's new API will give traders the millisecond needed to beat that jump and gain 9.5%. Multiply that by the average 24 truth social posts he makes every day. You have a permanent advantage over the rest of the market. It's a lot of multiplication. Now, besties, we should point out, government's job is to promote fairness in markets, and this would be doing the opposite. The Trump media company is selling the market's integrity away for $100,000 per hedge fund. With retail investors like you and us, we would now be at a decision. So, Jack, what's the take?

quick way for all our buddies looking at the stock market. Hedge funds have moved mountains, literally, to save a millisecond. Yeties, the author Michael Lewis, has had three Hollywood movies made out of his books. Jack, where do you remember me what they are again? The big short. Yeah, the blind side. Right. And Moneyball. Classics. But one of his books has not been made into a movie. It happens to be our favorite one. Yet. Hasn't been made into a movie yet. And that book is Flash Boys. Flash Boys opens with a true story of a hedge fund that spent $300 million to build an 827-mile tunnel in a perfectly straight line. New York City to Chicago, they wanted to make trades from one stock market to the other stock market milliseconds faster. Because the existing fiber optic cables that sent a trade, they weren't a perfectly straight line.

They went around the Appalachian Mountains. But that hedge fund's perfectly straight cable would beat the other trades by four milliseconds. So they spent months drilling a hole through granite, dirt, clay, and concrete for 827 miles, a perfectly straight tunnel. Chicago does logistics, and now that hedge fund can consistently front-run the rest of the stock market. But because of this news, a hedge fund doesn't have to spend $300 million and drill an 827 mile hole. Through the mountains. They can now just pay Trump media $100,000 a month for the advantage. Basties in the past, hedge funds went underground for an advantage.

but now they don't have to. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Pool House just raised $55 million to Techify billiards, trying to build top golf, but for pool. How do you disrupt the 100-year-old game? You hire the guys who've already done it twice. Actually, Jack, I think it's like a 600-year-old game,

but more on that in a second. But, there is nothing more emasculating than what you did the last time I played. pool of you. I whiffed on the, what do you say when you hit the balls? It's the break. I was like, let's just rack this up and do it again. Jack, I look so cool when I walk around with one of the pool sticks, but then I don't really know what to do with it. Yeah, well, you know what to do with the chalk, apparently, which is strange. I'm good with the chalk. I'm good with the chalk. Either way, yet, he's billiards. It's actually an original sport of kings.

Yeah, the OG sport of kings. Goes back to 1344. It was a lawn game for French royalty. Why do you call it a bank shot and pool? Well, because the OG outdoor billiards. Billiards game was next to a riverbank. And why is billiards nicknamed Pool? Because you'd gamble on billiards and pool your money. King Louis XIth of France was the first to bring the game indoors and put it on the felt table that we know today. Which is why that table is green, not another color.

Green because of like grass? Exactly. Pool is the only sport played by George Washington, Frank Sinatra, and Beyonce. And that King of France. Bessies, it is the only sport where you're expected to order chicken wings while you're playing it. So we're impressed by the 21,000 square foot bar in London's financial district that just opened. Because all it does is pool, and we had to jump in T-boy style.

The owner of this bar is pool house, which just raised $55 million to hit a $100 million valuation. $100 million valuation to create the top golf for billiards. But plot twist, it's not a pool company. It's very much a tech company. And why is that, Jack? Each pool table has high tech equipment built into it to hit. help beginners. We're talking tracking cameras, machine learning projectors, AI-enabled cue sticks.

Here's the key. Pool House rigs a projector over each pool table, which beams down lines to show you exactly where you need to strike that seven ball if you're trying to hit it into the corner pocket. There's more tech on this 35 square foot pool table than on F-35 fighter jet. Oh, you're trying to bank the 14 into this corner pocket? I'd like to hit it right here on the railing. There's lines on the table from the projector that show you how to hit the ball. Jack, it's actually the same laser technology as Major League Baseball uses to show a strike zone on TV and tennis uses to show the out of bounds. But Pool House's lasers aren't for the umpires and referees. Nope.

It's to help the players play pool better. So you're saying it's basically cheating, right? Yes. But bumpers and bowling are also cheating. I also like bumpers. And that just makes the game more fun. It does. And handicaps are cheating in golf, but that also makes the game of golf more spot.

And that's the point. Poolhouse wants to make the market for billiards bigger than it currently is by welcoming beginners and making the game. game more fuck. So then Poolehouse also hired an Oxford statistics professor to create a handicap formula just like golf. Nick, you would have a very high handicap in a bad way. Oh, I thought that was a good way. Oh, and they hired a former Gordon Ramsey chef to keep you fed midgame, you know, and all those chicken fingers. I would have a very high chicken wing rating. This is by together we're good team, Jack. But there is one surprise here, besties. This concert-sized billiards theme park in London, that's not the end game. It is what we find fascinating. The goal is not to create a chain of magical

Hogwarts-style billiards venues across the world. The goal is to license out the smart pool hardware and software. To cruise ships, to casinos, to billiards halls that need this new technology form of billiards. They need a glow-up. And then they hope to get the price of that smart pool table down to the price of a Peloton bike. Poolhouse hopes to sell these techified pool tables for a thousand bucks each and have them ubiquitous across the world. Across every man cave, Bessies, it's basically like Las Vegas and Silicon Valley had a billiard baby. raised by a magic eight ball while playing laser tag. While laser tax, a check, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the $100 million

pool house? This is rinse and repeat entrepreneurship. Yeties, according to a study by the Journal of Financial Economics, second time founders have twice the success rate of first time founders. But you know who beats even second time founders? Who is that? Third time founders. Yeah.

And that's what pool house is. Because the pool house founders, twins, Steve and Dave Joliffe, founded Top Golf. And after they sold Top Golf to Callaway for $2 billion, they founded Putshack. Which is the same as Top Golf, but for Mini Golf. So now they're building the same thing as Top Golf and Putt Shack, but for pool. Jack, I'm seeing the formula here, golf, putting, pool. So traditional sport plus tech plus food and beverage. That equals a mass market opportunity.

What's their next move? Like an AI-enhanced robotic bowling league? No, I want Top Golf but for Shuffled. Oh, how about for batting cages? That would be sick. Air hockey? I don't know about that. It's good for the hockey brand, Jack.

And it's a reminder to entrepreneurs out there. Whatever you're doing now, the second thing you do will be even better. And it's a reminder to investors. Look for those rinse and repeatpreneurs. Rinse and repeat entrepreneurship. Jack, and you'll whip up the takeaways for us to kick off. In New York City, lines are forming on sidewalks at every type of retail store. Oh, baby.

We are a line nation. But it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you set up a velvet rope, the people will stand online. For our second story, hedge funds can read Trump's tweets milliseconds faster than the rest of us if they pay Trump media 100 grand a month. And they'll pay it because hedge funds have moved mountains to save a millisecond. And our third and final story is poolhouse. They're trying to techify pool and glow it up with food and beverage just like top golf and putshed. And they already are worth $100 million because the founders are a rinse and repeatpreneurs.

But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Her sweet green stock plummeted 25% last week on worries. It was tied to that diarrhea parasite outbreak. There's a lot of lettuce in sweet green salads. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as we mentioned earlier, the real culprit, according to the FDA, is Taylor Farms. One of the largest lettuce suppliers in America.

And since Sweet Green doesn't get their produce from Taylor Farms, the stock rebounded 13% at the end of the day Friday. But it's not just Taco Bell who does. Oh, boy. Costco, Walmart, McDonald's. They all get some of their lettuce from Taylor. And honestly, I haven't looked up five guys. I'm just like enjoying the ignorance right now. You're going to have a fun week until it's not fun, Jack.

And second. And second, SpaceX stock is now down nearly 50% from its post IPO highs. It just hit $124. Every single investor who bought the stock on IPO day is now down. Now, SpaceX stock was priced insanely high before. It is still a crazy high valuation of $1.6 trillion, considering it's doing $39 billion in sales this year. And finally, the Odyssey has. burned down the movie theater market like it was Troy, especially for R-rated movies.

This Sword and Sandals movie, which is a real genre, by the last. It's a real genre. It did $124 million domestically in its opening weekend. Hey, Homer, could you sprinkle on some contacts, please? That's the third biggest opening weekend of 2026 behind only the mass market family movies, Toy Story and Super Mario. And we've told you PG is the Thriver right now. Now, this is Christopher Nolan's best opening weekend ever globally, crushing what the Dark Knight trilogy did and crushing Oppenheimer. Spoiler, we're going Tuesday night after the kids go to sleep.

Is this midnight movie club? Now time for the best fact you had, which is some T-boy trivia, which Jack, you mentioned sharks earlier, so I got something for you. Ready for this? Okay, the biggest great white shark ever tagged in the Atlantic Ocean,

his name is contender. Have you heard about this guy? Well, if he's the biggest ever, he's not a contender, he's the winner. Yeah, oh, he's winning. 14 feet long, 32 years old, but I got some updates for you, ready? he last pinged in 15 miles off the coast of Nantucket.

Wait, 15 or 15? 50. Could be 15 now. He moves quickly. That was last week, my friend. So you're still not giving me a straight answer? Okay, well, here's the trivia question. How many teeth does a shark go through in its lifetime?

Dude, I actually read a book about sharks to the boys last night. I know the answer. We're trying to freak them out before bed? No, no, no. The book was about sharks being misunderstood. It was a lovely tale. Okay, so how many teeth did this big guy go through? 30,000 teeth.

Isn't that the number? I mean, what kind of dental insurance these? That's why they sell them a dime a dozen at these souvenir shops here in Antarachia. Okay, but Jack, we got to tell the besties our favorite stat about shark bites ever, yeah. Well, statistically speaking, you're more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker than you are to be bitten by a shark. You know, you know. I think we just freaked out to anybody listening on the subway. Yates, you look fantastic to kick off the week.

Jack, you're glowing over there. I love that shirt, my friend. Where are we going to dinner tonight? Oh, yeah, straight. No, no, no. Oh, we're going to black-eyed Susan. Yeah, we're sitting at the bar in the week. Love B-Y-O-B joints.

Yeah, they actually have a secret menu. Wink twice if you want, seared tuna. Tuna. Yeah, just Tuna. It's the tuna. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to John Quinn

and a two-year anniversary celebrating down in Hot Lanna. Happy 42nd birthday to Patrick Meehan. Celebrating in Florida for his hitchhiker's guide to the universe birthday. And Chauvin Chanoaz is listening with Marlon Rosie in the Club. car over in Ann Arbor, go blue, and happy birthday. Happy birthday to Barbara Rodriguez, Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy, the last year of her 30s, celebrating in San Diego. And John Fidel's got a birthday and just got married down in Philadelphia.

Congratulations, John, celebrate the win. Happy birthday to Brianna Gammon, loves her puppies down in Crescent, Texas. And Kaylee Anderson's getting unlimited French fries for that Denver birthday, celebrating the mile high. And happy 27th birthday to Elon B. in New Jersey. And Britney Cooper has matching T-boy hats with her best. bestie Alex Silva in San Francisco and has the best birthday yet. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Loc.

Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock in Netflix. Nick and I both own stock of Peloton. And I own one share of SpaceX. Nick owns more than one.