The Best One Yet - 🍣 “Capitalism Roll” — Sushi’s US surge. Oura’s $11B Ring. Oklo’s nuclear Trump speech. +Ben Stiller soda.

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Saviche Wednesday, September 24th. 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. Okay, Yetty's the big hero stat from yesterday. 92% of Americans still have their teddy bear. Right, Jack? Yeah, although asterisk. That poll was only among Build a Bear customers, Nick. So we did a poll on Spotify on T-Boy listeners. You want to know the numbers than that one? How many T-boy listeners still have their childhood teddy bear? 60% of T-boy listeners still have that. And 20% of T-Boy listeners are holding that teddy bear right now, Jack. Dude, I had my childhood blanket until a few years ago. Blanky.

Starting point is 00:00:41 And Alex did like a house cleaning, spring cleaning situation. She tossed it. A victim of the move. In fairness of her, that blanket was disgusting. Was it slamming salmon pink, though, Jack? Because you're supposed to wearing slamming sam today. All right, all right. But today's pod is the best one yet.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Jack, three fantastic stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, it's the fastest growing food in America right now. It's sushi. Sushi! We're in the middle of an epic sushi surge. So Jack and I will tell you how the gas station sushi conquered the country. For our second story, the most valuable company in America that has zero revenue,

Starting point is 00:01:21 it's a nuclear power company called Auclo. After Trump's big speech at the United Nations, Acollo's nuclear stock went nuclear. And our third and final story, there is one wearable tech product beating all the others, the ORA ring. Oro is about to hit an $11 billion valuation thanks to two surprise customers. Who are there, Jack? Ladies and lieutenants. Ladies and lieutenants.

Starting point is 00:01:46 But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack. Love the mix. Odds are right now, you're listening to this pod holding a drink in your hand. Podcasting. It's a multitasking medium. driving to work, you're listening to T-boy, and you're sipping on a double-digit latte. So yesterday, Nick and I were looking at the news in the headline hammer, and we realized

Starting point is 00:02:08 there was beverage news bigger than that Stanley mug in your cup holder. I mean, Jack, biggest day of beverage news we've ever sipped on, right, my friend? First, Chick-fil-A, in many places, the most popular restaurant chain in the country, is launching a beverage chain. True story, Chick-fil-A is doing a drink spin-off to rival Starbucks next. It's called Daybright, and there's no detail. Yeah. Although we do hope they offer a deep-fried boba tea just putting that out there. But it wasn't just Chick-fil-A. Ben Stiller launched a soda brand yesterday.

Starting point is 00:02:39 That's right, Ben Stiller, the actor. He created a new soda called the Stillers. The flavors are inspired by the Shirley Temples that he drank as a kid at New York City's comedy clubs. Hey, Ben, you're going to launch an orange mocha frappuccino or what? And finally, we have a brand spanking new, King of Beers. Get this, Micahlobe Ultra, just beat Madden. Delo, top-selling beer in America. Hold my Mikolo, Bud Light. Nick Ultra is the new king of beers.

Starting point is 00:03:06 So besties add it all up, and that's the tea, literally. That's the tea. Now, who knew yesterday would be the biggest day for beverage news of the year, Nick? Didn't see it happening, Jack, when I was whipping up the extra pulp orange juice. Either way, these updates are making me thirsty. Why is there pulp in Oregon juice? Jack, let's serve up our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

Starting point is 00:03:28 They had an idea to cause a cultural storm It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm Jack Nick, 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

Starting point is 00:03:46 Start the show First, a quick word from our sponsor For our first story The fastest growing food in America right now It's sushi 50 years after arriving on American shores, we're experiencing a sushi surge. And it's being driven by gas stations and convenience stores.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Okay. Well, first of all, Jack, since you are from a landlock state, should I whip up a little sushi vocabulary context for you over here? First sushi I ever had in my life was with you. You called it a hand roll? I don't really know what that is. Jack uses chopsticks and we were immediately kicked out of the restaurant yet.

Starting point is 00:04:36 He's first you've got Nigeria, which is, sushi with rice. And then you've got sashimi, which is sushi without rice. Then you've got maki, which is a roll of sushi. And then tamaki, which is a hand roll of sushi. And of course, there's the omacasi chef's choice, which I'm taking you on the next time you come to San Francisco, Jack. And it's basically an edible packaging situation with the seaweed, right? I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Yeah, it's 50 years ago. Everything I just said were foreign words for an exotic concept of sushi. Raw fish on rice. And I eat. And I, eat them with chopsticks, not my fingers.

Starting point is 00:05:10 Sushi chefs, they were trained demigods, and their craft was serving up a meal too expensive for even a casual date night. But then in 1979, something happened. One invention changed sushi in America forever. Behold the California roll. It was basically a gateway product for people like me. Gateway goody. You know what the Frappuccino did for coffee, the California roll did for sushi.

Starting point is 00:05:36 It gave a niche food mass market approach. approachable appeal. And here was the key to the innovation. There was no raw fish inside the California roll so you could transport it and put it in a gas station. Yeah, the California roll. It's pretending to be crab, but it's actually cooked haddock, which is not raw fish. Exactly, Jack. And the other innovation is that they put the seaweed on the inside of the California roll, not the outside. Okay, so not edible packaging. Exactly. So if you weren't comfortable with seaweed, you were comfortable with the rice instead. And yet, despite that approachable innovation, sushi remained a luxury good in America for the next few decades.

Starting point is 00:06:12 Sushi restaurants, they're not offering $5 footlongs or $10 buckets of wasabi. No, they're not. Until the pandemic. COVID caused a surprise sushi spike across the United States. Remember five years ago, you retired of cooking from home, you were bored with the takeout options, and you got into a fight with your wife over another pizza dinner. The pandemic is when restaurants and diners alike realized sushi is actually very portable. It does well in transit, and it became a top seller on DoorDash and Uber Eats. But here was the key. It wasn't just more demand for sushi during the pandemic.

Starting point is 00:06:46 There was also more supply. Because for the first time ever, luxury sushi restaurants, they did takeout in order to survive. I mean, Jack, what about that no-boo in Beverly Hills? They started sticking their expensive rolls in plastic boxes, a habit that has stuck even since the lockdown. Jack, my favorite restaurant for sushi in Los Angeles, sugarfish. I know I'm a basic bro for this one, but they hired a creative director from Apple to

Starting point is 00:07:12 design a new sushi takeout container for this very reason. And today, that sushi surge has continued. But here's the latest development. It's being driven by gas station sushi. Ah, retail sushi, a.k.a. Deli sushi. It's the fastest growing segment in the grocery store up 7% to $3 billion bucks last year. Get this. Kroger now sells a million sushi rolls every single day. Even though half of them involve cream cheese, gas stations, theme parks, stadiums, bowling alleys, even high school cafeterias are seeing record sales of sushi. Guess who was the winner of the Princeton Review's best college food the last nine years neuronic?

Starting point is 00:07:49 UMass Amherst apparently, and why is that check? Because they make sushi from scratch for 22,000 students. Best, he's add-it-all-up and sushi always tasted good, but it has now evolved into a convenience health food. The new sushi spot isn't Omikaze in the West Village. No, no. It's the 7-11 spicy salmon roll that that trucker just snagged. The next time you go to Disney with the kids, Jack, you're going to treat yourself to a Mickey Mouse roll if I know you. Oh, how far I have come. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone consuming sushi? Sushi is a capitalism success story. Call it a capitalism role. Yadies, Jack and I are actually proud as we research

Starting point is 00:08:32 this story. Because sushi has gotten past economic barriers, transcending them to become democratized. Sushi is increasingly consumed by all income levels, urban and suburban people, from boomers down to Gen Alpha. And how has it pulled this off? Well, capitalist innovations. The supply chain has evolved to meet expanding sushi demand. Frozen food storage and frozen food transport allowed sushi to be sold way out at a gas station in Iowa. And now it's done so safely. There are actually way fewer raw fish illnesses in the past decade, then there were meat ones. And with all those conditions, five large companies have swooped in and scaled deli sushi from sea to shining sea in a way that Japanese restaurants couldn't do alone. So besties, add it all up and from California rolls to cold

Starting point is 00:09:16 storage to pandemic takeout, sushi is a capitalist success story. For our second story, in an historic and unprecedented speech at the United Nations, Donald Trump critiqued and lectured world leaders for 57 minutes yesterday. But after all of it, we found the one stock market winner. Aklow Nuclear. It's America's biggest company that has zero revenues. But Yeties, our story begins in Midtown Manhattan yesterday when President Trump spoke on the biggest stage in the world, the United Nations General Assembly. His speech sounded like one of his campaign rallies. He went on for nearly four times his allotted time, and he boasted about himself and his accomplishments, and said that migration was ruining

Starting point is 00:10:02 Europe. He also complained about the broken escalator in the United Nations building, which has been fixed in a while, as well as the entire institution of the United Nations itself. But what this business podcast wanted to focus on was his remarks on energy. Right, because his remarks on energy explain why one company with zero revenues has a stock up 1,500 percent in the last year. In that speech yesterday, Donald Trump doubled down on his belief that climate change is a The president said that he believes coal, the dirtiest mainstream energy source in the world, is, quote, clean and beautiful. While also calling green energy a, quote, scam.

Starting point is 00:10:43 So to sprinkle on some context here, unsurprisingly, those words have tanked clean energy stocks since the president's inauguration. But surprisingly, there's one exception, AKLO. Oclo Nuclear Energy is that stock that's up 1,500%. Sam Altman-backed Acklo makes tiny nuclear. reactors and markets them to energy-hungry artificial intelligence companies. Here's the differentiator. These nuclear reactors are like architecturally designed. They're like Vanity Fair full-on spreads, right, Jack? There's another differentiator. They're way quicker to build,

Starting point is 00:11:17 and they're way smaller and way less cost. They also look like a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. They're very pretty. We covered Auclo on May 31st, 2024 on this podcast. And since then, the stock is up 1,200 percent. But the wildest part about this. Oxalo Nuclear Energy Company is that they haven't generated a single dollar of revenue. Yet. Yet. Because if they can build their next generation nuclear power plants quickly and at low cost, then the demand for them is already there.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Get this. Data centers use so much juice these days that their size is being described by their energy consumption. For example, the new data centers announced Monday by OpenAI and NVIDIA, they are a 10 gigawatt data center. Jack, you translate 10 gigawatts for the energy understandable over here? That's the same amount of electricity used as 8 million American homes. So yeties, on Monday, ACHLO broke ground on their very first nuclear powerhouse in the state of Idaho. And who was in attendance there, Jack? Two governors, two U.S. senators, one mayor and the head of the EPA.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Which leads to our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Aklow Nuclear Energy? Just as important as energy sustainability is political sustainability. Yeti's nuclear power is the one carbon-free electricity source that MAGA is supportive of. It's not the first choice of progressives, but even Al Gore is now getting on board with nuclear, given the political realities. So interestingly, unlike wind and solar, which got support under Biden but got canceled under Trump, nuclear doesn't just have energy sustainability. It now has political sustainability. If Trump builds out a bunch of nuclear power reactors, they probably wouldn't get canceled by a future Democratic president.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Because this is wild, but nuclear is the one topic that both Donald Trump and Al Gore can both agree on together. Techies who lead the big AI companies, they don't believe that climate change is a hoax like Donald Trump does. So they're looking for clean energy to power their AI investments. There's only one source that can do that and get political support these days. And that source is nuclear. It's not wind, it's not solar, it's nuclear. Besties, just as important as energy sustainability is political sustainability. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

Starting point is 00:13:43 For our third and final story, ORA Ring. The wearable techie ring is about to become an $11 billion business. Oura Ring is thriving because of a lesson that we learned ironically from the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, it is funny thing Jack and I had noticed. The tech industry these days, I think it's the fashion industry, because like every tech gadget right now is something to be worn. AirPods for your ears, you got headsets and glasses for your face and you've got to watch for your wrist. Everything is wearables and the new thing is AI wearables. Which are going to be like hidden in your pocket or like attached to your lapel.

Starting point is 00:14:17 But here's the shocker, besties. Three out of four fitness trackers sold these days are actually rings. And the top selling wearable tech gadget ring is aura. Ora Ring, the fit bit of fingers, the Peloton for your pointer. For 350 bucks, it'll track everything on your body. Basically every body part. And according to Bloomberg, here's the news. Oro Ring is raising $875 million at an $11 billion valuation.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Which would make ORA Ring have the same valuation as an actual jewelry company, Cartier. It's like the Tiffany's a wearable tech. Now, O'Ring has sold 3 million ORA Rings in the last year, which, Jack, could you sprinkle on some competitive context, please? That's three times more ORA rings sold last year than Zuckerberg's meta-rayband glasses. Three times more than the meta-ray bands. If you like it, then you better put a ring on it. But Bestie's even more impressive than the 3 million units sold of these ORA rings

Starting point is 00:15:12 is that that number is up to X from the year before. And even more impressive than the $350 price they can sell them for is the $6 a month subscription that customers need to pay to get the benefits. So like without that paid membership, the ORA ring is just a Scandinavian. and chic piece of jewelry. And this explains the $11 billion valuation. Venture Capital loves this combination of high price, recurring revenue, and growth.

Starting point is 00:15:36 But besties, Jack and I were fascinated by a different surprise about ORA Ring. It has two core customers. Right. The first is young women who are buying o'erings for period tracking. It's the aura ovulator feature. Basically, they can measure your temperature so precisely

Starting point is 00:15:51 you know your fertile window when you could or couldn't get pregnant. There's an entire section on the O'Ring website dedicated to women's health. Yeah, it's filled with pictures of flowers, dresses, and a whole bunch of babies. But whose aura ring's even bigger customer than young women? Here's the shocker. It's the Department of Defense. It's soldiers because aura rings track the vitals for infantry for the United States Army when they're on the battlefield. Apparently the aura ring is also a tool of war. The ring uses artificial intelligence to predict soldiers' battlefield fatigue. So the lieutenants and the generals in charge

Starting point is 00:16:27 they know which soldiers are ready for that mission impossible that they have ahead of them. So add it all up, Jack, and who are O'RRRing's surprise to power users these days? G.I. Joe and simply Jane. Who's trying to get pregnant? So, Jack, what's the precious takeaway for our buddies over at O'Ring? O'Ring's success ironically reminds us of the Lord of the Rings. Now, Yeties, when Jack and I were taught marketing, we were told to target one core customer. If you try to be for everyone, you'll actually be for no one.

Starting point is 00:16:58 But OroRing is successful, thanks to a wide range of power users. Which ironically reminded Jack and I of the wide range of characters in the Lord of the Rings books. There is a fellowship made up of hobbits, dwarves, and elves, plus one wise wizard. In Lord of the Rings, they're all totally different, but they are motivated about the same ring, just like the customers of O'Ring. Orra's $11 billion evaluation proves that you can target a surprisingly diverse customer base. Best is you don't need one hero user.

Starting point is 00:17:28 You could actually have a fellowship of them. Jack, could y'all whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? The sushi surge is booming in America, and it's driven by convenient grab-and-go-sushi sold everywhere. It's a capitalism success story. Supply chain innovation has scaled raw fish from Nobu to 7-Eleven. Thought you were going to say from Nobu to Nebraska. Jack, I should have said no-bo to Nebraska.

Starting point is 00:17:54 For our second story. Aklonuclear power is the most valuable company in the world right now that has zero revenues. Because just as important as energy sustainability is political sustainability. And our third and final story is the ORA ring. They're reportedly raising VC cash right now at an $11 billion valuation. And their success defies marketing because like the Lord of the Rings, your power users can be a fellowship. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know. today. First, Major League Baseball announced they're going to automate umpires starting in

Starting point is 00:18:31 2026. Human umpires will still stand behind the home plate and call balls and strikes. But teams can now challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra endings. And the umpires, if they were wrong, they will be overruled by the robots. As the robots will futurely overrule us all. And for the first time in history, women now outnumber men in a new batch of NASA astronauts. 8,000 people applied to become astronauts at NASA this year, but just 10 were accepted. Okay, that is a 0.1% acceptance rate in order to go into space. And the NASA 2025 class of orbit-bound astronauts include six women and four men. And finally, a French fashion house named L'Envain has created a new marketing strategy,

Starting point is 00:19:15 inventing colors. Can you say the company's name again? Not possible, Jack. L'an Vins hired a color. consultant to design a completely new shade of blue for their fashion packaging. Now, to be honest, I'm looking at this blue right now. I was going to say it looks lavender, but there's something different there. You're right.

Starting point is 00:19:34 Yeah, he's posting a picture of this new unprecedented blue on Instagram at T-BoyPod. Let us know what you think of it. Now, time for the best fact of the day. This one is actually a correction sent in by a neurosurgeon. Someone with more education than us. A brain surgeon named Dr. Orrin Aronson wanted to to issue a correction. We said yesterday that the cerebellum was the part of the brain that memories are formed. The cerebellum is involved with memories, but they are procedural memories. Like learning how to

Starting point is 00:20:04 ride a bike or play the piano. It is the amygdala where the brain processes emotional memories. And in our Bilderbeer story yesterday, we were talking about the emotional memories, weren't we, Nick? That wasn't a cerebellum part of the brain. That was your amygdala part of the brain. Basically, the best location for a store, it's in the amygdala, where your brain makes memories. Don't forget it. Or amygdala, it's a potato-potata situation. Yetis, you look fantastic for Civece Wednesday. And the best way you can help grow the show is to tell a buddy today, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y.

Starting point is 00:20:38 Have you had the best one yet? And then send them a link to this episode. And after you do, Jack's going to whip up a special surprise where we are, you, Jack. We need it. We must have the precious. It's a precious show. with your buddies, Jack and I will see tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti,

Starting point is 00:21:01 Ibrahim Aziz turning 28 years old over in Toronto, Maple Leaf, Toronto. And happy birthday to Magic Man Shane Cohen in Denver, Colorado. And Grandpa Miller is turning 102 years old over in Tucson, Arizona. Congratulations on more than a century, Grandpa. And happy birthday to Daniel Paul. Dan the man in Boulder, Colorado. is belated, but your wife is still the best. And Guyi Nativod in Denton, Texas is celebrating the best birthday yet.

Starting point is 00:21:33 And a big shout out to Allison Ellsworth, a T-Boy guest interview alum who is back on Shark Tank tonight to be a shark this time. Well, perfect timing, Jack, because Yeti Craig Carey from Clifton, Virginia is on Shark Tank tonight pitching his company. You know what his company is? Dad Strength Brewing Company. It feels like these two should meet Jack. I think Allison is going to invest in some dad strength.

Starting point is 00:21:57 And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both on stock of Apple, and neither of us owns Acklo. If you do, that it's known in the comments. If you're not married,

Starting point is 00:22:14 what finger do you put an aura ring on? Or if you are married, what finger do you put it on? If you propose to her with an aura ring, then you can see her heartbeat going really, really quickly afterwards. And you can predict the likelihood of a yes or no response. Yeah, I'm going to need an Uber ASAP to get me out of here before she says no.

The Best One Yet - 🍣 “Capitalism Roll” — Sushi’s US surge. Oura’s $11B Ring. Oklo’s nuclear Trump speech. +Ben Stiller soda.

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