The Best One Yet - 🤩 “Cash-chella” — Coachella’s influencer brand. SpaceX’s Mars rocket. BuzzFeed’s worst headline.

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Coachella isn’t a music fest anymore… it’s a 6-day, $100M profit fest. SpaceX launched its Starship into space — it exploded, but that’s all part of the plan. And BuzzFeed is shutting down Buzzfeed News — but that story is the story of all news right now. $BZFD $RVLV $TSLAWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeLearn 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, April 21st, and today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. Would you just roll out of bed? Where's the iron shirt, Nick? I didn't want to get called out. Now we're going to call.

I know there's a little wrinkle here, isn't there? I'm not happy. The lavender is lovely, though. I kind of look like I'm wearing a giant flower. That's why I zip up before the pie. First story. What do we got, man? SpaceX just launched a spaceship that will one day transport 100 humans.

to Mars. This spaceship exploded, but that is not a bad thing. For our second story, the biggest news on Wall Street is the news about BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed News is all of the news and it just shut down. Our third and final story, it's the last weekend of the Coachella Music Festival. The Coachella, it isn't a concert, it's a $100 million profit puppy with a lot of see-through pants. And a lot of apparel sprits. But yeties, before we hit that fantastic, A wonderful mix. A wonderful mix of stories to go into the weekend with, man. I love the mix. Our buddies at Henley and Partners just published what they call the ultimate list of the world's wealthiest places. It is we just got the data on the earth's richest cities.

So what is it? What is the world's wealthiest city, Nick? Jack, what is the city with the most millionaires? Who is that city? How many millionaires are they there? There's one city with almost a million millionaires. No joke. Okay, New York City has 340,000 millionaires. New York has more millionaires than Cincinnati has people. New York has more millionaires than St. Louis has people. If you walk through the West Village, point at someone, chances are they're a millionaire. Jack and I did the Manhattan math. New York City has three millionaires on every single block. All right, let's add three zeros. New York has the most millionaires. What city has the most billionaires? It's a good question, Jack. Well, the most

billionaires. That is the city of San Francisco. Francisco. I mean, it was a gold rush in the first place. It was. And apparently the gold is like still here, isn't it, Jay? Except the gold is tech IPOs now. Yeti, San Francisco has 63 billionaires roaming around the Embarcadero right now. There's more commas in that city than in any other city. Oh, and Jack, what do billionaires eat for breakfast? I think they eat millionaires for breakfast. They eat millionaires every single day. They sprinkle on some thousandaires on top of their millionaires. But yeties, Jack and I know there are a lot of cities on planet Earth and there are a lot of cities in America, aren't there? Miami has the most people with a million doge coins. And Houston has the most people with a million barrels of oil. And Boston has the most people with a million oversized Boston Red Sox,

hoodies. Boston has a billion people who would bet you a billion bucks that the Bruins are going to win the Stanley Cup this year. So congratulations to New York City and San Francisco. But Boston and just outside of Boston, they would like a recount. Nick, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

It's the best one. 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. For our first story, SpaceX just put the biggest most powerful rocket ever 24 miles into the air. It exploded. Yes, it did.

But it's a win. Just chalk it up as research and development. Oh, Yeties, Jack and I. We have covered a whole lot of vehicles on this show. Yes, we have. Yes, we have. We've seen a whole bunch of chassis. We've seen food delivery robots.

Electric pickup trucks, trains, planes, cruise ships. We once covered a mattress, mattress, mattress that had wheels. Did we? We should have. But this vehicle, this news from yesterday was the most powerful vehicle yet by far. We're talking about the starship. Elon Musk's SpaceX launched the Starship. The Starship, when standing on top of the Star Ship.

its rocket stands almost 400 feet tall, which is 100 feet taller than the tip of the Statue of Liberty. Now, it sounds like a prop in a George Lucas movie, doesn't it, Jack? Yeah, this is Millennium Falcon's big brother. And yesterday, SpaceX, the most valuable private company in the United States, shot that giant rocket from a southern tip of Texas into space. The rocket had 33 engines that were each 10 feet tall. Jack, can we sprinkle on a little more numerical context here? Those 33 huge engines lifted 10 million pounds 24 miles high yesterday.

Food delivery chassis, that robot can't pull that off, Jack. Now, after that, the starship was going to separate from the rocket booster, complete the test flight, and then gracefully splash safely into the Gulf of Mexico. But here's the problem, besties. That last part that Jack mentioned, it didn't happen. Right. Because four minutes in to this live streamed. event, which was really entertaining to watch.

The starship and the booster at Saturn both exploded. Or as Elon Musk's SpaceX calls it, it was a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Translation, rocket go boom boom. But funny thing, Jack and I noticed, and this is what we found so fascinating about

the story. SpaceX employees didn't cry, they didn't complain, they didn't mope that their giant expensive rocket blew up and exploded in front of everybody. Quite the contrary. They were celebrating. Like the moment the rocket exploded on the live stream, you could hear employees at headquarters celebrating in the background. You could hear them popping champagne, not crying.

Now, crucially, there were no souls on board. There was no humans on this flight. No one was harmed or injured or killed yesterday. However, SpaceX chocks this up as a huge win because they set new launch records and they learned a bunch yesterday. Now, the end goal of Starship is eventually to bring 100 passengers per flight up, to space and drop those people off on the moon or on Mars. The goal is to get the cost to run that rocket ship down to $10 million per a flight or $100,000 per a passenger.

It's a little more than a Delta flight, but you're going to Mars. And Jack, Elon Musk has some pretty ambitious plans for this starship, doesn't he? Yes, he does. This starship is the spaceship that Elon dreams of using to colonize Mars someday. Jack, when your son Wilder, my pod son goes to boarding school on Mars in like 20 years, He's going to be flying on this starship. He'll have a ticket on the starship. Yeti, Silicon Valley moves fast and break things, but SpaceX explodes and learns things.

That's why they chalked yesterday up as a win. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at $100 billion SpaceX? What would be a failure for NASA is a success for SpaceX. Yet he's in 2025 in just two years. NASA's planning Artemis 3. That's their novel mission to put the first woman and first person of color on the moon. On the dark side of the moon for the first time too. And here's the thing. They're not going to be using government-built NASA spaceships for that big NASA mission. No, they're going to use

this SpaceX starship to get those astronauts onto the moon. In fact, NASA has actually hired SpaceX to build its future spaceships to go to the moon and to Mars. Why? Because SpaceX can afford failures that NASA can't afford. It is if a NASA shuttle exploded yesterday, it would have been seen as a huge failure, publicly wasted money. But when SpaceX explodes a rocket, it's applauded because it was research on the pathway to success. So the way we see it, what would have been a huge tragedy for NASA is actually a big success for SpaceX. For our second story, the biggest news yesterday was the news about BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed News. But it's not just BuzzFeed News. This is the story of all news. All right, Jack, let's travel back to January.

We did a BuzzFeed story, but it was kind of a surprise. You know what we were talking about with that story? A few months after interviewing Jonah Peretti, the co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed. That was fantastic. Love jumping in T-Boy style of that. We learned that BuzzFeed is hiring, but they're not hiring people. BuzzFeed was hiring robots. Yet he's BuzzFeed was hiring artificial intelligence to do BuzzFeed writing work.

Here was their plan. Use AI to write articles, listicles, and buzzy headlines for free. you're on BuzzFeed right now. If you see an article that's like a top 20 enchiladas in Albuquerque, ooh, I will click on that one. That is interesting. A robot wrote that article. A robot figured out what the best enchiladas were. But here's the new news from BuzzFeed. They're laying off another 15% of their human staff and they're shutting down BuzzFeed news. Yeties, on that depressing news, BuzzFeed stock fell 20% yesterday and is now trading at just 75 cents a share. BuzzFeed was once a booming success of like the mid-2000s when Nick and I were graduating college.

It was worth $1.5 billion. Now it's worth $100 million. So here's what we're thinking when we saw this story. The shutting down of BuzzFeed News, that is actually the biggest news story about the news industry of the entire year. BuzzFeed News wasn't pumping out Disney Princess quizzes. No, it was not. It cannot tell you if you were an Ariel and it cannot tell you if you were a Jasmine. BuzzFeed News was a respected digital first journalism outlet. BuzzFeed News was once called a serious challenger to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other papers of record. It was also the CEO's pet project.

It was. It got a lot of resources, BuzzFeed News. Jonah Peretti wrote in his sad letter yesterday about shutting it down that he had overinvested in BuzzFeed News because he loved the work and the mission of it. And I'm sorry, Jack, could we go into the kitchen and look at what's on the fridge over at BuzzFeed News? BuzzFeed News won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021 and has been the finalist for the top award in journalism four times. But now, to save money and keep the rest of BuzzFeed alive, Jonah Peretti just shuddered his passion project. One of the biggest digital news successes of the past 20 years is now over. And that's sad.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at BuzzFeed? The BuzzFeed News story is the story of all news. Yeties, over the last decade, BuzzFeed News never turned a profit. In fact, BuzzFeed News lost $10 million a year. BuzzFeed News wasn't essential or comprehensive enough to demand a paid subscription. And it wasn't diversified enough to handle the slowdown in ads like we have right now. But those problems weren't unique to BuzzFeed News. They reflect the whole news industry right now.

For example, the whole media industry is going through major layoffs right now. Vox, ESPN, Vice, Dow Jones, they've all laid people off recently. And the whole media industry is also shutting down major projects right now. Washington Post just shuttered its magazine and NPR just shut down three or four of its pods. Look, besties, ever since the internet, the business of news has suffered. But now, even BuzzFeed News, a company born in the internet era, couldn't survive. And that is why we think this BuzzFeed News story is the story of all news. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood.

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Certain limitations apply. Roundup services are provided by RH1. You must have a brokerage account with RHF or a cryptocurrency account with RHC in order to fully utilize investment features. All investments involve risk. Robin of Financial LLC, member SIPC. For our third and final story before the weekend, Coachella ends this weekend. But the money just keeps on flown in for Coachella, doesn't it check? But Coachella's brand isn't living up to its potential.

Can I read to you this set list of artists? Bad Bunny, Frank Ocean, Blink One, E, 182, Jack. Even Blondie, whose front woman, the blondeie, is pushing 80 years old. Yeah, they are all performing at Coachella right now. Coachella, it's Burning Man meets Woodstock. Coachella, it's not a concert, it's a feeling. But Coachella isn't just a concert, you're right, Nick. They're not hosting Gaga a couple years ago and Beyonce before that for their love of arts.

Yet he's no, it is not because Coachella is a business. Coachella is the first annual music festival that made $100 million in profits in a single year. They did it in 2017, according to the Grammys. In fact, Coachella makes more profit in six days of this event than some Fortune 500 companies make in an entire year. And that's a shocker because before 2010, they never made profits. No, they weren't. This company, this business, this whole event, Coachella, it wasn't even profitable back then. But it is today.

Yes, it is. And the one thing that changed, the amount of attendees, the amount of students, the amount of sponsors the amount of money at this mega festival. What is it, Jack? It was influencers. It was influencers. And yetis, there is one company that has dominated Coachella's influencer scene since 2015. And what is that company? Revolve. Revolve. Yadis, you may have seen Revolve. Revolve is designer clothing. It is a designer clothing retail brand. You can buy cute tops that you saw on Instagram for 250 bucks. We're talking Coachella style fashion here. It's like a free people-ish, but like a little bit more edge than anthropology.

Revolve has built an influencer army. Yes, they have. And Coachella is their annual battleground. This store Revolve sent over 100 fashionese to influencers to rep the brand at Coachella this year. In fact, they hosted a Revolve party that got five billion impressions on Instagram. And Revolve has turned Coachella into a giant photo shoot for posts on Instagram. Exactly. Perfectly, perfectly put, Jack, because an influencer posts a cowboy hat when they're at the scene and then you tap to buy that cowboy hat on Revolveld. And then the influencer gets commissioned and Revolve gets paid.

In fact, Revolve has gotten so big with that strategy, they've decided to host their own festival that sits right beside Coachella. And this Revolve festival, it got Cardi B and Kendall Jenner to come. Oh, and Haley Bieber. And now 70% of Revolve sales come directly from posts from those influencers. 70% of their sales are coming from these influencers. So the way Jack and I see it, Revolve has become the unofficial. brand of Coachella, but we're wondering, why isn't there an official Coachella of Coachella? Missed Opportunity, Coachella, missed opportunity.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Coachella? Coachella is the most under-optimized brand we can think of right now. Okay, Yeti's, Coachella's brand recognition is nearly universal. And yet, they only make money for six days out of the entire year. The difference between what Coachella makes and money and how well it's known is a huge market opportunity. Yes, it is. Coachella's expertise, it is as a concert organizer, so they could expand their core product. They could expand the brand by putting on a Coachella East Festival in Florida, or a Coachella South Festival in Tulum. Or Coachella Med, over on Abiza, Jack.

Or Coachella North in Vermont, no? I don't think see-through pants are legal in Vermont, Jack. Yet he's then, Coachella could extend its brand beyond its core product into related products. Tequila is the top-selling drink of Coachella. We're surprised there's no Coachella tequila sold year around. Of course, there's always the risk that you overextend the brand like some brands have. You don't want to dilute the value of your brand. But Coachella, it has not tested the limits yet. It is the most under-optimized brand we can think of.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the Real Friday? SpaceX's Starship exploded yesterday, but it was progress on its mission to Mars. What would be a failure for NASA is a success for SpaceX. For our second story, to keep the rest of BuzzFeed alive, Jonah Peretti had to shut down BuzzFeed News. The BuzzFeed News story is the story of all news. And our third and final story, the second weekend of Coachella starts now.

But the brand Coachella, you are not living up to your potential. Coachella Tequila, Coachella Cech through pants. Where are they? Coachella podcast. Yes, Jack and I will perform next year. Now, time for the best. fact yet. This one sent in by Jack and me because we found

some really fun facts for you, the Yeti's. So yesterday we read that whole New Yorker profile on the Innovation Lab at Taco Bell. We covered Taco Bell's Innovation Lab and we found some really good stuff for you, didn't we, Jack? There's some wild facts about this restaurant chain. We're just going to read off all the facts

we discovered. Taco Bell serves 8 billion packets of that hot sauce every year. Taco Bell tried to open in Mexico twice and failed twice. Taco Bell used to be owned by Pepsi Cup, which stupidly sold it in 1997. And remember that Taco Bell Chihuahua, like the Yochiero one? Yochiero Taco Bell. Yeah, exactly. The one that was in the ads. Where's that Taco Bell Chihuahua now, Jack? That is the exact same Chihuahua owned by

L. Woods in the wonderful film, Legally Blonde. If you thought that Chihuahua looked familiar and legally blonde. Because it did. Yeah. Yochiero. Harvard Law degree. Yeties, you looked fantastic this week. Jack, you looked fantastic at a whole bunch of wins to celebrate this week. This was a big week. Yeties, I hope it was for you too. Yeties, if you haven't yet, you can play our T-Boy Pop Biz, Pop Quiz, Pop Quiz,

every Friday at T-Boypod.com. Other than that, just have a fantastic weekend. Celebrate some wins, post them on Instagram, tag us. We want to see what you're winning. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait, but we'll see you Monday. We'll see a Monday. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti's Diane and Robert Binns,

who are celebrating a one-year anniversary of eloping to Puerto Rico. Congratulations to Katie and Zach who are getting married this weekend in Austin, Texas. Not too shabby and Alicia Comer and Adam Gordon are also getting married over in lovely San Diego. Have a fantastic one. Happy one-year anniversary to Melissa and Trent Monte in Bursar, Louisiana. And Cruze and Brande Blanton just launched their first first day. ever real estate business together as a couple. And a big job well done to Gaggin McKejeeja, who organized the Food and Agriculture Conference at the Tuck Business School.

Get this guy in A. And a happy birthday to Jakey Dwyer down in Charlottesville, Virginia, but playing some wallball just outside Boston. Happy birthday to Sarah McKinnon in Joburg, South Africa. And Jeff Wang is celebrating his birthday by running 10 miles through Chino Hill, California. And happy 35th birthday to Tianmiow Lee, who's visiting their family in China. And Ariya Vasquez, enjoy that eighth birthday all day in Super Mario Mario is my absolute favorite. Yes, Mario is, isn't he? And happy third birthday to Elise Ortiz Barri at Chuckie Cheeses. And Grace Zex turning 25 in Chapel Hill, Tar Hill, North Carolina. Happy 18th birthday to legendary Yeti Eva Perez from Verona, Wisconsin, where Guac is still extra.

And Isabel Lee celebrating that third birthday down in a little. Happy 12th birthday to Elliot Schneider in Wichita Falls. And Joe DeLog, the Dinkwack, is celebrating a birthday in Sunnyside Queens. Happy birthday to Daniel La Javee in Denver, Colorado. And a happy birthday to Benson, Taekwondo, Turing 12 in Flower Mountain, Texas. And Victor Mizano is celebrating the birthday the right way, right there on the pickleball court. Amanda Pierce, happy 35th birthday over in Maryland. And happy first birthday to Avery Grace, who's turned in a T-Ey-Barre.

boy the best one yet years old in Potwin, Texas. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. Golf at 11 a.m. Pickleball by 2. Got to see the grandkids, but I don't know if we'll have enough time. You're probably not thinking about retiring to Del Boca Vista quite yet. But you could be thinking about how to afford retirement.

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