The Best One Yet - 👢 “ChatGP-She” – AI’s female flip. Robinhood’s VC-for-All. Shake Shack’s Michael Kors burger. +Sony Walkman’s innovation.

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

ChatGPT revealed the 1st study on who actually uses it… The power user? High school girls.Shake Shack invented a French Onion Burger… it’s the same affordable luxury strategy as Michael Kors.Robinhood is launching a Venture Capital fund for everyone… but the devil’s in the deals.Plus, the untold origin story of… The Sony Walkman$SHAK $HOOD $MSFTWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… The Sony Walkman 🎧Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ to listen.NEWSLETTER: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. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, September 16th. 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. 100 days until Christmas. You know what that means, Jack? You know what that means? What's that mean? Plenty of time to procrastinate. You got plenty of time. Don't worry about it. So, dude, Wilder wants a Lightning McQueen monster truck. Noted. And we told him to write a letter to Santa. And he's like, can I write a W? And we're like, What do you mean? W. He misunderstood letter. He thinks like ABC's letter. Oh, he's trying to buy a vowel on this thing.

Yeah, I had to explain to him. There's two meanings of the word letter. I thought Jan Affa was going to be DMing Santa by this time, Jack. Yeties, on Christmas Eve, you're going to remember today's episode on September 16th and be thanking us. Jack, three stories for today's show. What are we got in the T-boy? For our first story, Chat, GPT, just published their first ever study on how people actually use AI. The biggest finding, it's not chat GPT, it's chat GPC. For our second story,

ShakeShack just launched a French onion soup hamburger. Because ShakeShack is borrowing a strategy from Michael Coors, the fashion brand. And our third and final story is about Robin Hood, because they're launching a venture capital fund and then letting anyone invest in it. If this works, it'll

solve the most unfair rule in all the finance, the rule we hate the most. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. T-boy Tuesday. Yesterday at the end of the pod,

we asked you a trivia question. What product completely changed the music industry? This product influenced the iPod. It captivated Steve Jobs. But its original name was the Soundabout. What is this product today known as the Soundabout? It's the Sony Walkman. That was the first time you could take music

outside of your home or your car. The Sony Walkman was the first portable music player. Wild detail. It also invented the headphones, too. Now, when we were growing up, nothing screamed Christmas gift like the Sony Walkman. Jack McCulley Culkin had like seven of these things. Every McAllister got three of them for Christmas. Now, sure.

Today, the Walkman looks like a primitive listening device. But the Walkman was the inspiration for the iPod. Which was the inspiration for Spotify and streaming music. The Walkman, it is how Sony became the third biggest entertainment company on earth. And the Walkman is how Sony almost became Apple, but missed out on the whole digital opportunity. In fact, the Walkman is what led to the greatest dating hack of all time, Jack, the mixtape. If he didn't make you a mixtape, is he even serious about you? I mean, Alanis Morissette, Green Day, and TLC, all in one cassette, we'll take two. The ultimate

expression of love. Sad fact, I never got a mixtape in my whole life. Jack, this podcast is our Mix tape. Alex could still rectify that for me in case you're listening, Alex. 100 days till Christmas, Alex, just saying. So to hear how Sony Walkman actually began, check out our latest episode of the best idea yet. Our weekly show on the most viral products of all time. We dropped the link in the episode description. But in the meantime, it's T-Boy Tuesday, Jack. This is the best pie we've ever done. What do you say? We hit our three stories. Let's do it. Pressing play. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea

It's the cost 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.

Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, OpenAI, just published its first academic study on how people use chat GPT. You really use chat GPT. And if you're picturing a male coder, coding some new app in Palo Alto, that's the wrong picture of how people use AI. Now, yet he's, first of all, happy back to school season. But this time around, the professors at colleges are the ones who just got assigned something. Because OpenAI just gave Harvard and Duke University economists the first ever access to their underlying data for a study on how chat GPT is used.

Now, besties, Jack, and I got your back, so we dove in T-boy style to the study. And Jack, what was the first wild stat we noticed? 10% of the world's population uses chat GPT right now. We repeat, chat GPT is just three years old, and yet 800 million humans use the chatbot daily developed by OpenAI. Jack, you're going to have to sprinkle on more context, please. Facebook is the most used app in the world, right? It took them seven years to reach the 10% of the world milestone, more than twice as long

as Open AI. Even Zuck can't Zuck that one. Oh, some other findings we discovered? What else is in the paper jacket? Lower income countries use chat GPT more than high income countries do. 70% of usage is not related to work. It's actually personal. And the fastest growing type of chat, it's for relationship advice and role play. Yeah, not that like kinky roleplay we're talking about. There's probably some kinky roleplay. Our buddy, Timmy.

But the role play people are using is like, I'm going to ask my boss for a raise tomorrow. Help me prepare by pretending to be my boss. You know what chat GPT is going to say when you prompted with that, right? Oh, yeah, you got this, buddy. You're going to do it. You're going to get that race. And I'll give you 12 bullets and 7 emoji. How here we go, you got this, man.

Before you push, enter on that prop, say, and don't be sycophantic. Chat GPT compliments are the empty carbs of the tech industry. But Jack, what is the biggest surprise from OpenAI's first ever academic study? It's that women use chat more than men do. 50% of users are women, 48% are men. Now, a funny little caveat in the fact check here, Yetis, but ChatGTPT doesn't know the gender of us users, so instead they used our masculine and feminine names as a proxy for our genders. And in the first few months after Chat ChpT was released in 2022, 80% of users had names like

Tom, Brad, or Chad. But now that gender gap, it is totally flipped on us. Women have caught up. 52% of users today have names like Tina, Tiffany, or Tanya. And it's why Jack and I don't call a ChatGPT. call a chat gpc. Now, the biggest demographic detail that surprised us the most was that kids use chat GPT so much. It turns out 50% of chat GPT messages are from people under 26. And you thought Silicon Valley coders were the power users, build in the next app by vibe coding their afternoon at Burning Man? That's not the main use case, Nick. No, no, no, that's wrong. Coding is actually only 4% of chat GPT usage. The other 96%

It's things to improve our decision making. So add it all up, Yetis, and forget the old Silicon Valley narrative. The main way people are using ChatChief BT is to decide if you should accept his prom proposal. Yeah, 18-year-old girls. That's what's going on. Our advice, by the way, if he really wants to go with you, he would do two dozen roses, not one dozen. But Jack, no, he'd make a mixtape, Nick. And it all comes full circles. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Chat Chief ET?

We are the decisions we make. AI can help you make better ones. Yet is overall, Chad GPT's biggest use case is decision support, especially important in knowledge-intensive jobs. So if you're not sure how to use AI, this study says it's just to second-guess your decisions. That's how.

Instead of creating new content, chatGBT is being used to test yours. Let's say you just finished a paper or a report. Before you push-submit, feed the report to chat-GPT and ask it to identify weaknesses. Jack, we actually just did this at T-boy. Like, Yeties, Jack and I are extending a job offer to someone.

So before we sent them the job offer, we ran it through Chat Chaptee, like to see if we were missing any kind of key details, legal stuff, important HR things. We were missing all of those things. Nick recently asked Chat Chapti because he was going to Yosemite and he wanted to do the Half Dome hike with his wife. But upon learning how novice a hiker Nick is, Chad told him not to do that hike. Chat, TPT was like, have you heard of Central Park? in New York, you could walk through Central Park instead. That seems more skill appropriate to you. And that was a major life decision. Yeties. It sounds philosophical, but we are the decisions we make. AI can help you make better ones. For our second story, Shake Shack just launched a French

onion soup hamburger. A French onion soup burger. And they've got 18 more wild menu items, apparently up in the pipeline. Because Shake Shack is the Michael Cores of food. We'll explain. But first, Jack, I got to sprinkle on some context with some scene setting here. Molly and I anniversary every year, Shake Shack. Wait, wedding anniversary or meet cuteversary? We kind of round up and do them all at once. Okay, here it is, here it is. We do Shaq Burger, one Shroom Burger, and then we split the custard, not the check.

Is custard ice cream-based? Custard sounds like an aged ice cream, but that's a story for another pod. Yet it is as exciting as it was for Molly and I to celebrate our anniversary meal. It also was a sad meal because we happened to be Shachak shareholders. And the stock is down 30%. And by the way, Nick forgot to mention their first date ever was at a Shakeshack. Oh, and the stock of Shakeshack fell 20% like two days before our anniversary. I should also point out.

Beef prices are at all-time highs. Dairy prices are, too. In this economy, most people aren't searching for a more expensive burger. Oh, you want to add avocado? You're going to have to pay with Chase Saffire points for that one. Still, we jumped into the earnings, and Shakeshack is opening 80 new locations this year. and they're working on their first ever marketing slogan. But the big surprise getting all the attention was their newest menu invention,

a French onion soup hamburger. Is Julia Child the new chef at ShakeShack? I think she's the CEO Jack. Actually, there's a whole French onion menu they're doing at Shake Shack. Like, apparently everything but the soup. God, I love French onion soup. Well, the stock in Shake Shack, it jumped 4% on this brand new hamburger. It's a story that was covered in both Bon Appetit and CNBC.

Even though the French say it is nut, busa butter. But here's the big problem facing Shake Shack. More expensive does not mean more profitable. So yet, he's Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style to the Shake Shack menu. We looked at the one at their cow holler location in San Francisco. And Jack, what did we notice? A regular Shack burger costs $10. But the new French onion Shack burger, that'll cost you $15.

A regular vanilla custard milk shake is $7. But their new Dubai chocolate with pistachio flavor is $11. So on average, these limited time-only products are priced 50% higher than the permanent menu items. But here's the surprise. Despite that higher pricing, Shake Shack is not making more profits from them. Get this. McDonald's, which is priced way lower than Shake Shack, has 50% higher profit margins on their food. McDonald's profit margins are 30%. Shake Shacks are 20%. So what's going on here? Is Shakeshack making fancy limited-time-only food to draw people in like a lost llama? Yeah, like is this French onion burger going to get you in the store? But then they hope you spend six bucks on the more profitable French fries, maybe?

Well, get this. The CEO says they already have planned 18 more. Surprise, premium, limited time-only products in the pipeline. Let's come and shake, Jack, like quail-eg hot dogs? What are you going to say? Baluga caviar custards right there? Baluga? I know you are an oyster guy, and you're going to want that on your chili fries, Jack.

I am neither of those things, like. Spoken like a man from a landlock state. So Jack wants the takeaway for our buddies over at ShakeShack. Shake Shack is borrowing a strategy from Michael Coors. Yet he's Burger King. McDonald's, Wendy's, even five guys. None of them are offering a truffle burger, but Shake Shack is. And there's a noble element to that strategy.

They're democratizing food that's typically found only in Michelin Star restaurants. But what Jack and I find fascinating is that it's also a strategy we've seen before. We've seen it in fashion. The biggest part of the luxury industry is, is accessible fashion. Michael Coors, Torrey Birch, Kate Spade, affordable brands of unaffordable styles. Chanel will invent a brass buckle clutch, and then Michael Coors will come out with a version one-fifth the price. And that's exactly what Shake Shack is doing here, Jack. Like, forget McDonald's, what Shakeshack is doing is positioning itself as Michelin Stars for the masses.

That's the new slogan they should do. Mishol and Star for the masses. You know what, Danny Meyer, who owns like a lot of Shake Shack's stock? He has a Michelin Star. Yeah, he does. Or does he? Actually, I'm not sure. He's got enough for a constellation, Jack. Yeah, it is accessible luxury. It started in fashion. But now we're seeing it in French fries. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

For our third and final story, Robin Hood just launched a venture capital fund that anyone can invest in. What is this, the people's VC? He's exactly what it is. It is a continuation of treating the dumb money with respect. But will it invest in the SpaceX's of the world or the space wise.

The eddies in 2012, just as Nick and I started working in finance in New York City. A couple 5-10 brown-haired guys working in finance. The big IPO at the time was Facebook. What was the wild detail no one talks about about the Facebook IPO, Jack? Bono invested in Facebook two years before the IPO. The U-2 singer Bono. He got Facebook stock two years before anyone else did. He didn't get in on the dorm room floor at Harvard,

but his gains on Facebook were actually bigger than the money he made with his music. Yeah, it was so much money, it gave him vertigo. Now, well done. Now, eight years later, Nick and I watched Airbnb's IPO. The stock quadrupled on day one, but get this, only the pre-IPO investors benefited from that stock pop. You see, added up, Besties, and Jack and I were frustrated because as finance guys, we knew that our salaries can only take you so far in your pursuit of wealth. Owning things is how you get rich. But the best stocks to own, The best stocks gaining the most, it all seemed to happen before the IPO. Well, here's the news. Robin Hood is launching a venture capital fund,

letting anyone on their platform buy in to startup investments. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Robin Hood and Drisowitz over here. Robin Hood is calling it the Venture Fund one, implying more are coming in the future, which is a bold move, and it's pending SEC approval. And if Robin Hood's venture capital fund becomes real, it could knock down a hugely unfair barrier of finance.

the truth about American capitalism, investing in pre-IPO companies is a privilege, not a right, and it's a privilege that only the rich enjoy by law. By law. By the way, Jack, you know, if Robin Hood becomes a venture capital firm, you know what that means? They're going to have to open a Twitter account and become a subject matter expert on everything. Like every VC, true. Now, Betsy's Jack and I want to share and sprinkle on a little personal context for this story, right, Jack? We want to share a story about a game-changing event in our lives. It was doing a deal with Robin Hood that gave us pre-IPO stock in Robin Hood. Besties, when Jack and I sold our first company to Robin Hood,

we were given shares of Robin Hood when it was just 300 employees. After Robin Hood, IPOed three years later, it was game-changing. I bought a house and I took my entire family and my brothers and their families on vacation. That deal yet is that Jack and I were fortunate to be able to do changed our lives forever. But by law, most people can't get their hands on pre-IPO stock like Nick and I did. and we think it's one of the most contradictory regulations that explains why. It's called accredited investor. Basically, you must meet certain financial qualifications in order to be investing in private

companies. You must have either A, a minimum net worth of $1 million, or B, a minimum income of $200,000 for two years in a row. That would qualify you as a quote unquote accredited investor. And only then do you have the privilege to invest in pre-IPO companies. Now, we think the logic here is sound, right, Jack? Like, this does make sense on paper. Regulators know that investing in private companies is especially risky,

even riskier than investing in publicly traded companies. So you must be experienced and you must have money to lose. But the way they measure your sophistication is how much money do you have? Which begs the question, like, is that even constitutional? Like, can they use your richness as a proxy for smartness? It sounds blatantly unconstitutional. There's definitely some rich people who aren't smart. and some not rich people who are very smart.

Instead, we wish they had a more nuanced way to become an accredited investor in private companies, right? Like an investing test. What if you got a venture capital license? You had to pass your series VC. That would be more fair than judging you based on your net worth. But in the meantime, Robin Hood is going to use blockchain tokens as a way to bypass this exclusionary regulation.

And let anybody invest in pre-IPO companies like Bono. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? over at Robin Hood. The devil's in the details. In this case, the devil's in the deals. Yeties, if you buy shares in Robin Hood's venture capital fund, you're buying a, as they put, its concentrated portfolio of private companies at the frontiers of their respective industries. But will those companies you invest in be winners or losers of their respective industries? Because for every SpaceX, there are many, many failed rocket companies. Actually, on average, within every venture capital fund, typically only one out of ten startups end up truly succeeding.

In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 75% of venture capital funds don't gain money. They lose money overall. So the majority of VCs fail. It's risky. That's why there are so many regulations around them. They don't want people losing their entire life savings on one venture capital investment that they weren't well informed on. That's why the way we see it, for Robin Hood to succeed here, it needs to hire actual VCs who actually invest in promises. startups. Will Robin Hood's venture capital firm be like a Sequoia or an Andreessen? If so, we want to buy stock in that fund. Oh, well it be like a JVC, a junior varsity version of venture capital that fails to invest in good companies at good prices? The devil's in the details. In this case,

the devil's in the deals. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Open AI just partnered with Duke and Harvard for the first study on how people actually use chat GPT. Yeties, we are the decisions we make. Using AI can help. help you make better ones. For our second story, Shakechak just launched their French onion soup menu. Everything French onion but the soup. Not possible. This is accessible luxury but for food. And we've seen that strategy before in fashion with Michael Coors. And our third and final story, Robin Hood is launching a VC fund that anyone can invest in, bypassing accredited investor regulations with the blockchain. But the devils and the details, and in this case, the devils

are the deals. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what I'm else you need to know today. First, we have a TikTok deal. President Trump announced TikTok could be sold to someone, but there's a deal, but there's no details. The buyer and the seller have agreed, but they're not available yet. It was the most detail, free deal announcement we have ever heard. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the deal will be finalized by this Friday. Because he's meeting with China to talk trade. Our prediction, Larry Ellison of Oracle? Yeah, probably involved. For our second story, guess who Albania just appointed to be a member of the cabinet.

An AI bot. We repeat, the country of Albania has a new public minister named Diella. An AI bot and Jack, what is her task? To tackle corruption. This AI is going to review RFPs and other government contracts to root out potential conflicts of interest. It's actually created in partnership with Microsoft. She has a face.

She has a name. And she wears a virtual Albanian historical outfit. And finally, speaking of 100 days until Christmas, Best Buy is now selling a TV for 120,000, $1,000 because it's the size of your entire wall. Oh, 100 days till Christmas. How about 100 inch TV? That's HD and will be over 100 grand.

That's not big enough, Nick. It's 136 inches. Okay, at that height and price, the total addressable market is, I'm thinking like, what do you think? Two people, the Winkle Vi twins? Does that work? Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by legendary Yeti,

Nick Lecissiro from lovely New York City. In lower Manhattan, there is a functional working clock built into the sidewalk on Maiden Lane. The Bartman Sidewalk Clock, if you will. It was installed over 100 years ago by a jewelry shop on that block so that people would be able to check the time as they were walking down the street. It was also partly a marketing tool to get people thinking about, you know what, if I have to look down on the sidewalk to watch the time,

I mean, maybe I need a watch. But it was also partly a public safety issue, because when people stopped to look at the watch or the clock, I mean, it would cause traffic buildup. Get out of the way. Yeties today, it's one of the first. of the only sidewalk clocks left in the United States. And yes, it still works. Yeties, you look fantastic today. And remember, if you haven't yet, go check out the best idea

yet for our weekly episode, this one on the Sony Walkman. Sony had the portable music market on lockdown. They should have invented the iPod, but they failed the innovator's dilemma. Jack, I'm still getting over the emotional pain of hearing no one's ever made you a mixtape. Either you or Alex, dude. It's a race. Who's going to get the... their first. Alex, it's on. Jack and I will see you tomorrow, Bestie. And before we go, a congratulations to Legendary Yeti's Cori and a Chedown in lovely Los Angeles. They've got a new baby girl named Nora. She just turned a wonderful three months old. Happy anniversary to Bree Jong and Xavier Kowalski in Gainesville, Florida, Go Gators, their first anniversary and they've got a

baby due this October. Alan Trong down in Dallas is closing on his first house. Congratulations, Alan. And congratulations to Ray Roberson in Atlanta, Georgia, who just landed a new job. And besties, if you want to get a shout out or a birthday win on this pod, just fill out the form in our episode description. We'll get you on the show. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a tee boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack, Nick own stock of ShakeShack, and we both own stock of Robin Hood, Airbnb, Apple, and Spotify.