The Best One Yet - 🎉 “Chief Cheerleader Officer” — Airbnb’s nomad CEO. USPS’ free Covid test. 5G’s anticlimactic climax.

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

Airbnb’s CEO is leaving his home to live in Airbnbs across the country… because CEOs are now Chief Cheerleading Officers. The US Postal Service just set up a website to send you 4 free Covid tests. It works because it took tricks from the tech industry. And 5G, the fastest internet speed out there, launched yesterday, which strangely might have canceled your flight.$ABNB $VZ $TGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Thursday, the new Friday, January 20th. Stocks are still doing that thing where they fall. Yeah, it's the worst kind of thing. Hey, NASDAQ, you may want to get that thing on your side check now. Today's pod, though, it's the best one yet.

It's a TBI-O-Y check and I whipped it up for you. Jack, what's the first story today? Airbnb is CEO, he grabbed this phone charger and left the house forever. Forever. Like, we have no timeline on this. The next Airbnb earnings report, it's going to come from an actual Airbnb. For our second story, the United States Postal Postal Service just launched a website to send you for free COVID tests.

So Jack and I jumped in Snackstyle and we did it and it works. It actually worked. It works because the Postal Service took tech's best tricks. Got a lot of those tricks. Third and final story, Jack, what do we got? After years of 5G, 5G, 5G this. The world's fastest wireless actually arrived yesterday. And Snackers, if your flight from JFK to Boston was canceled yesterday, this is stupidly why.

But Snackers, before we hit that wonderful. I love this mix. I really love this mix, Jack. Trivia. What's the biggest organ in the human body? I got this wrong. The first time I got this wrong. Nick, your epidermist is showing. The answer, Jack, you got the honors. It's skin. Skin is the biggest organ. It's huge. Skin care is important. Jack, I got a night cream serum, moisturizer all in one, two and one. Right, because your face is like your physical profile picture. It's important. So Jack and I know you're thinking, how do you take care of your skin? What's going to be your

routine? Jack and I have found the solution for you, Snackers. baloney mask. Yeah. Specifically, the Oscar Meyer baloney mask, that's the one you want to go with. The Oscar Meyer baloney face mask. Snackers, real thing, the wiener company, Oscar Myers, they were already in our bellies. Yeah, now they want to be on your face. Oscar Meyer is launching a limited edition baloney face mask with a skincare company based in South Korea. Of course. It's the same artificial color that you know and love from like your third grade sandwich without

the crust. And that my dad still loves today, the bologna and butter. sandwich, classic. Big Dad's never going to not throw some mayo on that thing. But here's the difference. You wear the bologna. You don't eat the bologna. This is a skincare product, the bologna mask. And here are the ingredients in the thing that you put on your face for like 15 minutes. Jack, first ingredient here, they got collagen. I know you like collagen. Love it. Okay, it's got hazel, which I don't know what that is, but it sounds good. I thought that was a color. Yeah. Seweed. Okay. I've heard good things about seaweed on the face. Nick, Nick, Nick. Those are the active ingredients. The inactive ingredient is the biggest one. And it's pork, we think.

That we do. Snackers, this thing hydrates like a cold cut. And the nitrates do the exfoliators. Nothing glows like a lunchmeat. This thing tastes like how Dewey feels. But remember, before you toss this on, you wear the baloney. Don't let the baloney wear you. Nick, let's hit our three slices.

You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something illegal out the way. It snacks about the hair ain't food. It's ear candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any. securities. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security.

Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, Airbnb, CEO is so committed to Airbnb. That is only going to live in Airbnb. He's not putting his money where his mouth is. No, no, no. He's putting his body there. Okay, so first of all, we all know, you know someone who like, you're looking up, you're like, what is Lauren doing in Bogota this week in Miami this week? Oh, yeah, she's a digital nomad during the pandemic. I was kind of that for a while. I let my lease expire and I was living from Airbnb to Airbnb. You like pulled a Francis McDormand. I'm like, where are we potting from today? He's like, I don't know, I'm in a camper here. I'm going to camper there. Well, CEO Brian Cheskey tweeted

Tuesday that he's doing that. Yeah, here is the tweet Snackers. Starting today, I'm living on Airbnb, staying in a different town or city every couple weeks. This week, if you're at Airbnb and you have the pleasure of zooming with Brian Chesky, you're going to see Atlanta in the background. Yeah, you are. If you're like walking out of Atlanta in Piedmont Park, you may see Brian like on his AirPods talking to someone. And then in a week or two, Brian's going to have to buy a new mini toothpaste tube and move on to his next Airbnb. Yeah, I don't like.

It could be like a, you know, a six-bedroom sharehouse condo over on the Jersey Shore. Maybe he's moving into that Winnie the Pooh. Airbnb. Another one you're talking about. If he doesn't do a tree house, though, this is a complete failure, it feels like. I bet he's the super annoying guest who asks the host for proof that the Wi-Fi speed is high enough to his standards. Yeah, he's the guest who's like, I don't want to be that guy, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I could see the download Wi-Fi speed. You're going to want to go to Google, search internet speed test, wait for it to finish.

Yeah, it's a key. And then send me a screenshot. That's a good pro tip, Jack. Full disclosure, Nick and I have both done that. We did that frequently. Now, Snackers, we know you're thinking, this is basically the plot of undercover CEO. Right. The CEO wants to experience the company not as the CEO, but as an everyday customer.

But, you know, without the strange makeup and wig situation, you got an undercover CEO. Exactly. Brian Chesky is the only CEO we know with 27 mailing addresses in the last 12 months. Now, is this a marketing gimmick? Yes, but it's not only a marketing gimmick. It's not only a marketing gimmick. Because if you look at the data, it's actually a year's long research trip. The data shows that Airbnb's business has changed dramatically in the past year.

Absolutely. And CEO, Brian Chesky, wants to understand that change. Okay, Jack, let's whip out the whiteboard over here. Can we talk about the recent bookings over at Airbnb and the big changes? All right. Half of the bookings at Airbnb. Half are for stays over a week. That's completely different. And get this, one-fifth, one out of every five Airbnb's bookings is for over a month.

A hundred thousand Airbnb bookings. Huge number. I've been for over three months. I remember my first like 10 bookings were just for a weekend. That's it. That's all you were doing. But that's the minority now, that kind of booking. Yeah, well, Snackers, this makes sense because last year, Jack and I were telling you about the beliezer trend, business and leisure.

It's harder to travel during the pandemic. So once people get to where they're traveling to, they're staying longer and turning it into a work and play vacation combo. Which we literally did last weekend. Jack, we booked a Tahoe Airbnb for the weekend. You and Molly. Yeah, exactly. And then we extended it for the week so I could pod from the ski house and I was potting with you all week long and never skis. it until the weekend. I was ridiculously jealous of that apron. But we got some great podcast. Brian Chesky thinks leisure isn't just a one-off trend. He thinks it's the future of travel.

So he is experiencing it as a customer. He is living it as a customer. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at Airbnb? New corporate role, chief cheerleader officer. Snackers, the CEO's role, it's fundamentally management. You know, they're managing the company for shareholders. The CEO makes the big decisions. It's responsible. for those big decisions and gets fired if those big decisions kill their profit puppy by accident. But Jack and I have noticed that the role of the CEO is evolving and the expectations are changing. Now, cheerleader is a job requirement. And the best way to cheerlead is to use and love your company's product.

CEOs are acting like influencers, creatively marketing their company's products at scale. Yeah, Richard Branson, for example, he literally went into space to highlight Virgin Galactic Rockets. Now, Brian Chesky is living full-time in different Airbnbs so he can tell the world about it. Okay, so we're expecting more of this. Like, Jack, how about Uber CEO, Dara? Why doesn't he pick up customers? I don't know, like one hour a week. Literally drive for Uber.

And then live stream the front stoop drop-off experience for all to seek. Snackers, the CEO role, it is evolving. It's now also the chief cheerleader officer. For our second story, Newman, the United States Postal Service. U.SPS, they are now dishing out four COVID tests for free to every single American household. And to make it work, the federal government snagged three tricks from the tech industry. Okay, Snackers, here's the site. You ready? New government website launched a day early, COVID test.gov. Trigger warning, please. New government website.

Yeah, it's pretty freaky. You're going to like hurt yourself. We have to mention health care.com. We do. Jack, we should, um, should we go? Should we go? back to 2013. Let's go back to 2013. The Obama administration finally launched its online health care exchange. Now, this was the most visible part of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Healthcare.gov was the face of Obamacare. It was the soul of the operation. It was everything you would see. Get this thing in Oscar Meyer baloney mask. Despite years of preparing for this launch, so many years. Healthcare.gov was an abysmal failure full of glitches. Yeah, it was basically, we were getting DMV vibes when you got on this thing.

The screen froze faster than the night game. Honestly, great thing. memes were not a thing yet because that would have been rough. All right. They eventually fixed healthcare.com. But back to COVID tests. Right, right, right. Yes, Jack. The physical component of this brand new COVID test.

Dotgov, it is flawed. The physical component. Because they're sending free COVID test to households. But those orders, they ship in late January when the Omicron surge is expected to have passed. Yeah. Why couldn't this have launched you know two months ago? would have been the perfect timing, right? I was sending my brothers across state lines to find COVID tests to make sure we could all hug Nana. Jack, somewhere on the Lower East side, my sister,

she's like, still in line downtown. Free at home COVID test for all Americans. It's coming a little late. But shocker, snackers, get this. The tech component of this new COVID test.gov website, it's actually been a huge success in the last 24 hours. Nick and I have both gone through the customer experience. We both ordered four free at-home COVID test from COVIDTest.gov. It took less than a minute. You literally could go on right now to that website, order the test before Jack and I get to the takeaway. It's a two-step, two-click, 30-second process. It's run by the postal service, but it feels like an Amazon Prime transaction. If you're on it right now, you're already halfway done. Congratulations. And it's not just Nick and me. Early reports are that

a vast majority of people going on to this website are completing the process without any issues. So this new COVID test.gov, it's basically the complete opposite of healthcare.com. Trigger one. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at this new government website for COVID tests? The federal government stole tech's three best tricks. Snackers, unprecedented. Uncle Sam is treating citizens like the tech industry treats customers. First, this new initiative, COVID test.gov, it destroys friction.

Right. That's the first trick because, you know, one click checkout. That is the sexiest thing in e-commerce these days. If you go to COVID-Test.gov, it's not one-click, but two clicks get you your order. And that's pretty darn good. That's the next closest thing to one-click. All right, the second trick from tech that this government website uses is it limits choice. Tesla is a classic choice reducer. They only give you a couple options for your model three.

You choose a color. You choose rims. That's about it. Yeah, but COVID-Test.gov, there is literally no choice. You have no choices. Every order is the same. You get four tests. That's it.

And the third trick from tech that this website uses is it minimizes the sign-up process. Your Uber account is linked to your unique phone number. One Uber account per one phone number. Well, your free COVID test account is linked to your unique mailing address. One unique account per one unique mailing address. This flow, it requires no username, no password, no setup, no click to confirm, no proving you're not a robot. You don't even need to add your phone number or email address. I swear I'm not a robot. All you do is you enter one mail,

mailing address, boom, you're done. That's it. Now, early reports are showing a small percentage of orders are having trouble. Right. Those are the ones in some apartment buildings where there are issues with the apartment numbers. But this pretty darn good flowing operation, it vindicates the mistakes made from healthcare.com. Because it stole text three best tricks. For our third and final story, what about your phone? You're looking at your phone, Jack? Are you seeing this? Hold on. Okay. I have it. Got it. Okay, here it is. Snackers, 5G. You're going to see 5G.

It was supposed to be the biggest thing in internet speed ever. And it began yesterday. But we're talking about airlines. Yeah. Talking about airlines. Snackers, if you're on the four train, you're commuting to Midtown, you get that video out. You want to see the video your buddy Timmy sent you of his late night city bike ride. And then buffering.

Buffering. You try to refresh your window. Nothing's happening. You open it in a new tab thinking that might fix the problem. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Snackers, we all just want our phones to be faster. Yeah, you look on the upper right-hand corner of your phone, that's where you get your stress,

because you see the bars and then you see a number. 3G, 4G, LTE, 5G, 5G plus 4E. Can you hear me now? That's all I care about, Jack. Wi-Fi calling. Well, Snacker is to all that stress, 5G. 5G was supposed to be the solution. 5G was super hyped.

It was the way to make internet on your phone actually instant. Yeah, 5G was going to put the Insta and Instagram. But instead, 5G was the most anticlimactic big new thing ever. Yeah, honestly, it was like Avatar too. We're still waiting, James Cameron. We're still waiting. Yesterday, James Cameron delivered. 5G is here, baby.

5G means get this, 10 times faster download speeds on your phone for 165 million Americans. Now, your phone might have already said 5G prior to today, but now it's actually really 5G and even the wireless companies are admitting. That's why Verizon's PR team is popping bubbles. They've been waiting for this. 90 million Verizon customers and 75 million AT&T customers turned on to listen to today's pod without the typical delay in that little spiral thing. Because now your phone's got 5G, which Jack, it leads to the question, why is like 5G even

so powerful in the first place? Because this version of 5G is a whole different wavelength. Yeah, Snackers. Or if you don't want to have to explain this to people, just say it's physical. The answer is physics. That's why 5G is different. Full disclosure, I only got a three in AP physics. So, grain assault. At least you tick it.

But Verizon has invested $46 billion to buy the rights to the airspace from the U.S. government for this wavelength of 5G. Hey, Isaac Newton, you're on a roll. You want to take the rest of this explanation? AT&T dropped $23 billion for this airspace so they can shoot invisible streams of information through the airwaves to your. device. Yeah, to keep it simple, Snackers, new airwave means better speed on your phone. This is the 5G jubilation moment. And it should be thrilling, except there's one problem.

Instead of talking about the glory of 5G high speed. We're talking about 5G canceling your flight from LAX to Chicago O'Hare, your flight. Airlines instead of airwaves. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at 5G? This totally random airline snafu could actually be great for this 5G moment. Yeah, Snackers, there's actually one group who shockingly hates 5G and it's airplanes. Airlines are literally begging the wireless companies to not turn on the 5G switch. Yeah, they claim some of their older planes rely on the same airwaves as your phone's 5G network. And there ain't room in this wavelength for the both of us. In fact, airlines, they predicted, get this, catastrophic disruption, their words, if 5G service was

turned on your phone. Those are their words in a letter they wrote to the Biden administration. They're tattling on the wireless companies to the president. So the wireless companies, they agreed to leave the airspace around airports alone and not have 5G. Bad news for AT&T customers who won't get 5G high speed while they're stuck in their airplane on the tarmac taxing for like two hours. But here is what Jack and I are thinking. You know what? All of this airline drama, it could actually be pretty good marketing for 5G.

With such a delayed rollout, 5G, it lost all its hype. It lost all the momentum. No one even notices 5G news anymore. But this airline drama, it's been a bolt of marketing magic. 165 million Americans now know that that really expensive high-speed 5G has actually arrived. Because airplanes were paranoid about your iPhone signal. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Brian Chesky, he's so committed to Airbnb, he's living it.

permanently. Yeah, he's also Airbnb's chief cheerleader officer. New thing. For our second story, healthcare.gov was like Ask Jeeves. It was. COVID test.gov. It's more like Google. Yeah, the federal government stole three tricks from tech. That's how they did it. For our third and final story, 5G is finally, actually, literally here. And you might not have noticed that. But you probably did. And that's because of some random airline snafu from yesterday. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by Samuel Braden from a lovely Johnson City, Tennessee. 7-Eleven, which I think got its name because it was open from 7 until 11.

Now it's 24 hours, but keep up the great work. 7-Eleven claims to have coined the term brain freeze. Yeah, they're not saying they made it famous. They claimed they, like, created it. They originated this thing. Brain freeze, of course, is that awful feeling in your head. After seven huge gulps of a slurpee, you drank way too fast. Well, 7-Eleven, they invented it.

Oh, and they own it. They've been serving up those icy braze freezing. thing since 1965. Yeah, and 7-Eleven. They've trademarked the word brain freeze, so they literally own it too. Are we going to mention the Night King a second time in this podcast? A third time. I think we're giving them a birthday shout out. Snackers, you'll look fantastic today. If you want to look more fantastic and you don't have any bologna, you know, mortadella or prosciutto, both of those will do. Sharing your snacks also gives you that glowy-duey look that you want. Oh, and before we go, quick correction from Doug and Jage, two snackers who pointed out a mistake, Jack and

I made yesterday. Big mistake. Wishbone the dog, he wasn't a beagle. Now, he was a Jack Russell Terrier. Snoopy was a Beagle. And we don't know what Shiloh was. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a shout out to Snackers Pipsa, Lars, and Carly, who are snacking together on the way to school in the car in Boulder, Colorado. Huge snacks shout out to Lorenzo, the biggest fan of Ferraris who's turning 10 in Sausalita. And happy birthday to feel St. Eagle, Laura Falks over in New York City. Happy birthday to Carlos, aka. Pollo in the Woodlands, Texas. Oh, and Emmy Beale, have a great birthday with the family over in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Happy 21st to Miss Rachel Birkman in Fargo, North Dakota. And Joey Max, turning 28 down in Charleston. Happy birthday to Jeremy in Westfield, New Jersey. And Andrew Bester in Harrison, New York. And Jacqueline in Schaumburg, Illinois. And Jack Leonard in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And happy birthday to Captain Mark Messier, the captain, of Canada, remember 94.

Jack, it feels like 94. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb and I own stock of Amazon. Robin Hood Snacks, newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to

serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc., Robin Hood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. We're still waiting, James Cameron. We're still waiting.