The Best One Yet - 🥥 “Coco FOMO” — Vita Coco’s 5x IPO. Garmin’s Y2K watch. Dell’s backyard battery dude. +James Bond WFH

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Michael Dell’s son is selling bear-sized backyard batteries… for 95% cheaper than Elon’s.How is Garmin beating the Apple Watch with run clubs?... By rocking Y2K little tech energy.Vita Coco’s coconut water stock surged 400% since its IPO… because of peaks vs summits.Plus, we got the secret work schedule of James Bond writer Ian Fleming… it’s a work-from-home productivity thriller.$COCO $GRMN $DELL $NUTGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-boy, Tuesday, August 4th. And today's pod is the best one you had of this is a T-boy. The top three pop-business news stories you need to know today. Bestie stocks be popping Monday, as the president decided to not escalate the war in Iran and says negotiations are happening instead. The NASDAQ jumped 2% Monday while the S-P-500 is now just 0.1% from an all-time high. Jack, you whip out the whiteboard there for those of us keeping track over here?

This is the eighth time the president has paused strikes to pursue. a deal. Oh, we're going for the triple hat trick. Nine times is the charm. The triple hat-e-jack, three fantastic stories for the funnest place in finance. What have we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, it's Vita Coco. The Pure Play Coconut Water Company is up 500% since its IPO. From flirting to founding, we'll tell you how the Vita Coco team beat Coke and Pepsi. For our second story, every summer we set record heat waves, but there's a wild new solution that just raised a billion dollars. Dude, you're getting a Dell battery? No, no, kind of.

Michael Dell's son will sell you a backyard battery the size of a bear for just $695. Yeah, dude, you're getting to Dell. And our third and final story, notice that everyone in your run club is ditching their Apple Watch or Google Fitbit for a Garmin instead? Because Garmin went back to Y2K, and shockingly, it's working. But yet he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. Did you know that Nick has a unfinished...

collection of original James Bond books. Oh, it's never going to be finished. Get this. I've been collecting first edition, mined condition, James Bond books. I got five of the OG 14 right now, Jack. The other nine are your bucket list. Yeah, they're beautiful. Because before it became a $10 billion movie franchise, James Bond was a book series. A book series with a beautiful cover written by Ian Fleming, a former British spy. And every summer Ian Fleming would fly to his house in Jamaica, which he called GoldenEye. And for 14 straight years, every year, Fleming wrote a brand new James Bond book. And for 14 straight years every year, Fleming's bond book became a bestseller. In fact, James Bond books are one of the great productivity streaks in business history, and we got to tell you

about it. Because we just got a copy of Ian Fleming's daily routine. Oh, it is wild. What have you got on this, Jack? On days that he was in Jamaica, Ian Fleming would get up at 7.30 a.m. To bathe in the ocean, eat eggs and sit in the garden watching birds, according to him. At 10 a.m., he would sit down and write 1,500 words without looking back. 1215, snorkel, for lobsters and drink two pink gins with lunch. At 2.30, siesta. 4 p.m. swim. 5 p.m. write 500 more words.

And then 7 p.m. dinner and scrabble with the wife, and followed by a 10 p.m. bedtime. One of the most successful writers ever spent only four hours of the day writing. But 11 hours sleeping or napping, Jack. And the rest of the day, swimming, reflecting, and drinking two gins. We'll have two more pink gins, please. But Nick, it's that leisure and resting time

that made him so wildly efficient during those four hours of daily work. Ian Fleming could, as he put it, right without looking back. So to everyone remote working right now, you may not need five back-to-back-to-back Zoom calls. To do your best work, you may just need a 2 p.m. snorkel. Or 3 p.m. Scrabble. It made millions for James Bond, Jack. Shaken and stirred. Again, where are the gins, Jack?

Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an 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, Vita Coco, the coconut water brand. is up 5x in the stock market since their 2021 IPO. We had to figure out how Vita Koka, this tiny startup, beat Coke and Pepsi to become number one.

Oh, we got the receipts. But Bessies, this is the first time we've ever covered a company where the founding story began with flirting. Michael Curvin and Ira Lyron were hitting on two Brazilian women at the bar and asked them what they missed most about Brazil. Asking a woman what you miss most about her home country, That is a good conversation starter for a future date. And also a good accidental market research session as well.

Yes, it is, Jack, because a year later, Ira sold everything he owned, moved down to Rio, and married that Brazilian woman from that bar. And a few years later, in 2004, he launched Vitacocca with Michael Curbin as an early mover in the coconut water space in America. Basically, they imported the idea. What do we mean by that? It was idea arbitrage. He saw a big idea was flourishing in one country. Brazil. But hadn't been introduced yet to an...

another country. United States. Yet. But Besties Vita Coco was so early. So early. Their first $75,000 shipment of product got seized by the U.S. border and customs control. Yeah, apparently no one was expecting giant servings of coconut water. They forgot to register it with the FDA. Rash, Turner. Rash. And it took off from there because millennials ditched the cocoa puffs, didn't we, Jack? And without cocoa puffs, we turned to coconut water. Basically, the plant-based generation went cuckoo for coconut water. We're talking about 2010 to 2015 when we were all living in the coconut wars. Coconut water, it was the new Gatorade. You could not walk out a soul cycle draped in Lulu Lemon without running into a coconut smoothie shop somewhere. Can't leave the yoga studio without

my harmless harvest jack. Which is why Coca-Cola acquired Zico coconut water in 2013. Making Coca-Cola the biggest player in the coconut water industry. And then Pepsi fast-followed by investing in one coconut water. Because Pepsi got some cocoa fomo. Vita Cocoa. did not sell out. Instead, they made a strategic coconut alliance. Because Vita Coco partnered with Dr. Pepper for distribution in order to match Coke and Pepsi. And in 2021, they IPO the company. The first and only pure play coconut water stock because they didn't sell the business. But plot twist. Pepsi's one coconut water we told you about? They phased out the consumer business and only do enterprise. Oh, and Coca-Cola? They sold off their Zico coconut water. No

cuckoo for cocoa anymore. What we're saying is the world's two biggest beverage brands, that coconut water is a fat. That it was over, it was done. Guys, let's get out of here. Or is it? Because Vita Koko's stock is up 5x since that 2021 IPO. And Vita Koko's sales last quarter up 28 percent, their profits doubled. And because coconut water tastes different in Thailand, according to Nick. It does. They just acquired Kopa, Thailand's fanciest coconut water brand. It's sweeter, trust me. So how did the biggest brains in beverage decide? Coconut water is dead, but Vita Koko is now living its best life because they disagreed? Can we say Kuku one more more time? Probably in the takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies? Cuckoo for

Vita Coco. Don't confuse a peek for a summit. Yeti's foods are one of the three Fs of fads, as we've told you. It's easy to understand why Coke and Pepsi decided to get out. It was the classic fad playbook. Demand surge, but then the hype slowed, so Coke pivoted to the next new thing. But Vita Koko recognized that hype can come in cycles and can scale. Because during the pandemic, coconut water resurged as a natural health remedy. And then, After the pandemic with live events, coconut water surged again as a natural hangover cure. Vita Coco is a reminder that when you hit the top, it could be the summit that you're standing on. The single highest point.

Or it could just be a peak. A high point, but there are more higher points yet to come. That's how coconut water has played out. It's a recurring fad that won't fade. And Vita Coco stuck with it. For our second story, Michael Dell's son built a bare-sized backyard battery that could save all of the state's energy problems. I love this story.

And by serving two customers at the same time, this home battery is basically free. But yet is, in order for us to tell this story, let's travel back to 2021, a brutal winter storm hits Texas. Power was out for days as the entire state of Texas was frozen. Energy capital of the world was desperate for power that winter.

Pipes were bursting, $26 billion of property got destroyed, and sadly, at least 246 Texas. Texans died in that winter storm. Every Texan was rushing over to H.E.B. to buy a generator, so next time they could burn gas to power their house instead. Well, Zach Dell, the son of Texas business icon Michael Dell, of dude you're getting a Dell, launched a company instead to take care of the next storm. And this neppopreneur just pulled off the biggest fundraise of the year. That is not AI. To build base backyard batteries. Yeah, backyard batteries in the backyard.

Zach Dell wants every house in Texas to have a big battery in the back yard. But not just for the cold days, for also the hot days, we'll explain it a bit. The company is called Base, and it has a plant in Austin, Texas, making Texas-sized home batteries. Jack, let's bring a little in some context. We're not talking AAAs, double A's, not those huge D's that you put in the big toys they hear your kids on Christmas. This battery is the size of a large wine cooler or a small bear. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the batteries. And Zach Dell just raised $1 billion at a $13 billion valuation.

But he swears the money didn't come from his billionaire dad. Although we bet you it came from a bunch of his dad's friends. But best is this is what Jack and I find fascinating. This huge backyard battery, it feeds two birds with one scone. And that makes it basically free to own. Okay, Emily Dickens. You like that a little Iamic pantameter on you? It was a peaceful take on a historically violent turn of phrase.

Just trying to be part of the solution, not the problem, Jack. Now, the first solution this base battery provides, we already clarified. It's backup power source for when the power goes out. So the house will instantly wrap. recognize when the power goes out and then switch you over to the base backyard battery instead. The lights might flicker for a second. It's almost instantaneous. That big battery in your backyard, by the barbecue, it's going to be powering your home. The second bird that this one scone feeds would be the electric companies. Because Texas isn't just the capital of American energy anymore,

it's becoming the capital of data centers. 140 data centers are currently under construction in Texas, and those data centers have enormous electricity demands. So get this. Yes, Bays is partnering with the electric companies to let them use the battery when they needed to. All the base batteries are going to be connected to the grid, and the grid will draw down on those batteries during peak demand hours. So, Jack, could you set the scene for us, Christopher Nolan style, please? I mentioned those peak demand hours, Nick. That's when everyone is asking chat GPT questions at the same time while also cranking their air conditioning and running their washer and dryer machine. Yeah, the grid is going to run out of juice when you do all of that.

So instead of having to build a new power plant, just for those extreme peak. demand moments, they're going to use the power stored in all those base batteries in everybody's backyards. Basically, besties, the customer gets the backup power for emergencies. And the electric company gets backup power for those peak demand moments. Voila, two birds served with one scone. Base is only available in Texas and Illinois right now, which is where the regulations allow it. They've installed 23,000 batteries so far. It's like one power plant that spread across a bunch of backyards. That's not a bear on your porch. That's a base. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who should use that slogan over at base?

Base isn't trying to be better than Tesla. They're trying to be different. Yeties, remember when we said base was based in Austin, Texas? Well, funny thing. So is Tesla. And that's a problem, because Tesla's been making home backup batteries just like this since 2015. They're called power walls. But those Tesla power walls, they cost the homeowner $13,000 bucks. Very expensive upgrade to your garage to get one of those. Base, on the other hand, cost homeowners just $695 and then $19 a month, because technically, it's not yours.

Aha, you see, base just charges the homeowner for installation. It's the utility company who pays for the rest because your battery is also their energy source. The utility is the one who's going to use your battery the most because they're going to use it on those peak demand days, so they pay for most of it. The fact that you get it in a power outage, that's your benefit for giving them nine square feet of space in your yard. This is a risky business we should point out. Base is responsible for running in this distributed backyard power plant. And it's already worth $13 billion. That's a pretty frothy valuation for young biz.

But investors are betting that as our planet gets warmer in water and more data centery, we're going to need more batteries. Base, they aren't trying to be better than Tesla. They're trying to be different. Dude, where's my base? Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Garmin Stock was almost killed by the iPhone, but has been saved by the wrist.

Now Garmin Stock is at all-time highs because run clubs don't want convenience. They want to compete. 1491. That year, Spanish cartographer Juan de la Cosa created the first known paper map. What were they making maps on before? Quilts? One sec. Just check out this tattoo on my left arm over here.

Yep, that is... It was probably a tattoo. Maybe left around Paris. Yeah, I'd show you the map. but I left it in the cave. Make her right on my bicep? Yeah, that's Lisbon. Well, in 1991, 500 years later,

Garmin invented something that would destroy the paper map forever. Ah, behold, the first ever GPS device. The first GPS device that used satellite connectivity cost $2,500. Oh, boy, you'd enter your longitude and latitude and it would simply track a straight line

to get to that point. There was no screen. It would buzz if you went off course. So it was really just for naval or aviation purposes. And not exactly the turn-by-turn directions you appreciate today, Siri. Well, by 2008, Garmin had made the car GPS unit. Suction Cup sold separately, and it became 64% of the company's revenue. Not too shabby, but today, car GPS has fallen from 64% of Garmin's revenues down to 0%.

Because Google Maps plus the iPhone killed the car GPS unit. And yet, and this is the reason we wanted to cover this story. Garmin just announced record revenue, record profit, and record all-time high stock price. Garmin is all-time high. A-Thing. It's the most famous thing coming out of Kansas since Ted Lassow.

Besties, the stock of this vintage tech brand has tripled in just the last three years. Nick, when iPhone killed the GPS unit, we assumed Garmin was going to go bankrupt like Blockbuster, and now it's all-time high. Because, and this is what we find fascinating, Garmin eventually built that satellite tracking GPS

into a wristband and rebranded it as fitness. Today, fitness trackers are Garmin's biggest, fastest growing division by far. We're talking wearable, cycling, wellness trackers, that grew 25% last quarter and it's up 3x in less than four years. Nick, how is Garmin booming when you got Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oro Ring, whoop,

or just iPhone in your pocket has competition. Well, we discovered, as we jumped in T-boy style, a few reasons. The first, that Garmin uses satellites. So it's more precise than a whoop or an iPhone at tracking your runs. See, Runner, Rachel, she doesn't want to post on Strava that she was cutting corners

on her 12th mile that morning. uses a garment. Plus, Garmin's batteries last way longer's, so she can use it for a marathon, unlike with the Apple Watch. You see, Rutter Rachel, she prefers PRs to PBRs. She touches all the lines and wears a garment on her wrist to prove it. Add to that, the boom and run clubs, marathons, high rocks, races, and other competitive outdoor competitions like Iron Man. Nick, 1.3 million people just applied to the London Marathon. That's up 79% from two years ago. And all of those hardcores are rockin' garments. It's becoming, if you know, you know brand, the people who know their body weight percentage. To sell more, they bet on the hardcore. So Jack,

I believe we've actually arrived at our takeaway destination. What's the takeaway for our buddies over at Garmin? Garmin is beating big tech because it went back to Y2K. Yeties, the Garmin watch, it's big, it's kind of ugly, it's unstylish, and it has big tactile buttons. But runners love those big tactile buttons. Because the touchscreen, that's not touchable if you're running 180 beats per minute. See, Apple and Google, their watches sell the convenience and compatibility of a big tech ecosystem. But Garmin's tracker has no ecosystem. It's a one-trick fitness tracking pony. Wilder, Garmin isn't fighting to get your credit card number for a monthly subscription charge. Garmin sells a device. The device works, and you don't need to pay a subscription to use it. A wildest example of that?

Well, the new Garmin screenless wellness tracker. It's their whoop knockoff. But while Woop charges a $200 a year subscription, Garmin charges $200 just once. for the device. For that dup device, that's it. Whoop, there it isn't. 18 years after Apple crushed Garmin's top product, Garmin is now looking better than ever worth $56 billion. That's nine lips, baby.

Its customers love it, and so do investors, because they didn't follow the tech playbook. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Vita Coco stock has 5X since their 2021 IPO, as coconut water has had longevity. weren't standing on a summit, they were standing on a peak. For our second story, base powers trying to install a bare-sized battery in everyone's backyard. It's not better than Tesla's power wall. It's different.

And our third and final story, sales of Garman's fitness tracking devices have tripled in four years, despite big tech competition. Because the tech is designed in Kansas and looks like Y2K. You can tell, and that's why people love it. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, a happy earning season to all those who celebrate. Big Waker earnings kicked off yesterday. Ballanteer announced that AI sales doubled, and the CEO described their demand as otherworldly.

Snapchat announced a big rebound in ad sales during the World Cup. Stock rose 10%, which is a good sign for other media companies too. And SpaceX announces their first earnings as a public company today. Although employees can sell their shares for the first time on Thursday. Second, have you ever wanted to spend a whole day on an airplane? Like 24 full hours? Well, you can get pretty close now. How about 22 hours, Jack?

We have a new longest flight ever. 22 hours from Sydney to London. It's being launched by Qantas next year on an Airbus 3.50. 22 hours, can't you just go the other way around the world and it'd probably be quicker? I think you just jump and if you stand in the air, the world circles for you. Special feature, by the way, a wellness zone. Because 22 hours in an airplane is going to make you feel unwell. And finally, one startup offered a job interview to anyone who got the company's logo as a tattoo.

It happened at a networking event. Seven people got the tattoo. Now the founder is apologizing because it kind of takes advantage of people desperate for a job. Not a good luck, but remember that famous hero stat that Jack and I love to share on the show. 700,000 people have a Harley Davidson logo as a tattoo. Voluntarily.

No job interview included. About time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Allison O'Neill, a structural engineer from Hanover Mass, just outside Boston. Last week, we did a fact about how New York City has 7,500 scaffolds, which create 330 miles of covered sidewalks. Well, Allison had a follow-up. Jack, let's hit the date. The scaffolding New Yorker's seat everywhere actually serves two different purposes.

Sidewalk sheds protect pedestrians from falling hazards while scaffolding provides access for facade repairs. Neither is generally there just for inspections. Inspections are typically performed using binocular surveys, drone imagery, and rope access or swing stage drops. And New York City isn't alone. many major cities have similar facade inspection requirements aimed at protecting pedestrians from facade hazards.

Sounds like an industry professional right there. So they're not scaffolds covering the sidewalks, they're sidewalk sheds. Either way, odds are you are listening to us under scaffolding right now. Yeties, you look fantastic over there. Jack, you are glowing. I think we know what the question of the day is, don't we, Jack? What, for like the comments you mean? I mean, if you're going to a bar tonight, you have to ask a man or woman next to you,

what do you miss about your hometown? Yeah, because you could become a billionaire founder. Either you're getting a first date or you're getting a new startup. Either way, it's a win. Ladies, if you haven't yet, grab tickets to our live show at T-Boypod.com or right here in the episode description. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Next one's in San Francisco in September.

Can't wait to see you there. And before we go, a happy 10th birthday to legendary Eddie, Rosie Henry down in Austin. Been listening since she was three. Fantastic to have you with us. Happy fifth birthday to Samara Antonella. Clark down in Tijuana, Baja, California. She's turning five, Nick, and wants her first iPhone and a Disney trip for a birthday present. Either or. And Lisa Harris-Thomas is celebrating her diamond year with her buddies over in Bali, not too shabby. Happy birthday to Farah Asmussen,

celebrating at a beach just outside Boston. And Anna Szymanovski over New York City, this is our annual birthday shout-out for you. It's a tradition. We wouldn't forget a T-Boy. Congratulations to Natalie Delis Dela State, who got a new job at Vanguard and passed her financial license. His exam. Natalie, thanks for coming to our live show in New York. Congratulations on the win. And a shout out to a recent Yeti, now super Yeti, Sarah Parsley, who's kicking it on her commute from Cohasset to Boston. Cohasset right by the sea. And to anyone else who celebrated something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick own stock of Lulu Lemon. We both on stock of Apple and Robin Hood. I own one share of SpaceX, and Nick owns more than one.