The Best One Yet - 🐘 “ConservaTech” — Silicon Valley’s right pivot. Supreme’s Ferrari strategy. JPM’s ex-Con hiring.

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

The most influential VC firm, a16z, is turning to Trump… so we’ll explain “AlgoRepublicans.”Streetwear icon Supreme was just sold at a shockingly low price… because they didn’t follow Ferrari’s coolness recipe.And JP Morgan Chase hires 5k ex-criminals every year… and it’s a key to fighting crime.Plus, it’s officially “Hot Hydrangea Summer” after record blooming… so we found a lesson in flowers for business.Here are the 50 companies committed to hiring formerly incarcerated Americans: https://secondchancebusinesscoalition.org/$JPM $TSLA $VFCSubscribe to our Saturday Newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletter  Watch us on YouTube Submit Facts & Shoutouts Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn (Nick) & LinkedIn (Jack)About Us: From the creators of Robinhood Snacks Daily, The Best One Yet (TBOY) is the daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. 20 minutes on the 3 business, economics, and finance stories you need, with fresh takes you can pretend you came up with — Pairs perfectly with your morning oatmeal ritual. Hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.00:00 - intro02:00 - Hot Hydrangea Summer05:16 - Silicon Valley’s right pivot10:46 - Supreme’s Ferrari strategy15:17 - JPM’s ex-Con hiring18:58 - Takeaways19:44 - OTHER NEWS!21:12 - Best Fact Yet23:14 - Shout outs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remember when you thought we were on a robin hood? That was a tough one to break to you. Robin Hood, Robin Hood wore robes. It makes sense. You had to handle that one delicately. You had to let me down easier on that. Trust me, I'll goggle it. I'll goggle it right now.

There we go. All right, I'll let the fun. Three, two. This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday. July 18th. And today's party is the best one yet.

This is a T-boy. Nick and I are whipping up the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But, Jack, can I please tell you that I had one of the best nights of my life exactly one week ago? Did I tell you that, man? One week ago, we were together. I was at your place because yet he's last week at this time.

Jack and I ordered a pizza, made ice cream Sundays, and then watched movie trailers for the entire evening. No, we also watched a Seinfeld episode at the end. I knew you were going to add it on. Dude, it was like a throwback to freshman year. We would do the same exact thing when we were 20 years old. Jack, I got to say, the new Gladiator trailer, not that great, not that great. The CGI is pretty good.

It is pretty good. But not so much. The Seinfeld episode? Age is like a fine walking. Because when you control the mail, you control information. Three stories for today's T-boy Jack. What do we got for this fantastic show? For our first story, Andresen Horowitz, the most influential venture capital firm on Earth, just flipped over to Trump.

So Jack and I will explain the newest trend in Silicon Valley, Conservatech. For our second story, it's Supreme. The skateboarding streetwear icon was just sold to Ligzotica, the eyeglasses giant. So Jack and I will tell you why Supreme should have listened to Ferrari. And our third and final story is a wild one. Wild. J.P. Morgan Chase, the investment bank,

hires 5,000 ex-criminals every year. Yeah, their bank tellers have done time. Why is J.P. Morgan hire an ex-cons? Jack? Because hiring ex-cons feeds two birds with one scone. If you know, you know, and we'll tell you in a bit. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, fantastic mix of stories for the new Friday. Love this mixture. You have heard of Hot Girl Summer. And we have told you about Hot Deal Summer. But have you heard about hot hydrangea summer? Hot hydrange's summer. Yeties, according to the New York Times, hydrangea growth is at a hysterical level right now.

I don't need the New York Times to confirm that. I just have to look out my window, Nick. I think one of them just hit you in the face. Get this, besties. Hydrangea flowers are blossoming at their highest historical rate in history. This is the biggest summer for hydrangeas since photosynthesis was invented. Well put. Because hydrangeous, they're that big blue, pink, white, bubbly, bally, kind of like flower thing, you're right? They're very bouncy. You see them at every country club and every New England barn wedding. Oh, and there's nothing baby boomers love more than talk about their hydrangees. Have you seen the hydrangees? Come over. I'm no boomer, but my house is drowning in hydrangeo pedals right now. I was just talking to my in-laws, Jack. They said they didn't

water the hydrangees, and then they said they overwatered the hydrangees. Everyone's talking hydrangees. Yet he's, as of July, hydrangees in America are the top trending flower on TikTok. In fact, one video of purple hydrangeous hanging out in Connecticut got five million views. Connecticut is the capital of hydrangees. That's a good point. We should point that out. But there's two reasons for the hot hydrangea summer that we're all loving right now. First, there was a mild winter, so the buds of the hydrangeas were protected. Second, we've had a wet spring, which leads to extra growth. In fact, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, the word hydrangea is actually ancient Greek for needs a lot of water.

Hydra, for water, angios for jar. So from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral, tourists are traveling hundreds of miles this summer to visit those hydrangea. hot spots. Oh, and our favorite fact about hydrangees? The hydrange actually changes color based on the acidity in the soil. If the pH level is low, they turn blue. If the pH level is high, they turn pink. What's Jack and I were talking about? And you know what? That's kind of a metaphor for life, isn't it, Jack? Yes, it is. Because you can't control the variables around you, but you can control how you react to them. Jack, that's beautiful. Like a hydrangee. Let's get back to Hot Dry Hydrangea summer.

Happy hot hydrangea summer, and Jack and I are going to hit our three stories. I kind of look like a human-sized hydrangea flower right now. That's a self-compliment, and I love that you did it, Jack. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. 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, this week, we saw the biggest political shift in the history of tech. Silicon Valley is turning for Trump.

Yes, it is. Venture Capital is experiencing a red reboot, and we'll tell you why. Yes, we will. Now, yet it is, as you know, I live in San Francisco. It's one of the most liberal cities in the United States. but as I was sharing with Jack recently, something noticeably changed in just the last few months. Well, last month, you couldn't get home

because the streets were blocked by the police. I was leaving our podcast recording and I couldn't get back to Pacific Heights because there was a Trump fundraiser in a San Francisco backyard. That fundraiser was hosted by David Sacks, a venture capitalist and podcaster who hosted Donald Trump

and people who supported Donald Trump in his home. I never thought I would see that day, in San Francisco, $300,000 for the tickets, and they raised $12 million for Donald Trump in San Francisco. That party was metaphorically a bigger disruption to San Francisco than Uber or Airbnb were. But then that wasn't it, because then over last weekend, Elon Musk officially endorsed Donald Trump. And he's reportedly donating $45 million per month to get him elected. And then yesterday, Elon Musk tweeted that he's moving X, formerly Twitter, from California to the state of Texas. Plus, Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate, who himself is an ex-Venture capitalist.

So yet, he's added all up and hold on to your all-birds, because San Francisco got so politically shook in the last month, you could see it on the Richter scale. But in just the past week, since Elon endorsed Trump, we saw even more shocking headlines. Because of Elon, the ultimate Silicon Valley innovator is with Trump, then that may give cover for others in tech to go with Trump as well. And that's exactly what happened. This week, a who's who of venture capitalists based in California, pledged their support for Trump for president. Silicon Valley, it got flooded with a red wave. It's GOP version 2.0.

Or as Jack and I are calling it, conservative tech. Because the next flip to Trump was the most influential venture capital firm on earth and Driesen Horowitz. Andresen Horowitz has invested billions of dollars into Facebook, Instagram, Robin Hood, Pinterest, Basically, if a tech company has IPOed, Andresen Horowitz made a lot of money in it. On their podcast yesterday, the founders of Andresen Horwitz, Mark Andreessen, and Ben Horwitz, discussed their decision about this year's election. They said that they've donated to Democratic candidates for president in the past,

but now, this year, they are making personal donations to Trump for president. Now, Bessies, after our morning workouts, Jack and I, we listened to this exact podcast. We were curious what was going on. a surprise in the San Francisco area. The two guys began the podcast by saying that their friends aren't going to be happy about this announcement. Actually, Jack, Ben Horwood said his mom isn't going to be happy about this announcement. So they took an hour and a half explaining why they're donating to Trump. Basically, they said it's because Trump is more supportive of artificial intelligence, crypto, and tech startups. That was the hour and a half. But then they used a three-part analogy

to support their argument, right? So what they said is that America's success is based on three things. Technology, the economy, and the military. And each of those three things, it reinforces the other part of the three things. And they said that tech startups are key to all of it. It basically sounded like a political science podcast, but they've also said in the past that AI is everything. They even said that anything slowing AI's advance is tantamount to murder because AI is going to save people's lives, they believe. So overall, after listening to this episode, Mark Andreason and Ben Horwitz, they frame their decision for Trump as somehow a patriotic one, like they're defending tech founders. They say that this is for tech founders. That's why

they're doing it. And they say that tech founders are fundamental to America's supremacy. And when you finish it, it's kind of like this academic argument they've made, but really, it just kind of hides their real motive. It seemed like their real motive was actually their own profits. And that got Jack and I thinking about a takeaway. We haven't said on this pod, but we think this is the perfect place to say it. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in tech? Markets are a one-issue voter, and that one issue is profits. Yet he's earlier this week, we told you about how stocks got a Trump bump after polls showed that Trump is increasing a lead. Simple reason? Trump's policies are more likely to increase corporate profits. Now, that is the public markets. But now, in the private

markets were seeing Silicon Valley turn to Trump for the same reason. Now, what we should point out, Elon seems to support Trump for his anti-wokeness and his positions on immigration. But the rest of venture capital, as repped by Andresen Horowitz, seemed to focus on their AI crypto investments specifically. They're turned off by the Biden administration's attempts to regulate AI and to regulate crypto. So what Jack and I are describing here is a simple observation about business and elections, but it's an important observation you shouldn't forget. Markets aren't voting on the issues of health care, climate, democracy, or reproductive issues. Business votes on one issue.

Which candidate is likelyer to improve profits? In general, Wall Street and now Silicon Valley are a single issue voter. Which candidate will boost my profits the most? For our second story, Supreme was just sold. Get this, to an eyeglass company. Not a good look for the once trendy streetwear brand. We'll tell you how Supreme failed to follow. The Ferrari model.

All right, Jack, I'm going to pick out your outfit. You're ready? Tell me what you're thinking here. Jinko jeans, juicy couture sweats, and a Jansport backpack. What are you thinking over there, Jack? You like it? All cool in the early 2000s. All of that was cool in the 90s.

But today, there is only one brand from the 90s that is still cool. And that brand is Supreme. Supreme, the fashion brand with their name written in red. That was just so cool. It was actually that simple. The Supreme Company, they were founded in, 1994, great year, as a skateboard apparel brand. A streetwear icon with Beastie Boys vibes. And now here's how Supreme got so big and so cool. They pioneered the fashion drop.

People would wait all week. There'd be so much suspense. And then Supreme would drop a new product every Thursday. Every Thursday you had to wait because they only did it on Thursdays. And you'd buy it. Didn't matter what it was. They actually dropped a crowbar once, a red Supreme crowbar, and it sold out. Like they were selling, sneakers, they were selling shirts, and then boom, they sold a red crowbar, people bought it up, sold out. And that cool factor powered Supreme from skate parks over to fashion week. Supreme, they started doing collabs with Tiffany jewelry, burberry outfits, and Louis Vuitton themselves. Every company that made anything wanted to collab with Supreme.

So Supreme got too cool to stay small, and they were eventually acquired by VF brands for $2.1 billion in 2020. But here's the news. Supreme was just sold. in the strangest fashion deal since Mugatu's dereliqued campaign. This was wild. Supreme just got acquired by Luxottica, the Italian eyeglasses giant, for $1.5 billion. Luxottica actually owns like every eyeglasses brand and you don't realize it. Oh, totally. Like they own Raybans, they own Oakley, they own Sunglass Hut.

And now they own Supreme the Apparel Company? Like what's going on to that? So let's recap this acquisition, which is quite unsupreme. actually. Yeah, yeah. It seems like Supreme dropped itself, Jack. How would you describe this? Supreme was sold for less money than four years ago, and they were sold to an eyeglasses company? Like, are they doing prescription lenses next? The $1.5 billion price tag to acquire Supreme is a 30% lower price tag than what it were worth four years ago. Now, yet, he's never forget something Jack and I have told you before. Two out of three acquisitions fail. It's really hard to successfully buy

another company integrated. Two-thirds of the time, an act. acquisition doesn't lead to what the buyer was hoping for. So, when we see Supreme sold for a fraction of its previous price, it looks like their previous acquisition was a failure. And the key reason VF Corp failed with Supreme, it's just hard to scale coolness. Yeah, there's just a tradeoff between coolness and scale. It's just a reality of the world. In 2020, Supreme was bought and it was scaled by VF Corp.

But it became so available, it became less cool. Jack, I don't know if crowbars are going to save Supreme. time. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Supreme? The number one brand that has managed to scale coolness is Ferrari. Yet it is actually possible to scale a cool product without eliminating its coolness. In economic terms, coolness is when demand is higher than supply. More people want your product than it is available than it's in high demand. And that means it's cool. The key to scaling something that's cool is to grow the supply, but to grow the demand faster. And the prime example of scale and coolness, it's Ferrari. For every year since

1929, Ferrari has had a wait list to buy a car. That is the coolness. And yet, Ferrari just hit a record high valuation of $80 billion. That size is the scale. Ferrari has doubled the number of Ferrari sold per year over the last 10 years. And yet, the price remains higher than ever to buy a Ferrari. So Ferrari is selling more cars than ever, and yet Ferrari is also more Wanted than ever, Jack, add it all up, please. It's one of the rare companies that has successfully scaled cool. Ferrari scaled. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

For our third and final story, J.P. Morgan Chase hires 5,000 ex-felons every single year. We're talking tellers who did time. And this wild new HR strategy is actually key to fighting crime. But yet is, before we kick off this, story. Happy second quarter earnings season to all those who celebrate. Jack and I send our best wishes.

Happy earning season to all the finance. You and you. Yeties. Last week we got big earnings, specifically big bank earnings. What do we see, Jack? JP Morgan Chase announced pretty incredible results for America's biggest bank. JP Morgan's stock is at an all-time high. It's now worth $600

billion as a company. Jack, could you become a freak in the spreadsheets and strip up some context for us over there. J.P. Morgan is worth nearly twice as much as the number two largest bank in America, which is Bank of America. Jamie. But guess who held power J.P. Morgan's $18 billion of quarterly profits? Glad you asked. 5,000 people they hired last year who had criminal records. Get this, besties. 10% of J.P. Morgan's new hires each year are people with criminal records. That's right. J.P. Morgan is a top employer of ex-cons and ex-felons.

Like the irony? Do you feel the irony? Do you see the irony here, Jack? They're banks. Like, they're vulnerable to getting robbed. But they're hiring ex-robbers. And also, like, the interview process, tell me a time you faced a challenge in your life. I was in prison, Jack. That is challenging. Well, here's the key. They're hiring ex-robbers so that they don't get robbed in the future. And here's why. Exactly. 600,000 Americans are released from prison every year. And those 600,000, they need jobs or else they get desperate. And if they get desperate, that leads them back to crime. It's a vicious cycle. Yes, it is. And it's one reason why one-third of ex-cons end up back in jail. So a key way to reduce criminal recidivism or people committing another crime is to hire those ex-criminals. And that is why J.P. Morgan has adopted this radical new hiring strategy, or as they call it, a second chance. These people did their time, they've been rehabilitated by their time in prison, they paid their debt to society,

and now they deserve a second chance. So Jack and I, we jumped in T-boy style, and we found some fascinating information. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are anyone hiring anyone? Hiring ex-criminals feeds two birds with one scone. Crime and the economy. Now, yet it is an interesting thing here.

There are actually 50 companies who have pledged changes to their hiring process to give ex-cons a second chance. We'll leave a link in the episode description so you can check out those 50. companies. Good idea, Jack, because a huge untapped asset in our American economy is the waiting workforce. They're talking about millions of Americans with criminal records who wish they could get a job, but nobody will hire them because they're criminal record. And that is why these 50 companies

eliminated that awkward question from the job applications asking about criminal records. These 50 companies believe it shouldn't matter. They're out of jail now. And those 50 companies are lobbying to end driver's license suspensions that some courts issue to ex-cons. Because if you don't have a driver's license, how are you going to get to work? So add all of this up, and unlocking the waiting workforce could add $87 billion of productivity to the U.S. economy every single year. Like we said, hiring ex-cons, it feeds two birds with one scone. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Andresen Horowitz and their favorite founder, Elon Musk, have formed a red sea across Silicon Valley. Call it conservatech or call them Algo Republicans.

Because markets are a one-issue voter. And that one issue is profits. For our second story, Supreme just experienced a down round. They were sold for a lower price to Luxottica, the eyeware company. Because there's a trade-off between coolness and scale, but Ferrari figured it out. And our third and final story is J.P. Morgan. They've hired 5,000 X criminals each year. 10% of their new hires have done time.

It's the waiting workforce. Because hire at X-Cons feeds two birds with one scone. Crime and the economy. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Ferris, big day from Madison Avenue, New York City's luxury shopping street. It's looking good. The vacancy rate on Madison Avenue for retail stores is officially back to pre-pandemic levels.

And the last quarter, 18 new stores opened up on Madison Avenue, including the brand new Valentino, which is very experiential. Very fancy. Nick was just there. He told me that Madison Ave is buzzing like Brunello right now. Cuccinelli, if you know, you know. Clearly, Jack doesn't know.

Kendall knows. Jack may not know, but Kendall Roy knows. And second, Amazon Prime Day, the summer Christmas special, just wrapped up, and it already showed a record number. In just the first seven hours of the two-day event,

Amazon sales were already up 12% from Prime Day last year. Like we told you, it's hot deal summer. Every member of this economy is craving value. And that's why you dropped 87 bucks buying another Tiwu. Jack, what's a Tiwu? A thing I won't use.

And finally, La Paris Mayor and Hidalgo took her long promise swim in the Sen River one week before the Olympic Games. Why is that a big deal? Because the river has been closed to swimmers for a hundred years. It's that dirty. But she wanted to show that it's clean enough to host Olympic swimming in just a week. They spent a lot of money to clean up that river. and she just took a dip and she seems to be okay.

Apparently it is possible. It is possible. It's possible. And time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Yeti Matt Frankie from lovely St. Paul, Minnesota. Earlier this week, we did a story on Harley Davidson and Millennials. Millennials don't seem to like Harley Davidson, so Harley Davidson doesn't like millennials. Although we love the brand.

Well, it's because Harley Davidson has a gray beard strategy. They just focus on selling bikes to baby boomers. But Matt is a millennial, and he works at a Harley dealership, so he told us what he thought. This could not have been more perfect. And here's what Matt said. He said our story could not have been more accurate. That Harley Davidson is doubling down on graybirds. They do have a gray beard strategy.

But he pointed out there's one model that millennials are seeming to like. Specifically, millennials love the Harley Davidson Street glide model bike. This thing is souped out. It's got a digital touchscreen. Yeah. It's got like heated seat. It's got LED lighting. It's basically a car with no doors and no roof.

It feels like Exhibit pimped up this Harley Davidson for millennials, Jack. It looks unreal. I kind of want to get along. It goes for about 30 grand, and I guess millennial Millie is riding one right now. Matt, Jack and I don't have plans in Minnesota right now, but if we could record a podcast on one of these street glide bottle bikes, we'll see you there. Yides, you have looked fantastic all week because Jack and I,

we're dropping something special tomorrow, aren't we, Jack? Hotline episode four, when Nick and I take your questions and answer them live. Yes, we do. Oh, Jack, what's a cool little teaser? What was one of your favorite questions from the Hotline Pod? Got to be that I have a buddy who's not named Nick, but he's as funny as you, Nick. And I say something about my buddy. We're also going to tell you how much money we have saved for retirement.

So check out tomorrow's Hotline Pod right here on the best one yet. This episode, it's going to be all the range. Oh, it's going to be all the range. If Jack says that one more time, you're going to be something. Celebrating the wins this weekend. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy 106 celebration of Nelson Mandela's birthday, whether in South Africa

or anywhere in the world. He died at the age of 95 after a legendary life. And a happy congratulations. See, Eddie's Thomas and Ellen Hicks and Marietta, Georgia, who just got their first baby, a wonderful boy who's looking fantastic. And a huge shout out to James in Washington, D.C., whose friends sound incredible. Get this. They're all flying in from across the country to send him off on his new journey to China to get his new dream job. James, you got to take more trips because your friends

are going to send you off on the most amazing way. And happy bachelorette weekend to Danny Cupford, aka the Banana Girl, who's partying in Brooklyn this weekend. Oh, she is unpeeling that party. And James and Alexandra Robertson and Mesa, Arizona are new homeowners. The new happy hour is Tinto time. And a big thanks to Sophie Turner, who Adelaus, virtual board. Sophie, Jack and I love being part of your virtual board, and we'll keep whipping up the takeaways for you every quarter. Happy 49th birthday to Paul Wolets in St. Paul, Minnesota. And Vanessa Giardo in San Francisco, happy birthday, celebrate the wins. Happy birthday to Dejohn McDonald in Houston, Texas, who's just finishing his service as an

army officer. Thank you, Dejan. And Santee Seguera is visiting Chicago, the proud owner of the Dogo Milo who's missing the Dutch weather. Happy birthday to Nathan Caretti, born in good Winter India, who's a huge Max for Stoppin fan. And Anshai Sudamine is turning 33 years old celebrating with a couple of pinos getting popped up in Napa. Happy birthday to O'Rei, who's turning 28 in Los Angeles. Campbell and Virginia wish you the best year yet. And John Quinn's turning 25 years old with his three brothers celebrating in Hotland of Georgia. Happy 27th birthday to Paul Fu in Los Angeles.

And Maddie McGregor in Peoria, Illinois is watching the pot on YouTube for three years straight. Thank you. celebrate the birthday wins, Maddie. And happy birthday to Maureen Papin Nostas to see you in West Hartford, Connecticut. Maureen, thank you for listening to every single episode of T-boy since episode number one. Honestly, it means a whole lot to us. Thanks so much. You are the best one yet. This is Jack, Nick and I both on stock of Robin Hood and Airbnb.