The Best One Yet - 🍌 “Dancers in the Outfield” — Savannah Bananas’ baseball disruptor. Palantir’s AI beliefs. ThredUp’s tariff win. +Hellman’s mayo wedding.

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

ThredUp stock is up 600% this year… because Frugal Friendly Finance is winning the trade war.Palantir is named after LOTR, but is it Sauron or Frodo?… Either way, it’s stock is #1 this year.The Savannah Bananas’ baseball team is disrupting MLB… by doing stuff that doesn’t scale.Hellman’s Mayonnaise sponsored a wedding… (we cried)$PLTR $UL $TDUPWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Hennessey 🥃Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks 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: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks 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 Wednesday, Cevice Wednesday, August 6th, 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. All right, Jack, I've whipped one up for you here. Here we go. Stocks were ripping.

Now they're slipping. But today's pod is straight up dripping. It's poetic. Well, it rhymes. It rhymes. That's about all I got going right there. But Jack, three stories for today's T-boy. What do we got on this fantastic show?

For our first story. Threadup, a second-hand clothing act. is a top performer in the market this year. Threadup is up 600%. 600% because your old sweatshirt is winning thanks to the Triple F, frugal, friendly, finance. For our second story, the Savannah Banana's baseball team sold out two straight nights at Yankee Stadium.

Because this baseball team rebuilt the sport from scratch with a focus on fans and TikTok dances. And our third and final story, Pallenteer makes AI software for National Defense. Their business is controversial. Their stock prices, too. So Jack and I will explain Palantir's stock price with a little help from an Air Maze's handbag. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, like we said, fantastic mix. Love the mix, Jack. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join together this man and this woman in holy mayonnaise.

Get this, Yet this, Yettys. Helman's mayonnaise just sponsored a wedding. We repeat the world's largest Mayo brand just officiated a wedding ceremony. The two newlyweds didn't say I do. They said I dip. Jack, the toasts were literal toast. And the dress code, warning may contain eggs. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm allergic. I abstained. Yet is, this is a true story. Unilever, the company that owns Helmonds, hosted a wedding in Las Vegas for two Helmand's superfans. And Unilever's worth 150 billion bucks, so they do have budget for a branded matrimony. And this mayonnaise wedding was so big it got picked up by the Wall Street Journal. And we keep saying mayonnaise wedding. I just, I can't continue on. Nick, at this wedding, instead of cutting a cake at the end to celebrate, they opened a tube of mayo.

It's just gross. Actually, again, I may have to remove myself. But brand sponsoring weddings actually isn't totally new. Now, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, Dolce and Gabana sponsored and hosted Courtney Kardashian's nuptials. And Taco Bell opened a wedding chapel in Las Vegas a few years ago. 700 happy couples have been married over a gordita. But in this economy, The average wedding cost $36,000. And in this economy, the average couple wants to go viral. So Helmans just made both happen.

They made the wedding free for the couple, and they made it take off on TikTok. And you know what, Jack? That's a beautiful thing. So besties, if anyone believes these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your piece. I think you mean, hold your mayo. Hold the mail, guys. Hold the mail. Jack, what's in our three stories?

We've met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. Jack Nick, that's it. It's. 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. Our first story. Secondhand shopping has officially had its mainstream moment. And Threadup, the online thrift store, is up 600, this year, thanks to it. 600%.

But we have to talk about RAS, resale as a service. Now, yannies, let's check the calendars here, because the last time Jack and I covered Threat Up was April 9th, 2025. One week after Trump's Liberation Day tariffs, and at the time, we

predicted that Threat Up would be a trade war winner. And here's why we said it. She-in controls half of the U.S. fast fashion market, but the trade war, it basically killed their business model. Trump closed the tariff loophole that let Sheehan operate duty-free to sell cute tops online right to your door. That cute top had a price pop. How about Zara and H&M, the fast fashion OGs?

Well, Jack, they're made in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and China. And each of those countries has had a 20 to 30% tariff the last time we checked. But Threatup, their supply chain is your closet. Secondhand clothing is tariff-proof. That's right. Industries like Consignment are part of the frugal finance trend that we thought would be a boom during the trade war. And since we said that on April 9th, thread up stock has more than tripled.

It's up 600% this year. Prada just fell over. I'm kicking myself for not buying Threatup stock when we covered it on April 9th. Yeah, yeah, but we're not bragging here. We didn't buy the stock. So it's like we noticed this and then didn't do anything about it.

If one of you did because of our story, let us know in the comments. You're welcome. And send us a Venmo. It's all part of the frugal finance fashion movement. But then this Tuesday, happened when Oakland-based threat-up jumped 10% in the stock market to an all-time high. And the reason we discovered is one crazy hero stat. Get this. Capital One research finds that nearly

one-third of clothing purchases in the U.S. is secondhand. A third of them, thrifting. It's not just a weekend leisure activity for hipsters at the flea market. One sat jack. Honey, is this staying noticeable? Okay. Resale is one out of three clothing items purchased in America. That's way bigger than I thought. Now, that is most dominated by local thrift stores, but ThreadUp is the publicly traded stock winner of this sector. Every day, Threadup receives, inspects, cleans, and puts up for sale a thousand second-hand items that customers send in from their closet. By the way, little side note here, the five best-selling brands to resell on Threatup. What do we discover, Jack? According to Threatup data, it's Viori, Lululemon, Quince, Reformation, and Sizan. Which is four-fifths of Mollies and

my closet right now. No, I mean, I'm bummed. Threatup doesn't do men's clothing. What are they waiting for? I would totally get in on this. We have a quince bag in a Cizan box with the Viori label on it right now, man. Molly could have got him for half off on Threatup, dude. Now, Basties, if you are Viori, you must be annoyed that Threatup is making money on your secondhand clothing that your customers are selling. But as of this year, Viori actually has a solution to solve that annoyance. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Threadup? It's a lot. a new industry that Threadup created. Resale as a service. Rass. Yeties, several brands have built their own pre-owned businesses, like BMW has pre-owned cars, Levi's has pre-owned pants, Patagonia has

one, too. It's strategic to launch your own second-hand store, because you as the brand get to maintain quality control, protect the brand, and make a little money on their side. But it's also expensive to fix, to clean, to schlep, to resell. That is a complicated business right there. Yeah, fashion brands generally speaking don't do dry cleaning, but that's what resale is. It's laundering. Well, in the first quarter, Threadup launched resale as a service for other companies. Which has allowed a brand like Athleta to launch their own pre-owned website, but without having to get their hands dirty in laundry. Because it's run by Threatup. Like Threatup is doing the cleaning, the fixing the reselling behind the scenes of those used Athleta leggings. Yeties, the resale

business is tough. Laundry and logistics, that's a low-margin business. So ThreadUp has never turned a quarterly profit yet. But this RAS business, it could help them get there. And customers are more likely to trust that secondhand Lululemon if it's approved by Lulu Lemon and serviced by Threatup. So add it all up, Bessies, and this is the birth of a whole new industry Threadup invented. RAS. Resale as a service.

For our second story. Another awesome earnings report from Palantir. It is now the best S&P 500 stock of last year and this year. Because of the three Bs of AI. Billions, brilliance, and beliefs. Yeties, in order for us to tell you the tale of Palantir, let's go back to 2018 when a big-haired guy named Alex Carp made a contrarian bet. Alex Carp believed that tech should do everything it can to help the U.S. military.

And now let's sprinkle on some context here. At the time, progressive employees, at Google disagreed with that philosophy. So much so that they forced management to cancel a giant and lucrative contract with the U.S. military. But from that point on, this man, Alex Karp, was a committed contrarian, unapologetically pro-United States. And you can see it in Palantir's 2020 IPO paperwork. The paperwork says, our company was founded in Silicon Valley, but we seem to share fewer and fewer of the technology sector's values and commitments. Those are the words of Alex Carp. He believes he is keeping the country safer by supplying the government with

cutting-edge intelligence. And that's why back after 9-11, he created Palantir, the company, with his buddy Peter Thiel. Never again would U.S. intelligence fail to connect the dots. And those many years ago, they named this defense company after the magical future-seeing orb from Lord of the Rings, aka a Palantir. But whether Palantir is on the side of Frodo or Saran depends on your perspective. Because the latest reason, Palantir is controversial, supporting ICE. Palantir's intel is currently helping the Trump administration deport people. So it's been controversial. Either way, Palantir was the best S&P 500 stock of 2024, rising 340% last year. And Palantir is now on pace to win 2025 as well. It just announced their first quarter ever hitting a billion

dollars of revenue. We're talking 33 cents of every dollar Palantir makes pure profit puppy. Revenue surged 48% and in just the last three months, they closed 157 deals worth at least a million dollars. Palantir just snagged a $10 billion deal with the U.S. Army that would make the hobbits jealous. Governments and companies are splurging for Palantir's CIA-level intelligence services to help them figure out anything using the internet and AI. as Alex Carp would say, Carpe DM. But yet he's, at a certain point, even the best company can have a stock that's overpriced.

Because in the last 18 months, the stock of Palantir has 12xed. But Jack, what about their revenues over that same period? While the stock has 12xed, the revenues have only doubled. So when a stock is growing six times faster than the business is growing, Wall Street could actually be a little too excited

about Palantir's stock right now. We jumped in T-boy style. If you use the price to say, stock ratio as a measurement for how expensive a stock is, then Palantir is three times more expensive than the number two most expensive stock in the S&P 500. It's kind of like an Arameh's Birkenback. Like, the price is high. The question, though, is, is the value there? Is the underlying business worth the incredibly high stock price? Works for stocks? Works for roomy bags. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Surging Palantir? To win in artificial intelligence,

You need billions, brilliance, or beliefs. We have the triple Fs for our buddies over at Threadup, but we got the three Bs for Palantir. Here's how this breaks down, Yeti's. The battle of AI supremacy is one that Palantir CEO says will define our generation. Just like when the US raced to invent the atomic bomb before Germany, Alex Carp thinks tech and the government should collaborate.

But here's the key. The company that will win AI is the company that wins recruiting. So here are the three ways we noticed big leaders are recruiting an AI. Zuckerberg is recruiting top AI talent with his billions of dollars. Elon Musk and Sam Altman are recruiting that talent with their brilliance. And Alex Karp is recruiting with his beliefs. He even published a New York Times best-selling book this year on his beliefs about technology and collaborating with government.

Because the way we see it to win in AI, you need to recruit. And to recruit, you need either billions, brilliance, or beliefs. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, the Savannah bananas are selling out stadiums and disrupting the pros with a new form of baseball, banana ball. They tore down baseball and rebuilt it from scratch,

even though it doesn't scale. Now, if Jack's dad, Big Ted, is listening right now, trigger warning, you're going to want to put an earmuffs. Actually, turn off the podcast and go find, like, turn your dial to six. 60 a.m. Radio and listen to Mike and the Mad Dog. Now to everyone else listening, imagine a baseball game where the batter is breakdancing, the pitcher is singing, and the catcher is cabaret, oh wait, on stilts.

That would be the Savannah Bananas. It's the Harlem Globetrotters meets Broadway musical with the business model of the circus. It's basically Cirque to World Series. One second, Jack, the umpire just paused the game to play musical chairs in left field. This is a traveling baseball show, founded by a husband and wife, Jesse and Emily Cole, during the pandemic. And now they've got 11 million followers on TikTok, which by comparison is 3 million more than Major League Baseball. And it's not just likes and follows that this company has generated. The Savannah bananas have revenues and profits, too.

They've already played the sell-out crowds at Fenway and 80,000 people at Clemson's football stadium. And this September, the Savannah bananas will do what the Yankees usually don't. they will sell out Yankee Stadium two nights in a row. Now, even if you don't respect the shortstop doing the macarena, you cannot deny these numbers. And Major League Baseball either loves the attention that the bananas are bringing to the game or is very self-conscious about this whole thing. But besties, what Jack and I found fascinating here

is that the Savannah Banana's business strategy would make Billy Bean blush. They've achieved all their growth without any paid advertising. Basically, they sat down and dissected the sport of baseball at each pain point, and then they found a solution that be considered entertaining. The principle is, instead of doing what the players and owners need, do what the fans actually want. Yeah, the paying customers, and the result is something called banana ball. For example, each game is capped at two hours. It will not go beyond that. There's actually a countdown clock because the kids in the stands have a bedtime. Here's another one.

If a foul ball is caught by a fan, that counts as an out. So an eight-year-old fan is literally part of the game. They also opened the stadium two years early to do autographs before the game, not after. So there's no waiting for the parents out there. And games are only on Thursday through Sunday nights. Which means fewer school night issues and fewer arguments between families. But the most fan-friendly element of this team is actually the one that my dad would love. Every ticket for a home game of the Savannah Bananas includes free,

food. All you can eat Cokes, hot dogs, burgers, chicken, sandoes, cookies. It's paid for by the team. Alcohol and ice cream you still have to pay for, but my dad is fine with that. And that probably pays for all the hot dogs, Jack. So how have the Savannah bananas won so much love? It's those moves we just mentioned. It's word of mouth growth. That has been their powerful growth driver. And of course, the TikTok virality has helped too. The Savannah bananas don't have tryouts. They have rehearsals. They're literally called rehearsals. Dancing and silliness is core to the job, players are potential MLBers. It's still quality ball you're watching. I think they're just short of MLB, but they are good baseball players. You're right. Now, Basties, this strategy is wrong if you're a

baseball purist, but it's right if you're a disruptor. Great products have tension. For the Savannah Bananas, the tension is being unsurious while playing serious baseball. By the way, Jack, do you know how they got the name Savannah bananas? Well, they're based in Savannah and it rhymes with banana. What do you think? That's good. Basically, the founder said, He just tried to think of the stupidest name he could think of. And then they were down to like $0.00. So we spent it all on the logo because he said, this is a marketing business. It has to look legit and have a stupid name.

Although I don't think UC Santa Cruz banana slugs is thrilled about their banana monopoly in sports being taken over. It's encroaching on the dumb name idea, Jack. What's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Savannah bananas? Do things that don't scale in order to scale. Yeties, Jesse and Emily own 100% of the bananas business, and they've said they'll never take on another investor or sell the company. They also said they weren't inspired by baseball. They were inspired by S&L, WWE, Taylor Swift, and Disney.

And one theme we've noticed from their profit puppy of entertainment is that they do the things that don't scale. When they were just beginning, they would call on the phone everyone who bought a ticket and personally thank them for doing so. They don't just do a shout-out for a birthday on the jumbo-chromo. they spend hours preparing elaborate skits to do that birthday shout out at the game. And they don't use Ticketmaster even though that'd be way more scalable. They sell tickets themselves to make sure fans don't pay fees.

If the bananas had venture capital investors, they'd be yelling at Jesse and Emily that those ideas aren't scalable. And yet they have scaled to fill entire NFL football stadiums. We estimate they're on pace to do $100 million in revenue this year. Besties, the bananas are a reminder that you don't have to be. built for scale, you can build for delight. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Threatup stock is up 600% this year because of frugal, friendly finance, and it's winning the trade

war. And because of RAS, resale as a service. That is a brand new industry. For our second story, Pallantir stock has 12xed in the last 18 months, as it's been crowned an early winner of artificial intelligence. But to recruit in AI, you need billions, you need brilliance, or you need beliefs. And our third and final story is the Savannah Bananas. They're disrupting baseball. Purists hate it, but man, is it entertaining. Earmuffs, Big Ten, earmuffs.

The lesson here, they're doing things that don't scale in order to scale. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, NASA wants to build a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2029. The space agency plans to land a small nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon, to power stuff up there. Yeah, they're actually accepting proposals right now. So, like, if you have blueprints or a plan or you got a buddy who's, like, deep into the nukes,

is your opportunity. If we build Moontown City, moon. Yeah, I was just a USA. Well, the TV's there will run on nuclear power. And second, Snapchat announced earnings that caused the stock to fall 15% yesterday. One reason for the decline sounded like an excuse. They blamed the timing of Ramadan. When you're blaming holidays, not a good look to the analyst.

Now, Evan Spiegel controls 50% of the voting shows of the company. So he's in charge of what happens at Snapchat. And he is still committed to Snapchat spectacles. He believes Snap will have the computing gadget of the future. And finally, a big update on the alumni of the HBO TV show, Succession. Okay, guess who's doing the voice of Voldemort for the new full-cast Harry Potter audiobook? Tom Wamsgans. Tom's doing it.

He's going to be picking on Greg, like his little slitherin. And guess who's going to play Mark Zuckerberg in the social network sequel done by Aaron Sorkin? Kendall Roy is the lead contender right now. It's like the PayPal Mafia. Those who were on the show's succession, it was a launch pad for their acting careers. But I think we can all agree, Jack, that cousin Greg was a huffel puff. Just feels like a hufflebuff kind of a guy. Now time for the best fact yet.

This one, a question sent in by a Yeti named Noah Whitler. What's the queue? Noah has a senior graduation goal of having a million dollars. So he asked Nick and me, what is one thing as a teenager we wish we knew about investing? One piece of advice Jack and I may have if you're a teenager getting into investing. Everyone says a dollar saved is a dollar earned. We don't think so. A dollar saved is a dollar invested. And money invested in the stock market has doubled every seven years for the last 100 years. You have to wait for things to grow. But money in the stock market does grow faster than you realize. After seven years, your money has doubled. After 14 years, it's quadrupled. After 21 years, your money has octopled. And after 28 years, Nick,

your money is 16 times bigger than when it began in the stock market. And now there's no guarantee that future result happens, but that has been the traditional result in the past. Everyone's trying to sell a get-rich-quick scheme. We think you have a much better chance of getting rich, slow. And yeah, care what the lawyers say, that is financial advice. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And if you're going to be having, I don't know, a Hershey's chocolate wedding anytime soon, yeah, you can DM us, Jack and I will RSVP, yes. It's still on our bucket list to attend a Yeti wedding.

Yeah, it is. It is. And if the theme of the wedding is based on this podcast, I want in on that thruple. Hold the mail. Hold the mail. Besties, tell them buddy today, H-Y-H-T-B-O-I, that is how we grow the show. Have you had the best one? on yet. If you know, you know. And before we go, a shout out to Yeti Zaid Aboufalade over in Amman, Jordan, who has been listening to our show for seven years since the very first market stacks.

Thank you, Zaid. Happy birthday to Dill Wynn, down in New Orleans, who also just started a coffee business. We'll take a half-calf, half-calf, and Gary Climmon over in Livingston, New Jersey, happy birthday, celebrate the wins. Happy 10th birthday to Adrian Chuprin in Gatorsburg, Maryland. And Shahil and Julie Patel over in Brooklyn, congratulations on the best anniversary yet. And to anyone else who celebrates something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. I own stock of Disney, Nick own stock of Lulu Lemon, and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.