The Best One Yet - 🍪 “Donuts hate Cookies” — Krispy Kreme sells Insomnia. EA’s college football payout. Corvette’s craziest quarter.

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

Krispy Kreme is selling its majority stake in Insomnia Cookies… because it’s the steak knife of donuts.EA Sports is paying each college football player $600 to be in their video game… and AI is the MVP.The Chevy Corvette is selling better than ever… it’s finally beating Ferrari.Plus, how will they feed 15,000 athletes at the Paris Olympics? With Michelin-starred restaurants.$EA $DNUT $GMSubscribe 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Solviche Wednesday, July 24th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know. Hey, Jack, I almost forgot to tell you.

I ran into a whole bunch of Yetis on the flight home. Can you believe that, man? A whole bunch. Tell me what happened. All right, Laura was flying with her whole family. She's a graphic designer. They listen as a family on her commute every day to school. Amazing.

Were you wearing T-boy merch or did they recognize your face? Or did they recognize your voice? They always ask me the same thing. Nicker Jack. Nick or Jack. And then Creed is from Iowa. He's moving to San Francisco to work at JP Morgan and get this. He listened to our show every day during his job interviews to get the job.

I hope you had a T-boy sticker to give him or something. Actually, I told him I would say hi to you. And so, Jack, hi from Creed now in San Francisco. Okay, now cross that off your to-do-lis. Wonderful group of Yetis. But Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got, man? For our first story, the new college football.

video game from EA Sports is back after 11 years. But there's one huge difference. Every single college football player is getting paid. For our second story, it's Insomnia Cookies. Insomnia just got sold by its owner, Krispy Cream. So Jack and I need to talk about donuts, cookies, and Swiss Army Knives Delish. And our third and final story is the Chevrolet Corvette. At 71 years old, the Corvette is living its best life for General Motors. But Jack, you know what they say about guys who drive Corvettes? Small car. Yeah. Big profits.

Huge. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Wonderful mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. How do you feed 15,000 people? Well, Jack, it takes a village. An Olympic village. Yeties, the Olympics begin this Friday. But the biggest challenge for

these games is the food. Question, how will Paris feed every athlete from the 206 different countries At the games. Answer. Yeah. Baguettes. Wee.

Yetis, get this. Every French Olympic village is going to have its very own bakery. That's right. 15,000 athletes are going to be spread across five different Olympic villages. Yeah. Each village will have their own French bakery. That boulangerie is going to bake 2,000 baguettes and bignets and panos chocolat every single day. Buttered bread, balanced breakfast.

The smell of croissants? Oh, that is motivating Jack. And for these Paris games, they're not going to have a cafeteria. No, they're not. They're going to have six different restaurants at each Olympic Village. Here's the wildest part. This will be the first ever Michelin-starred Olympic Village. Because Michelin-Awarded chef, Amand de Chagnot, has designed all the dinners for the athletes.

It looks like the entire country of France is like making sure that France's reputation is good. Oh, they're going full calorie on this thing, Jack. Croke that monsieur. But I'm going to tell you, athletes, they don't like to take food risks right before a huge once-in-a-lifetime competition. Great point, Jack. You don't want to get an upset tummy on the balanced beam from a tart tatane. Bad reclette can ruin your world record. So, according to the New York Times, athletes have shipped their favorite comfort foods to Paris for these games. A bunch of American athletes have shipped their favorite brand of peanut butter to these games.

Apparently a bunch of Kenyan athletes shipped their favorite carboloaded cornmeal to the Olympic Games. The Irish Olympic Committee is even bringing their own oats for oatmeal for the Irish athletes. Because apparently Paris can't make porridge. So yet, he's the real gold medal of the Paris Games. It's going to the chef de cuisine. And Jack and I, we'd like a reservation. One sec, Jack, I just called them. They said it's not possible.

In the meantime, Jack, let's just say our three stories. 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 a non-dict. 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. Electronic Arts just did something no other video game has ever done in history. This is the wild story of a five-year project to pay college athletes for the ultimate video game. All right, Jack, can you remind me because I'm forgetting. E.A. Sports, it's on the game, it's around the game, it's near the game. I'm forgetting my prepositions. Let's play the tape. EA Sports. It's in the game. Oh, it's in the game, of course. EA. Sports. It's a $40 billion

video game company, and they just did something that no one else has ever done. For the first time ever, EA Sports will pay college athletes to be in the game. Literally. Now, for those of you who race home to play PlayStation after school. EA Sports is the king of sports video games. They produced a video game for every major sport, pretty much every year. Except for lacrosse, but we're not holding that against them. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you're right.

Still waiting, no big deal. But back in 2014, EA Sports stopped producing their video games for college football. That's right. And the reason was a legal issue. How? What was it exactly again, Jack? EA Sports was getting sued for stealing players' image and likeness without paying them. Yeah, like number 15 on Florida in the video game was clearly the player Tim Tebow wasn't it, Jack.

But Tim Tebow didn't get a dime from EA Sports, even though that was clearly him. Yeah, even though we just happened to be praying in the end zone. But here's the news. The 11-year hiatus of college football video games is finally over. EA Sports College Football 25 launched on Friday. And guess what? They're paying 11,000 Tim Tebow's for it. All right, Jack, we got to sprinkle on some context here. Take us back to 2018, man. In 2018, with the Supreme Court cleared the path for college players to get paid, EA Sports got to work. Besties, here's what that video game company did. First, they built a financial model to pay the players $600

to include their name, image, and likeness in the game. Then they built an app to sign a all 11,000 players across the 134 teams. And then this video game company built a grassroots outreach program that every politician in the world would envy, Jack, because they wanted every player to sign up and be on board for college football 25. So EA emailed 11,000 players from America's 134 Division 1 teams using their old college email addresses. Now, not everyone replied to their emails.

No, they didn't. So EA Sports started sliding into players' DMs. No joke. And then they even called players' mothers when they failed to reach them on those first two tries. We're not kidding. They're like, oh, Mrs. Thompson, we would love to get your son in the game. Can you talk to them, please? It was a five-year project.

And finally, at the end, virtually all 11,000 D1 college football players signed up. And Jack, what is the payout for all those players? 600 bucks each, plus a copy of the video game, which is $7 million total going to all those players. The Yanis from Heismans to backup kickers, the entire roster with names and even faces is playable in this video game. I'm sorry, did you say even their faces are in the video game? Even their schnazes, Jack. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are everyone curious about artificial intelligence? The 12th Man Award goes to AI.

Now, yates, we don't often see tangible examples of AI in action. But the wildest part of this video game story is actually AI. EA Sports wanted the backup quarterback of Michigan to look like the actual guy does in real life. So they used AI. EA Sports used a machine learning tool with AI to build a likeness of each player based on their official college photo. This was unprecedented. So the players are already playing this game because it dropped on Friday. They can't believe how their own self in the game looks exactly like they're really.

sell. And from a business perspective, this game is a win, win, win, triple win for players, fans and the company. Players love this game because they can finally play as themselves, something they've always dreamed of, and they're getting $600 bucks. Fans love the game because they get to know the players on the team better, even the triple backup kicker. And EA Sports loves it too. Investors are rewarding the company a Heisman trophy. Jack, getting 11,000 different players real faces in a video game, that wouldn't have been profitable or possible without AI. That's why the 12th Man Awards, actually goes to artificial intelligence. For our second story,

Krispy Kreme is selling off its majority stake in insomnia cookies, the late-night cookie chain. This story is about business strategy, sweets, and distractions. It is a funny thing. You know, Mark Zuckerberg gets all the attention for starting Facebook in his Harvard dorm room back in 2004.

He got a whole movie from it, the social network, which was one of Nixon my favorite movie, But the following year, another company invented in another dorm room at another Ivy League school did not get a movie. That company was insomnia. That dorm room was a senior dorm room. And the Ivy League school was the University of Pennsylvania. Because Seth Berkowitz at UPenn invented and founded Insomnia cookies, Quaker cookies. Penn's mascot is a Quaker?

It's a story for another pod jack. And what he did with this cookie company was basically a classic supply demand problem that you would learn at Warden for example. You Penn students wanted chocolate chip cookies at 2 a.m. after their SIG-Ept party, but Philadelphia didn't offer any late-night dessert deliveries. I've tried and trust me, there was no supply, unfortunately. So this guy founded Insomnia to supply those co-eds with their late-night munchies on demand. Yeah, Seth baked dozens of cookies in his dorm room based on his mom's recipes and then would deliver them across the campus in the middle of the night. It's incredible he managed to scale that because 15 years later, that company, insomnia,

was acquired by Krispy Cream for $500 million. The biggest news in cookie since oatmeal raisin. Jack, have you had an insomnia cookie, by the way? Have you tried one of these things? Did I ever have an insomnia cookie? You know, if you can't remember, then you probably had an insomnia. It's a great cookie. I rank it like above Tate's cookies, but below Levan cookies.

I like a sloppy cookie. But here's the news. After a six-year cookie relationship, Krispy Cream is selling their majority stake in insomnia. We repeat, Krispy Cream is selling off Insomnia. They said their investment is doubled in value since they bought it, and they're still going to own a minority steak. So for Krisp Kreme, that was a great investment. They're celebrating this win.

What? Jack and I noticed there is more to this cookie tale beyond the ingredients. What's going on, Jack? Well, Krispy Kreme stock is down 30% in the past year. I can tell you because I'm a shareholder. You take that stock, you dip it in milk, and you hold onto that stock, baby. I have held on with the stock, and I can tell you, I'm not celebrating this insomnia deal. Well, maybe that is why the CEO of Krispy Kreme read the room and addressed investors' unhappiness with this wild quote.

After announcing he sold insomnia, he said we must focus on our core strategy, which is selling donuts. He said they have to focus on just the donuts, because cookies may be a good business, but when your core business is struggling, the cookies may be a chocolate chip distraction. The CEO wants Krispy Kreme and all of its employees to focus on one thing. One thing only. top-selling product, which is donuts. The glazed donut. So, Jack, one sec, one sec. A cookie monster would like to know,

what's the takeaway for taking cookies for everybody? This is the perfect example of our steak knife, Swiss Army knife analogy. Yeah, it is, a business can try to be like a Swiss Army knife and can try to do everything, sell everything, be everything to everyone. Or the business can try to be a steak knife. It can try to do one thing and do that one thing really. well. Now, Jack, let's go back to Krispy Kreme's annual report. It turns out 80% of Krispy Kreme's revenue

is donut related. You go to Krispy Kreme for the donuts. So maybe Krispy Kreme shouldn't be distracted by cookies, brownies, and ice cream. Yeah, which is what insomnia was doing, which they owned. So Krispy Kreme isn't selling off a cookie company. They're selling off a cookie distraction. Yes, a distraction from their newfound focus of donuts. The one thing Krispy Kreme does best. Trying to be a Swiss Army knife was coming at the expense of their core product. So to turn themselves around and make shareholders like Jack happier, Krispy Kreme is turning into a steak knife. A steak knife for donuts.

Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Zoom Zoom. The Corvette was America's first ever sports car. And the Corvette is shockingly selling better than ever. Here's why General Motors continues making a car that has nothing to do with their long-term goals. Jack, let's start with some history. 1950s after World War II, America started to build its first highways and developed a new need. The need for speed.

Boom, that is when General Motors unveiled the Chevy Corvette, America's first sports car. They were so pumped about this car. They even gave the Corvette their own logo. Yeah, it's kind of like how Nike gave Air Jordan its own logo. I kind of like a check. Yeah, the logo I think is like a racing checkered flag, right? On the one side. Oh, and this new Corvette car, it gave Germany's Porsche, England's Jaguar, and Italy's Ferrari some American competition. But for the last few decades, the sports car overall has been going in reverse. Yeah, sports car sales, they have been declining like cereal over the last decade.

So much so that two-door sports cars like the Camaro, Audi's TT, and Mercedes-S-L-K, they've all been discontinued. Jack, what about the BMW Z-3 that was in the James Bond movies that I loved so much as a kid? I think that's gone. The Z-8 is probably gone, too. This is how you tell me, in the middle of the pod, yet he's even Porsche. I hope my father-in-law is plugging his ears right now. Yep, Porsche's top-selling car today isn't the little 9-11 sports car you loved as a kid.

The top-selling Porsche is an SUV. Why is the sports car going away? Some people are afraid to drive a sports car when they're surrounded by gigantically tall SUVs that could flatten them like a pancake. Oh, and other people think that the age of loud, fast, and furious cars is simply over despite what Vin Diesel will tell you. But the Chevy Corvette is an outlier. Get this, Yeties. The Chevy Corvette is enjoying stronger sales today than in any year since 1979. Last year, Chevrolet sold 54,000 new Chevy Corvettes.

And Jack, could you sprinkle on some context of that chassis, please. That is five times more Corvette sold than the number of Ferraris that were sold. Oh, not impressed? Get this. Americans bought twice as many Corvettes last year than in 2019. This Corvette dominance is huge for GM. Huge! Because Corvette punches above its weight, importance-wise, over at Detroit's General Motors.

The Chevy Corvette is a point of pride among General Motors. factory workers. It is a point of excitement at the dealerships. And for customers, when you go to a GM dealership, like Chevy, GMC, whatever, the Corvette is like a spectacle. Oh, Jack, we should also point out, the Corvette keeps the rest of the GM car company on the cutting edge of technology. That's right, because innovations go to the Corvette first. And those innovations eventually trickle down to the rest of the vehicle lineup. So, Basties, if you think that Chevy Tahoe you own has fast pickup, you can thank the Chevy Corvette for the innovation. But we still haven't answered the question.

No, we haven't taken. How is the Corvette winning while the rest of sports cars are dying? Well, Jack, I don't think I've ever felt more set up to ask you the takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Chevy Corvette? A facelift can deliver an age drop. Interesting thing, Yetis. In the 2000s and 2010s, Corvette buyers were getting older and older and. older. Each year, according to GM, the average age of a Corvette buyer got one year older. By 2018,

the average Corvette buyer was 64 years old. You know the risk. As boomers aged out, so would the sales of the outdated looking Chevy Corvette. So in 2018, Chevy took a risk to appeal to younger drivers. What did they do, Jack? They moved the engine. They moved the engine. The latest Chevy, it stashes the engine behind the driver, which looks more exotic, more sleek, More Italian, if we coulda say that. For the first time, the Corvette went from a front engine car to a mid-engine car. When I see these on the road, I'd mistake them for Ferraris. There was more junk in the trunk, and did that work, Jack?

Yes, it did. The median byerage for a Corvette has fallen to 55 from 64 in just the last six years. Jack, as you were saying this, I'm realizing this Chevy Corvette story is the opposite of the Harley-Davidson story we told last week. right? Correct. Harley owners are getting older and older. Corvette owners are getting younger and younger. Sebasties, as the rest of the sports car industry goes extinct, Corvette dramatically redesigned their vet. And that attracted a whole different age group of potential buyers. Because a facelift can deliver an age drop. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? EA Sports College Football 25 paid 11,000 players to include their names, image, and likeness

in the video game. And the 12th Man Award goes to artificial intelligence, which got their actual faces in the game. For our second story, Krispy Cream is selling their majority stake in insomnia so they can focus on donuts. They're ditching the Swiss Army knife strategy and becoming a donut steak knife instead. And our third and final story is the Corvette. GM sports car is stronger than ever, despite the decline of sports cars overall. Because a product facelift can result in a customer age drop. Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, President Biden is speaking to the nation for the first time since he got COVID tonight. It's also the first time he'll speak since dropping out of the presidential race. Yes, it is. Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern time,

the president will explain to the nation why he decided to drop out of the race. It's a huge moment in presidential history. And second, last week, Jack and I told you about Google's biggest acquisition ever for cybersecurity company called Wiz. Well, The Wiz just canceled the deal. They've decided they're not going to sell to Google after all. Instead of getting acquired for $23 billion, this cloud security company, the Wiz, is going to IPO instead. They probably feared that the deal would be blocked by regulators,

so they'll take the easier path to public markets. And finally, Spotify stock just popped 12% yesterday. Stick Spotify on the Billboard top charts, Jack. Seven million people signed up for Spotify last quarter. But revenue rose even more thanks to Spotify. Spotify's price hikes. Spotify has called 2024 the year of monetization and they raise prices on all of us

and we all kept paying for it. Here's the shocker. Yeah, hardly anybody left. I'm still paying, baby. Everyone's fine paying that extra buck a month for Spotify. Spotify. It actually has lower churn than Netflix. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti, Savannah Westwood

from lovely Orlando, Florida. All right, Team USA is sending a lot of athletes to Paris. Here's the trivia. question. What state is sending the most athletes to the Paris games? All right, Jack, I'm going to go, what is California for $200? How does that work? That was an easy one. California has the most athletes with 120 going to Paris next week. But Jack, I got another trivia question for you, and this one is pretty interesting. What state has the most athletes coming from America on a per capita basis? I love the answer to this question. It feels like a home state answer, Jack. Vermont

has the most athletes of any state on a per capita basis with just three athletes. There is something in that Maple Sierra baby. But get this, even Colorado has a huge number of athletes going to these Olympics. In fact, Colorado's 26 athletes going to Paris is more athletes than the entire representatives of 168 countries. Colorado is sending more athletes than 168 nations. But Vermont is number one per capita. Yet is you look fantastic for Cevice Wednesday. And if you haven't yet,

follow us on Instagram and TikTok at T-BoyPod because Jack and I have been whipping up daily videos every day. They look fantastic. T-boy Pot on Instagram. Oh, yeah. And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And if you can't remember if you've had an insomnia cookie, then you've definitely had an insomnia cookie.

You're welcome for the new marketing line insomnia. Yeah, right? Exactly. And before we go, congratulations to longtime, legendary O'Doneman. game time Yeti, LaSalle Vaughan down in Texas. This podcast is compliant, thanks to LaSalle. And this Longhorn has the longest, most impressive resume, Nick and I know.

And he just got a new job down in Texas. And Lupita Martinez, it turned 31 years old. Congratulations and celebrate that win, Lupita. Happy anniversary to Mike and Elizabeth in Riverton, Utah. We're celebrating just outside boss, just outside boss. And Cy Pavan in North Town, Pennsylvania has got a birthday and is soon to be a dad. We got a birth and a birthday coming up. Congratulations, Cy.

And Jack, Alex Malker is the legendary Yeti over in Europe who sends us those really interesting investment reports. He sent Maxi a first birthday gift while we were gone. You're not going to believe this. We got home, he sent a Barcelona football jersey to our son. Barcelona FC. Yeah, a Maxi is now a Barza fan. Mini FC for Maxi. Alexi, thanks.

Thanks for always supporting the pod. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Krispy Cream, and Nick and I both own stock of Spotify. Side note, if you have to cut a donut with a steak knife, that's a good donut.