The Best One Yet - 🧘 “Downward-facing diss” — Lulu’s CEO beef. Top Gun’s Traders. Cyber Monday’s AI agents. +Goodwill’s Glam-Up.

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, December 2nd. And today's part is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Tomorrow, it's happening tomorrow. Huge announcement from this show tomorrow, Jack. It's going to be big. It's going to be big. The New York Stock Exchange may pause stock trading for our announcement. I just want to put that out there. But Nick, we've got three fantastic stories. You know what? We totally do. Jack, what are the three stories for today's T-boy? For our first story, Lulu Lemon's founder, to look at a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to complain about the current CEO. He's trolling him. And his number one complaint is that Lulu forgot how to be cool. For our second story, of the top 20 crypto-holding zip codes in America, nearly half of them are military bases. They're top gun traders, because the secret whales of the crypto industry are in the army. And our third and final story, we just got data on Black Friday that is wild. It's crazy. One out of four U.S. dollars spent on Black Friday was done with AI.

Starting point is 00:01:04 AI has become the new deal sniffing personal assistant that will forever change prices. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Well, I mean, no one else is doing that mix. Love the mix, Jack. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, you probably bought a ton of stuff in the last day. And your closet needs help. Which is why one nonprofit brand is surging right now. more than any other is wild. Goodwill. Goodwill, the thrift store is thriving right now. For Gen Z,

Starting point is 00:01:37 Goodwill is the new Gucci because Goodwill got a glam up. Get this, shopping at Goodwill is up 37% in the last five years to an all-time high. According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans spent $5.5 billion at Goodwill last year, which is more revenue than American Eagle or urban outfitters. It's almost the same amount of revenue as Lyft. You could probably pick picture your local Goodwill store. I can smell it. Dark, musty, scent of used jeans. But no longer, Jack, because Goodwill made a fashion pivot. Yep, they pulled off a non-profit makeover. Look at their social media. Goodwill now has 250,000 followers. TikTokers are going viral, finding a rare pair of Levi's at Goodwill. How about the real estate, Jack? Goodwill's got 42 new stores in higher

Starting point is 00:02:24 income areas. Because the best donations come from the biggest closets. Millennials are paying attention to the Goodwill fashion pivot. It's a total makeover. The new cool treasure hunt is the Goodwill dress rack. It was a total Goodwill glow-up because in this economy, you may not buy a $5,000 Christian Dior handbag, but you may find a used one at the bottom of a Goodwill bin. So, Yeties, wherever you give this given Tuesday, good for you, good for you, good for you.

Starting point is 00:02:53 But Goodwill is the new Gucci. So Jack, let's at our three stores. 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, there's a wild drum.

Starting point is 00:03:39 playing out right now in public. Lulu Lemons founder versus Lulu Lemon's CEO. And it brings up a huge question. Is the best leader for a business, the one who started it? Oh, Lulu, you are in a lull. Lulu Lemons business.

Starting point is 00:03:55 It is just stuck in Shavasana right now. Which means corpse pose. Shavasana? It's not like sleeping pose or laying down pose. Yeah, it's corpse pose. Yeah, that's what it means in Sanskrit. And here's the situation. Lulu lemon sales, they've been declining all year.

Starting point is 00:04:08 Lulu Lemon's stock, it's down 52% this year. This 27-year-old business looks like it's 80 and injured. Yeah, that's right, because when you go outside, you're wearing al-Lo leggings with a Viori hoodie over a bandit shirt with hoka sneakers. Lulu is a new perk added to the MX Platinum card this year. That's a good point, Jack. But that felt a little desperate, to be honest. Yeah, I saw it and I was kind of like, act like you've been there before.

Starting point is 00:04:32 Yeah, Lulu Lemon seems to have lost its way. And for the CEO, Calvin McDonald, it's been seven years of cramination. and struggles since he took over. And founder Chip Wilson, Lulu Lemmon's largest shareholder, he's got some thoughts. A lot of thoughts. This year, that founder, Chip Wilson, is not just criticizing Lulu Lemon's CEO.

Starting point is 00:04:52 He is actively trolling him, online and in real life. He says Lulu Lemon forgot how to be cool, and he likened the latest business developments to a plane crash. He rips on his old company on LinkedIn almost daily, which is the corporate equivalent of booing. But not booing from the cheap seats, Jack. He's booing from the luxury box. Right, because he still owns 8% of this multi-billion dollar

Starting point is 00:05:16 atleisure brand. A stake worth $1.8 billion. And he brings up some pretty legitimate questions, Jack. Why did Lulu Lemon spend $500 million to acquire a mirror in at-home mirror that failed just three years later? Or check, why did Lulu Lemon do a collab with Disney and put Mickey Mouse on leggings targeting 24-year-old women. Sounds like the same mistake outdoor voices made, putting Mickey Mouse on their leggings.

Starting point is 00:05:43 I'm a Lulu Lemon shareholder. I'd love to know why they're making wool sweaters for you to wear to the office when you're wearing the rest of their stuff in the yoga studio. Should I confess that I bought a woolsweiler from Lulu Lemon and have won it to the office before? I did get you a yak sweater, and I thought you'd be wearing that instead, Jack.

Starting point is 00:05:58 But the biggest attack that the founder of Lulu Lemon made about the company today was in a full-page ad that he bought in the Wall Street Journal. paid for it himself. And here was the headline of the ad. Lulu Lemon is in a nose dive. The current CEO, Calvin McDonald, was blindsided by this public diss from the founder. Chip Wilson blamed Calvin for everything wrong with Lulu today. In this full-page Wall Street Journal ad, Chip Wilson said that Calvin's team

Starting point is 00:06:26 systematically dismantled the business model that made Lulu Lemon great. He implied that the current CEO is dumber than a fridge. Yeah, like a refrigerator. The ad also included a five-finding. part plan to save the brand. Basically, they need to go back to the OG muse that Lulu Lemon targeted at the beginning. You see, Lulu's founder, Chip, wants to design for the supergirl, a young, educated working woman. But the current CEO is designing for the mindful athlete instead. Jackie also said Lulu looked like the gap of acrylic sweaters. Ouch, that one's just personal. Now, Bestie's the official name for this situation is post-founder syndrome. We learned about it in

Starting point is 00:07:05 business school. We've seen it before. Nike's Phil Knight, Starbucks is Howard Chultz. They both publicly complained about their CEO's successors, complaining that they were messing with the baby they found it. But Jack, this founder is going full, Regina George, on his old team, and he actually brings up a really fascinating question. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Lulu? Great brands need creators, not calculators. Dreamers, not deal makers. Yeah, it's there are plenty of times when a founder-CEO needs to be replaced. Launching a company is different than managing a company. Look at Microsoft.

Starting point is 00:07:43 They're doing better than ever today worth $4 trillion. 25 years after Bill Gates retired, Sacha Nadella is running the company better than ever. But a tech company with monopoly reach depends less on a brand than a fashion business does. Managing and deal-making, those are key for giant corporations, but creating and dreaming are key for trendy brands like Lulu Latin. As Chip Wilson wrote in his trolling Wall Street Journal ad,

Starting point is 00:08:09 Finance-focused CEOs don't inspire a product and they don't inspire the people. Remember when a Wharton MBA took over Apple from Steve Jobs? It was so bad they had to ask Steve to come back. It was awkward. Now, Chip may be trolling right now, but he brings up a fair point. Consumer brands need visionaries, not actuaries. Great brands need that big DNA energy. The founder who knows the original brand.

Starting point is 00:08:33 For our second story. According to IRS data, the biggest crypto holders in the country are soldiers in our military. Of the top 15 crypto holding zip codes in America, nearly half of them are Air Force bases. Oh, that top gun trader, fitting title to an awesome story from the Wall Street Journal we found on Monday. So wild, they should get a movie starring Tom Cruise to do this story. Hey, Tommy, where's the screenplay, buddy? The Wall Street Journal looked at which zip codes in America had the highest percent of taxpayers reporting owning crypto on their tax returns. And in 2021, seven out of the top 15 zip codes were U.S. military bases.

Starting point is 00:09:19 Now, the number one and number two zip codes were in San Jose and San Francisco. Makes sense. Those are the capital of crypto and tech. But the number four zip code is Luke Air Force based in Arizona. Interesting. And the number seven zip code was Vandenberg, Spendon. Space Force Base in California. Sit down, stand up, and meme coin me again. What we're saying is combat pay and call options. That's exactly what we're saying. Troops are doubling down on risky bets, first with their lives by enlisting, then with their wealth by investing. The besties, Jack and I want to

Starting point is 00:09:53 zoom in on Isleson Air Force Base up in Alaska, the 11th highest crypto-holding zip code in the country. Isleson Air Force Base, known as the 354th fighter wing of the Air Force. The fight in 354th. The closest town to this base is literally called North Pole, Alaska. The population is 3,000, mostly enlisted servicemen, women, and families. Thank you for your service, by the way. Their mission is to protect America's national security. But most of the time, there's no threat.

Starting point is 00:10:23 So it's a boring job where they're sitting around. Yeah, the most exciting part about being stationed in the Arctic is the occasional grizzly bear and the bald eagle. and the bull markets, apparently. True. The 354th is a microcosm of this top gun trader phenomenon. That's right, because it's a try-to-get-rich culture made up of mostly young men who are risk-takers by nature having entered the military. Which is why 17% of tax returns at this Air Force base in Alaska are crypto holders, at least in 2021. Jack, could you sprinkle in more context to that 17% of those tax returns, please? That is four times the national average of crypto ownership, which is, Just 4%. Bitcoin whales are a band of brothers.

Starting point is 00:11:04 Now, we should point out, most military members invest like most Americans do in stock index funds. Others are Bitcoin and chill guys put in their savings in the OG crypto and forgetting about it. But others, according to the Wall Street Journal, are meme corners, taken dose to the moon on the side of their taking the F-16 to the sky. And some of them bought a Porsche or a Humvee with that crypto-killing. Others lost it all, though, and it felt like a scam. But even those who lose it all have stable jobs and get a pension after 20 years of military service. Uh, yeah, layoffs in the military, that pretty much has never happened.

Starting point is 00:11:37 So soldiers can put their savings in Solana and count on their job to fall back on. Not too shabby. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in crypto? What happens on military bases is the same thing that happens on Wall Street. Talk is the most valuable currency. Yeties, the journal reports that word of mouth is how personal finance and investing advice happens in the military. That's interesting, because that's how traders at the biggest investment banks and hedge funds do their business too, with talk and word of mouth. The big difference, though,

Starting point is 00:12:10 the military does it as a side hustle driven by boredom, while Wall Street does it as a full hustle driven by bonuses. But both want to get rich, and so they socialize to find ideas to act on. So besties, the way Jack and I see it, a big part of this story is the power of community in a social network to fuel participation in the markets. Military bases aren't as long crypto as they were in 2021, but they're still in the market, aren't they, Nick? Yes, Jack. And they're a big reason that the percentage of 25-year-olds in the market

Starting point is 00:12:38 searched from 6% a decade ago to 37% today. The early key to getting into the market is sharing ideas and then making a bet on them. Talk is the most valuable currency. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, this Black Friday, one out of four purchases was found for you by an AI chatbot. Agentic personal shoppers have arrived, and they will punish any retailer who dares to raise

Starting point is 00:13:13 prices. Jack, what the heck, let's just start this story with the hero stat. What do we got, man? A record $11.8 billion was spent by Americans in Black Friday online shopping. Besties, that is up 9% from last year, according to the first. to Adobe Analytics. It is a record. Black Friday is the new Cyber Monday. The top sellers were Lego sets, Pokemon cards, Nintendo Switch, and PS5. But also a huge sales of AirPods, kitchenade mixers, red light therapy masks, bonus points, by the way, if you use all three of those at the same

Starting point is 00:13:44 time. Now, this all came as a surprise because unemployment is at a four-year high. The country is still pissed about high prices. And yet we Americans just splurged more on any single day than ever before in American history? In this economy? Well, the reason that Black Friday sales growth surged from 1% last year to 9% this year? Well, Jack, it's not the K-pop demon hunter figurines, isn't, man. No, it's agentic shopping, which leads to our next hero stat. 25% of all Black Friday online shopping was sourced from AI chatbots. That's right, personal shopbots. Yides, you might have heard a lot about AI agents. AI agents are AI that do a specific job for you, like be your personal shopper. And apparently, last Friday,

Starting point is 00:14:31 they influenced $3 billion of America's $11.8 billion in Black Friday online sales. That's up 800% from last year. So Jack and I doven T-boy style, and we discovered two main reasons why one would use an AI shop bot. And Jack, want to kick it off. The first is discovery to help you figure out what to buy. So what would be a theoretical, hypothetical? Purely hypothetical. You You could type into your chat bot. I need a Christmas gift for my wife. Her fashion style is neutral, chic, and sexy. She's a mom of three boys named Wilder Brooks and Oakley.

Starting point is 00:15:05 Two years ago, I got her a white linen dress from Reformation. She absolutely loved it. But last year, I got her like an outdoor-ish, indoor-y, outdoory robe thing that she has not worn once. Now, Jack, I'm going to pause the pot for a second. I don't know if you need AI to tell you that Alex doesn't need a rope. You could have asked me and I would have told you that. No, it's like a robe that you can wear out. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:30 Like, not an indoor robe. I think that's your problem right there, Jeff. It was a huge fail. Alex, if you're listening right now and I know you are, I got your back. No, again, this is a purely hypothetical answer. If you type that into a chat bot, they may give you a range of gift options you could never have thought of yourself. Thank you for that confession, Jack. But the second reason, people are turning to AI shopbots.

Starting point is 00:15:50 What is it, Jack? To find the lowest price. To find the deals, deals, deals, deals, deals. 10 years ago, Honey was all a rage, a plugin that promised to find you promo codes and get you a discount. Well, today, AI Chatbots promised to do something similar. Scour the entire internet to find the lowest price for the thing you want to buy. So if Target raises their prices by $1 on that cardigan, AI will send everyone else to Walmart instead. Because they sell the same thing for $1 less.

Starting point is 00:16:16 Or if Burberry is on sale randomly at Bloomingdale's, AI will tell you it is even if you never even thought about going to the Bloomingdale's website. AI, it could really keep prices down with insane price competition we've never seen before. Which leads to our takeaway, don't get your wife another robe. So, Jack, I'm sorry, what's the real takeaway for all our buddies seeing the rise of AI shopbots? AI agents are creating a new industry, self-driving shopping. Or as we call it, Waymo for wishless. Yet he's a huge feature of AI chatbots is that they remember everything you've ever told them. With ChatchipT and Gemini, they might also have...

Starting point is 00:16:54 access to your web browsing too. And with all that data, AI agents can shop for you better than you can shop for yourself. Yeties, we interviewed the founder of Waymo this summer, and he referred to this as self-driving shopping. And just like some people like driving, some people like shopping, and you could still always just do that yourself. But if you don't like shopping, or you want help shopping, AI can do it for you. It's actually a huge force, we think, that will upend how retailers market. It'll force prices to stay down. But Blackfriarchs. Friday, 2025 is the start of agentic shopping. Why, as Sebastian Throon calls it, self-driving shopping.

Starting point is 00:17:31 Or as we call it, Waymo for Wishless. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Tea Boy Tuesday? Lulu Lemon's top men are beefing in public and it's awkward. Awkward. The founder says that Lulu Lemon needs his big DNA energy, not the polished CEO currently running the biz. For our second story, it's top gun traders. seven of the top 15 crypto-owning zip codes are at military bases.

Starting point is 00:17:56 Because soldiers talk about stocks just like Wall Street does. Talk is the most valuable currency. And our third and final story. One out of four purchases on Black Friday was done by personal AI shopping agents, according to Salesforce. You can shop for yourself or you can let AI shopbots do it for you. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.

Starting point is 00:18:17 First, Bill Gates is supporting a big new idea to stop climate change. the sun. Bill Gates said, if we reach a climate tipping point, which we haven't yet, he is all for releasing aerosols into the atmosphere to block the sun. Yeah, the minerals in the sky would reflect the sun's rays back into space and reduce the warming of the globe. It's called solar radiation management, aka a sun visor for planet Earth. And yes, this was the plot of an episode of The Simpsons. And second, Coinbase is funding an experiment. Give New Yorkers $12,000 in crypto for free. It's a test on universal basic income, the idea that all Americans should get some money guaranteed every month from the government. So Coinbase is giving 160 New Yorkers

Starting point is 00:19:03 $800 in crypto a month plus $8,000 up front. If this works in a way that government welfare hasn't, Coinbase is going to say crypto should be the currency. And finally, bad day for an outage. Shopify was down for big chunks of Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is expected to be $14 billion of U.S. online spending, which is bigger than Black Friday. But Shopify, which powers a million e-commerce websites, including the chili oil I was trying to buy, and our very own T-boy merch website, it was down for hours. It's the Super Bowl of e-commerce, and Shopify called out sick. Oh, by the way, if you haven't bought your T-boy Yetty doll that we launched last week,

Starting point is 00:19:43 you got to buy them now. We're running out. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Brian Carruth, a legendary Yetty from Wimsburg, Brooklyn. Get this. For a brief glorious moment, Pizza Hut controlled the seventh largest naval fleet in the world. Yes, but not through conquest, through creative accounting. In 1990, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was very expensive for American companies to open up shop in Russia. Yeah. Mainly because of complex currency restrictions. So to encourage American brands, Russia's government sold American companies their old ships, to flip and resell for U.S. dollars.

Starting point is 00:20:23 The result, pepperoni profits and an accidental armada for a brief second as the transaction cleared. Pizza Hut. In 1990, they controlled the seventh largest ship navy on Earth. Pizza the Hut! Yeties, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. We're so excited for a big announcement tomorrow. But in the meantime, remember to drop down top five stars and rate and review the show. And if you're listening on Spotify, just listen to every episode in our back catalog to make sure that we're number one in your Spotify wrap this year. Oh yeah, that's coming up too.

Starting point is 00:20:58 It's coming any day now. If you know, you know. And Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Chat, GPT, which turned three years old just a couple days ago. Congrats, Chad. And happy birthday to Abby Meyer of the Presidio in San Francisco. She and I co-hosted Nick and Molly's rehearsal dinner. And a happy birthday to have.

Starting point is 00:21:24 Lee Hollingsworth, the Mid Panther, over in San Francisco. And happy birthday to Sandy Schlock in El Dorado Hills, California, the best mom yet. And a shout out to Chelsea Reba, who has got the best new job ever at WME, leaving the rest in the dust. Happy 25-year anniversary to Amy and Patrick Klein in the Bronx. They met at a coffee shop on the Upper West Side, and I love in every minute of it. And Laura Snyder from Raleigh, North Carolina, has got a new job as senior business analyst. Congrats Laura.

Starting point is 00:21:52 And finally, on this giving Tuesday, we're giving a shout out to the Morgan Adams Foundation. Yeti's Daniel and Trisha Paul set up a fundraiser in honor of their son Jack Paul's memory. We've got a link in the episode of description. We'll be donating to them and we'll also be thinking of them. And to another Yetie, Alison Spalding from Penn State, has got Given Tuesday going on with the T-H-O-N dance marathon at the school. It's called Thon, and they're fighting childhood cancer. We've got a link in the episode of description.

Starting point is 00:22:19 And we think that's a pretty good cause to support too. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney. Nick owned stock of Lulu Lemon, Nike and Shopify, and we both own stock of Apple and Spotify, as well as, some Bitcoin. A Bitcoin named Ben. Dude, do you remember what I got in Lai, two years ago? I got her a champagne saber. Oh, like a cork? No, a saber. You know, like a sword that you open the champagne with? She was like, no, I don't want to use it. And I was like, well, I'll open the champagne I got you.

Starting point is 00:22:46 And she was like, great, I don't want it. And I opened and I cut my finger.

The Best One Yet - 🧘 “Downward-facing diss” — Lulu’s CEO beef. Top Gun’s Traders. Cyber Monday’s AI agents. +Goodwill’s Glam-Up.

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