The Best One Yet - 👩‍🚀 “Elon’s favorite child” — SpaceX vs Everyone. $Harvard vs $Yale. NYC vs Delivery apps.

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

SpaceX wasn’t the first to send regular humans to space, but this week’s launch is otherworldly. Harvard’s college endowment is bigger than ½ the countries in the world, and it’s making an unprecedented climate move (that also beats Yale). And DoorDash and NYC are fighting over your $9 dumpling fee, but their latest battle is over your phone number.$TSLA $DASH $UBER $GRUBGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Friday, the real Friday, September 17th, Jack. Oh, hold on, Nick. I'm just finishing up doing an hour and a half of fantasy football research on the company's dime. It happens during the work time. Wait, one second, Jack, one second, hold the pot.

Green, crew neck, sweatshirt, giant Bose headphones. This is the Jack Kramer Friday outfit. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a crisp air here in Vermont. Everyone has a special drawer. Everyone has a Friday out. Nick's rocking his signature Everlane.

True Neck T-shirt, which he does for every T-boy. I got the wreck to consumer. But today's episode, that's the best one yet. For our first story, Virgin Galactic and Blue Argent, technically beat SpaceX in the race to commercial space tours. But here's what we're thinking. SpaceX is operating in a different universe. For our second story, it's about Harvard,

because Harvard University's Endowment Fund is bigger than half of the world's economies. But Harvard's latest move could be its biggest move. And it beats Yale. For our third and final story, DoorDash and the city of New York are fighting over your $9 delivery fee for those dumplings. Here's the breakdown. DoorDash wins financially. Dumplings win politically.

They always went politically, Jack. But Snackers, before we hit those three wonderful stories. Wonderful. Friday mix before the weekend. You got to celebrate these wins. The latest subscription we want to tell you about is not Netflix, ICloud, or even Stitchfix. And it isn't some monthly box of organic buffalo meat for your puppy who has maybe a few fruit aversions. I swear I've got that.

Instagram ad before. The newest subscription, subscription rating your life is tacos. Specifically, Taco Bell tacos, soft shell or hard shell. Taco Bell Snackers, they just launched a Taco a day subscription down in lovely Arizona. Arizona, where companies try stuff out. It's the dry heat. Taco lovers pass. That's the name of this gym. And it's going to cost you about $7.50 a month. Now, Nick and I looked at the Taco Bell menu at our local Taco Bell and determined that the average tacos about a buck 50 each. First thought we had, may want to double check these ingredients, Taco Bell. That seems very cheap.

Second thought we had was, I've had six tacos. Why don't I feel full? Third thought we had was, you know what? The snackers, we love them. We got to do the math for you on whether or not this new Taco Bell subscription makes sense financially for you to do. Now, if you're going to have just one Taco a month, of course you shouldn't buy this Taco Pass.

If you're going to have two tacos a month, it's still not worth it, actually. If you're going to have three, four, or even five, it's still not worth it. to get the subscription. But here's the best part. If you eat tacos six days a month, Snackers, Jack, what are you thinking? Then this is a financially savvy investment. That's right. Six tacos a month makes you hit the steak even point on this thing.

The steak even point. It's actually not six tacos, Nick. It's six visits to six Taco Bells on six different days because the pass is limited to one taco a day. So six taco meals a month makes the Taco Bell subscription. It makes it fiscally responsible, Jack. But it makes you socially. unacceptable. Yeah, and we're pretty sure

Taco Bell's goal with Taco Lever's past was to get shows like ours to start talking about Taco Bell. Well done, Taco Bell. Well done. But is the Gwok Extra? Of course. Yeah. That's under three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way.

It's snacks about the hearing food. It's ear candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. Nope. It's not a research report or. investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, SpaceX, they just sent

space tourist into space. Not for three minutes, for three days. Yeah. Incredible. But where's the SpaceX stock? Snackers, if you're jaded to news about successful space launches, there have been a lot, check. Shame on you. Shame on you. Elon Musk. SpaceX. We're talking to Los Angeles-based private space exploration company. They just sent four regular human beings into space, keyword regular.

Not professional astronauts. No, no. Just folks with non-rocket science degrees who bought a ticket. We're talking people who like, they were probably wearing khakis. Honestly, they boarded in khakis. Twelve minutes after liftoff, the rocket reached orbit. This thing went straight out. It's like a drank of Red Bull.

This thing was out there. Yeah. And it's not coming down thanks to its speed. It's going 17,000 miles per hour, Jack. And it's not going up either thanks to the force of gravity. Because of 9.8 meters per second square, Jack. This is Jack. Nick and I both took AP physics. But here's why there's some drama around SpaceX.

It's because technically Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin beat SpaceX in the race for space tourism like two months ago. Right. That's why you might feel jaded. Because both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, they sent page. space tourists up 54 miles for Virgin Galactic and 67 miles for Blue Origin. But here's the thing Snackers. SpaceX went six times higher than both those companies. They went 360 miles up in the air. Okay, but Virgin Galactic of Blue Origin, their passengers experienced weightlessness for three minutes. But here's the think Snackers. SpaceX passengers, they got weightlessness for three days. They're still up there, by the way. Yeah, they're hanging out. But Nick, Virgin Galactic

in Blue Origin, they had suborbital space flights, which is incredible. But here's the think snacker, SpaceX's was orbital. We're talking magnitudes of difference. Virgin Galactic was a glorified airplane flight compared to this SpaceX one. Basically, Virgin Galactic was a jacked up Southwest Airlines flight. And a reminder, this SpaceX flight, there was no professionals on board. No, no, no, no. There was no NASA small talk before they took off.

You know, Kevin and Houston? Oh, Kevin, great guy. And by sending up regular people with no. NASA supervision. This moves space travel closer to the routineness of air travel. Beautifully put, Jack. You buy a ticket, you eat your peanuts. You enjoy the flight into space. Oh, and be sure before you deploy it to try out the SpaceX extra rewards card, which gives you extra space. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at SpaceX? SpaceX's biggest opportunity. It's not Mars. It's an IPO.

Yeah, SpaceX, it's still private. If you want to invest, you are Summa. We're all. All sumo were straight up missing out. SpaceX's private valuation is reportedly $74 billion, which is more than 10 times of publicly traded Virgin Galactic. And SpaceX isn't short on cash because a founder slash bagillionaire Elon Musk can bankroll SpaceX pretty easily these days. But by not being a publicly traded company, SpaceX is potentially missing out on the enthusiasm that's enjoyed by Tesla's rabid shareholder base.

I mean, Tesla's millions of retail shareholders who love Tesla's story. and Tesla's product. SpaceX has an even more captivating story than Tesla does. Absolutely. But it does not have that rabid shareholder fan base. But it could, if only, it would IPO. ETA on SpaceX's IPO is TBD, FYI. So they took off Wednesday.

They're landing on Saturday. If you're listening, SpaceX crew, we're wishing you a safe return. We're wishing you a safe return back to Earth. For our second story, Harvard's epic investment fund just like totally quit fossil fuels. Ghosted him. Done. Pack the car and Harvard.

Yeah. This could have a big impact on environmental investing. It could. Or Harvard's move could have the exact opposite impact. This is the biggest thing Harvard's done since accepting Elwoods. Yes. I think we can say that. Yeah.

Because exercise gives you endorphins and endorphins make you happen. And it's not just like the Hall of Fame alumni Harvard has or like the middle tier lacrosse team that Harvard has. Or Harvard's absurd founding date of 1682. BC. The real power over at Harvard is Harvard's fund, the Harvard Endowment. Harvard's Endowment Fund is bigger than the national GDPs, the national economies, of half of the world's countries. Let that sink in.

Half of the world isn't as wealthy as Harvard is. So when $42 billion of Harvard University's money makes a $1,000. move. That's like tectonic shift. Yeah. It's like a continent moving across the ocean. But Snackers, the real change actually happened back in February when Harvard made the big announcement that they would no longer invest directly in fossil fuels. Key words. Yeah, it took them until 2021 to decide that they're no longer going to own Exxon mobile stock directly at their endowment office in Cambridge, Mass. But here's the problem. Their keyword was directly. And 2% of Harvard's huge fund is indirect investments. Right. So 2% of Harvard's money could invest in funds that invest in ExxonMobil.

So the news this week, Harvard is now going to let those few indirect remaining investments run off. So Harvard will become 100% fossil fuel free in a $42 billion fund. Harvard's president is no, save the whales granola. No, no, no, he's not. Wild quote he dropped on the news. We do not believe such investments are prudent. Uninspiring quote from the president. The passion is with the pupils of Harvard University. This actually all began back when students at Harvard risked arrest in 2019 by storming the Harvard Yale football game. And then they went on to file a complaint with the Massachusetts Attorney General about Harvard's fund.

Those activist students, they deserve a Grunkowski touchdown spike right now. So let's take a step back for a second. When one Ivy Leaf goes green like this kind of green, we may get a peer pressure situation going on in the Ivy League. Now, Yale, which is the lift to Harvard. Uber, they committed to partial divestment from fossil fuels. And according to the website, Fossil Free, Stanford, not Ivy, but they divested from coal back in 2014, they're going net zero everything else by 2050.

Brown and Cornell, they look at each other. They're like, we doing this? Okay, let's hold hands and jump into the fossil free swimming pool together. I kind of feel like we got to do this now. Ivy League leadership, it doesn't end there. That could trickle down to the rest of the American University Endowment situation. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over all the huge number of college endowment funds. It's possible that Harvard's actions could have the opposite impact. If you quit as stock snackers, you'll lose the influence. Right. Big investors like Harvard, they have big numbers of shares and companies. And one share is one vote. And votes

determine the future of the company. Well, this summer on a different page, an activist investor snagged a whole bunch of Exxon Mobil stock. An activist investor did the opposite of what Harvard did with fossil fuels. That was an environmental hedge fund and they got three seats on an oil company's board. And now that little green hedge fund is forcing ExxonMobil CEO to transition from oil and gas faster than they were comfortable doing. All right. So we got ourselves two different methods here, opposite ends of the spectrum, but the same exact goal. Completely divest from fossil fuels to inspire change or jump in deeper into fossil fuels and force change. For our third and Final story, Jack spends 10 minutes telling me about his Roomba and how he can't live without this thing.

Norm Cor, Raddad. Honestly, Snackers, before the pod, Jack's always something. He's like, am I going to do this thing on auto? Am I going to self-drive this thing? I don't know. Maybe I'm going to use it manually today. I love this room. It returns to its own dock and shows me a map of my house and all the spots that I got and didn't get.

Rumba obey. Spoiler. It got everywhere. But our actual third story, the biggest food fight since the Great British Baking Show is going on right now in one place. DoorDash versus New York City. It's a battle over delivery and your phone number. And Snackers, we've all been there before.

You want to order the Purple's Pleasure sandwich from Noonies because you're really, really hungry. You want avocado? You're willing to pay an extra buck 50. It's okay. You expected that. But what about the $4 delivery fee? Jack, what about the $3 service fee?

The $2 transport fee? How about the $1 fee fee? Hate that one. You're still going to tip the delivery person, right? Do you not have a soul? The average DoorDash customer tips 11. What are you going to take? Come on, kick it up a notch, buddy. Snackers, since the pandemic began, the fee-based business model of delivery apps, it's been under attack. Yeah, kicked off last year when

San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, a bunch of other cities capped delivery fees on your orders at 15%. They were getting out of control. It's the pandemic. Delivery is the only way restaurants can survive. Yeah. Don't break restaurants with fees. Well, then last spring, San Francisco made that temporary cap on companies like DoorDash permanent. And this summer, summer of 2021, 70 U.S. cities still had caps on commissions that the delivery apps did not like. Well, last month, New York City said, you know what, we're going to make that cap permanent too, ending the era of the $10 delivery fee on the $10 pad tie. Backs against the wall. Last week, the fellowship of delivery apps, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhubh, jointly sued New York City to fight.

this permanent cap on commissions. And then, Jack, what comes next in this lovely, lovely tale? How do New Yorkers respond when a Silicon Valley tech company sues it? Forget about it. You double down. New York City is proposing a law requiring delivery apps to share your name, phone number, email address, and residential address with the restaurants that you're delivering to. That's a whole lot of data. And data is a type of power that DoorDash and other delivery apps don't want to give up. With that data, your go-to pizza place, they can directly market to you over email and then deliver to you yourself cutting out the delivery app middleman. Hey, we got a barata special tonight. You want extra pepperoni? Hold the DoorDash.

Hold the transport fee too. So DoorDash sued New York City a second time again. Because New York City doubled down. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at all of the delivery apps right now? Platforms are financially efficient, but IRL businesses are politically efficient. is physical restaurants, they're a net positive for New York City. Physical restaurants employ full-time employees. They encourage consumers to go out, and they pay the city lots of taxes. But delivery out platforms, they're kind of a net negative for New York City. They employ independent contractors. They give people less reason to go out. They pay fewer taxes, and they extract profits from

restaurants, funneling them to Silicon Valley headquarters. Well, the New York City Council put it the most bluntly, restaurants are not just a critical part. of New York City's economy, they are part of our culture and our way of living. DoorDash and Uber getting bullied by New York politicians because New York City cares about restaurants more than the apps. And DoorDash and Uber can't win that political fight, and that is why they're turning to the courts. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend? Quick heads up. SpaceX has not IPOed, but Elon has said that the satellite internet business, Starlink, will eventually IPO. In the meantime, have a safe and enjoyable travel

back to Earth. For our second story, Harvard will no longer invest in companies that extract fossil fuels. It's one way to force change. The other way happens to be the exact opposite. For our third and final story, Doordash is suing New York City again for cramping its style again. Platforms are financially efficient, not politically efficient. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by Herup Wargas in Houston, Texas. Hey, Snackers, Hera Vargas here sharing three statistics for Hispanic Mon. Number one, in 2020, Spanics made up nearly one in five people in the U.S. Number two, U.S. population grew by 22 million from 2010 to 2020,

and Spanics accounted for 51% of this increase. Lots of babies. And number three, among all U.S. college students, the person is of Latinos, increased from 14% in 2010 to 19% in 2019. All right, thank you, gracias, and adios. That was actually three snack facts. A lot of babies and a lot of students. It was round up.

Snackers. You look fantastic this week. Jack, celebrate some wins tonight. Anytime I'm wearing a crewneck sweatshirt, I celebrate the wins. And by the way, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. That Roomba, that's a win. Thank you. Snackers, thanks for snack it. Nick and I'll see you Monday.

Can't wait. And before we go, thanks to Snacker Bill from Milstad, Illinois, for pointing out that Chevy and Ford made experimental electric trucks back in the 90s. They were very quickly discontinued, though. Yeah. So Rivian still gets the ground. Kyle Bullish Broderick and Shannon, bullish bulk. Congratulations on the lovely wedding this week.

This is a snacks-themed wedding in Colorado. After a snacks themed Bachelorette and Bachelor Party, that is snack-tastic. Braden Stark, or is it Brandon Stark? Congrats on the new job in sound engineering. Congrats to Chris Newin in San Francisco for getting a job at PWC. And Josh, Schmidt and Mary, happy one-year anniversary down in Springfield. Happy one-year anniversary to Garrett and D in Seattle, Washington.

Nikki T. Happy half birthday down in Honolulu, Hawaii. Happy birthday to Ali Rude Grapp in Sebastian Pole, California. Hannah Taitreau, happy birthday in Santa Monica. And Lucy in Jersey City. And Wu in Durham, North Carolina. And David in San Clemente, California. And happy birthday to Ethan Stainbrook in South Dakota. This is Jack.

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