The Best One Yet - 👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

The Hooters founders are buying it outta bankruptcy… but did you know Hooters once had an Airline?Facebook is going back to the OG version… Because the Social Network became a Stranger Network.Canada’s using a WWII playbook to fix their housing crisis… and it’s inspired by Long Island and Everything Bagels.$AAPL $META $EATWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… 📱iPhone: The Device Steve Jobs Didn’t Want to Build. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. It's Wednesday, Saviche Wednesday, April 2nd. 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. Oh, Jack and I are coming at you with an update from the Ambies, the Oscars of podcasting, baby. First of all, go right now to our Instagram because we have some fantastic behind-the-scenes highlights. Spoiler, we didn't wear tuxes.

But I got to say, you look glam over there, Jack. I was impressive, man. I mean, you literally did the glam cam. You know, I first time doing the glam camp, I would do another one very soon. I like that. Now, we didn't end up winning Best Business Podcast. That went to Guy Raz and how I built this. Credible, if you're going to lose to one show, that's exactly the legendary man you want to lose to.

But we did win on the red carpet. So check out at T-Boy Pot on Instagram. Yeties, we had a blast. Thank you for helping us almost win that award. And Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got? For our first story, it's Hooters. The restaurant chain famous for their company dress code, just five.

for bankruptcy. So we gotta talk about the time Hooters launched Hooters Airline. True story. For our second story, Canada's new Prime Minister just announced a dramatic plan to solve their housing crisis. And it's based on a World War II playbook, and it involves Long Island. And our third and final story, Zuck is turning back the clocks on your Facebook feed. Instead of a cacophonia videos from people you don't know, Facebook is bringing back the friend.

Isn't it cacophony? That's what I said, Jack, cacophone. Yeah, it is, before we had that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. What a mix for a Civeche Wednesday. According to our internal T-Boy podcast listener data, you, yes, you are listening right now on an iPhone. But despite how much you think you know your iPhone,

you don't really know your iPhone. True, because Besty's the true story of how the iPhone was born is barely even known at Apple. Did you know that at first, Steve Jobs hated the idea of the iPhone? Yeah, that's right, the iPhone, the most influential invention of the last hundred years. The iPhone, the most profitable product of all time. Are the iPhone, Steve Jobs' creation that changed the world? But the man credited with creating it actively fought against it.

And honestly, we had no idea until we did the research for our weekly show. The real origin of the iPhone, begin. with a guy named Tony. That's right. And a top secret team over at Apple named Project Purple. And while Darth Vader was Luke's father, the iPod was the iPhone's father. So Yetis, check out the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Every week, we go deep on the untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. This week, it's the iPhone. Hey, Siri, do you know how the iPhone became the iPhone? Sorry, I don't understand. She doesn't even know, Jack. No one knows. Because the iPhone is simply the best idea yet.

Oh, but today's show, today's three stories for T-Boy are fantastic. Jack, I thought we hit. Let's do it. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast 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 Dix. 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Hooters restaurants just filed for bankruptcy so that the OG founders can buy back the chain. The old Hooters is dead, and Hooters Airlines illustrates why. That's right. They had an airline.

But Jack, let's travel back a time for a moment. 42 years ago, six businessmen started a restaurant chain that they couldn't get kicked out of. That wasn't a lead into a joke. That was like what was written on their founding documents for this brand new restaurant chain. Hooters Incorporated. A place where guys will never get kicked out. Or if you wanted to shorten that, you would call it Hooters, delightfully tacky yet unrefined. Hooters.

They serve tall drinks served by waitresses in short skirts. But like the Red Lobster and TGI Fridays, Hooters has become a victim of the macroeconomic environment. And cultural environment. They got sued recently because they wouldn't allow Maryland. waiters. And now they're ending their Hooters bikini nights as well. Hooters peaked at 400 restaurants doing $1.2 billion in annual revenue, but now they're a third smaller than they used to be. So here's the news. Hooters just filed for bankruptcy. The original founders plan to buy back the company from its current ownership and bring some heat back to those wings. Now yet,

is this what Jack and I found fascinating about this story? While everyone was distracted by the Hooters staff, we noticed that Hooters was more accessible. experimental as a food chain, then we realized. First, in 1993, Hooters basically pioneered chicken wings as a scalable food at sports bars. Basically, they realized that the wing of the chicken was the most profitable part of the bird. But then, over the next two decades, as the chain grew nationwide, they really tested the limits of the Hooters brand. We jumped in T-Boy style. In 2006, Hooters opened a Las Vegas casino that actually lasted 13 years until they shut it down. And then in 2007, they launched Hooters Energy Drink, which also shut down eventually.

But we're not going to stop there, are we, Jack? Hooters Airlines was launched in 2003. Hooters leased seven airplanes from Boeing to launch an airline. Then they would put three of their waitresses as the flight crew on each of those airlines. What was Hooters Airlines like? Well, same dress coat as the restaurants, same chicken wings and beer, just all served at 30,000 feet. Now, the interesting innovation, I guess you'd call it, Jack, is that, They basically turned the entire cabin into a bar, a sports bar.

NFL games and in-flight trivia. That's what you got on Hooters Airlines. You're like yell bingo from Roe 34B. It was a pretty niche market, though. They actually targeted dudes going on golf trips. It's hard to build a world-class nationwide airline when you're dependent upon single dudes who have a little bit of vacation time.

So after just three years, in a tough moment for airlines, we should add. Hooters Airlines shut down in 2006. Well, now the founder, seem to have learned their lesson about just experimenting with too many wild things, and their new strategy is back to the hooters roots. Or as they call it, re-hudorization. They're actually hoping for a more wholesome, family-friendly vibe when they emerge from bankruptcy. Again, bikini night on Thursday, canceled.

Can't believe we even have to say that they're doing that. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are delightfully tacky and self-aware over at Hooters? Virgil Avlo's 3% rule applies to sports bars just as much as it does sneakers. Yeties, Hooters built something that there was demand for. A sports bar, but man-cavified. Or to quote the founders, a sports bar that no guy would ever get kicked out of. And the dress code of the Hooters' waitresses was really the only difference. It was a sports bar with a 3% change to the status quo.

The waitresses, that was the difference from a typical sports bar. Just a 3% difference. That's all it took. Well, Jack and I put our strategy hats on and famed fashion designer, Virgil Ablo, he was famous for this concept. Give the customer 97% of what they know, but just change up 3% to make it feel novel. Hooters did that and it worked. But then they went way beyond the 3% change when it came to the airlines and the casino.

Jack, turning an airplane into a sports bar. That's more than a 3% change. That is 300% change. Too much. So now Hooters is returning to their original 3% percent. innovation. A regular sports bar, but 3% more unrefined. Because the way we see it, Virgil Ablo's 3% rule of innovation applies to sports bars as much as it does to sneakers. For our second story, to solve the housing crisis, Canada whipped out a World War II era plan. Canada's Department of Building

Homes may actually be the perfect plan for America. Well, Jack, if we're going to talk World War II plans, let's go back to 1945, back when Canada had a real serious housing crisis, man. Soldiers returning home from war needed to start their new lives, but they needed a roof over their heads first. Well, fast forward to today, and Canada's

new prime minister says we are facing the same housing crisis now. But not for soldiers. For everyone. Boom, here is the new goal for Canada's new PM. Double the number of homes that are built annually in the country to 500,000.

500,000 homes a year in Canada. That's enough to fit 21,000 Vancouver Canuck hockey teams. Maybe it's the maple syrup talking here, Jack. But you know what? We could use some of that World War II housing planning down here in America as well. I mean, we've been saying on this pod for years, Bill, big you build. We have. Because both the United States and Canada have decades of underbuilding that simply hasn't kept up with our growing populations.

Check your bank account, both the U.S. and Canada, spend way too much of our paychecks. on rent or mortgages. The high price of housing, in our opinion, is the biggest source of anxiety full stop in our country. Which is why we saw this story and we had to cover it. Canada is creating a, and I feel like we need a horn announcement here, Jack, Department of Building Homes. It is a wartime plan to cut time and cost of building a home. Now the name of the new entity is actually build Canada homes and it's going to act like a housing. developer. Now, they're going to do the expected stuff. They're going to give incentives to builders, and they're going to give tax breaks to developers to build more homes. Okay, but Jack, what's the key

really interesting thing that they're also doing over there? They're pumping 17 billion U.S. dollars into specifically factory built houses. Factory built houses. Yeties, that's the plan up in Canada. But Jack, am I wrong? But where have we seen such a similar plan before? We saw a similar plan here in the States in Levitown, New York. Write down the LIE from where your dad grew up, right man? My dad was born in Levittown. It's a little Long Island town, which was America's own post-war housing solution. You read about this stuff in history textbooks.

Yeah, let's go back to 1947. Back then, Levittown would let World War II veterans choose from six different housing models. There were only six choices for your house. And fewer options let them mass produce 6,000 new homes in record time. So, Jack, basically your grandparents were looking at these. These six options, and one of them was a model house called the Cape Cod house. Yeah, the Cape Cod was a 1,000 square foot house that they were offering for just $10,000 at the time. Just for inflation, that's a $140,000 home in today's money, not too shabby.

And since they mass-produced it, it was a pretty good house, despite that low price. Three bedrooms, one bath, and the kind of kitchen that makes you want to carve up a roast ham for the whole family. And those are the vibes that Canada is trying to achieve again today. Mass-produced houses in factories to keep cost down. Now, there is another way to keep cost down. Yeah, there is. Rip up the red tape. And that other way leads to our takeaways.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the home market? What does red tape look like? It looks like in everything bagel. Yeah, Yeties, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, two economic policy wonks. They just published a book called Abundance. In that book, they describe the housing policy fails that have been happening for decades in blue states. For example, in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, basically all the places I've spent most of my time are litig. You know, they would pass a bill with a billion dollars for affordable housing, but that bill would then get suffocated by other priorities.

Other priorities like the house must be built by a minority-owned home builder, or that the home builder must employ female construction workers at a higher. rate, or that the houses must only use green building materials, or that the houses must have extra-inclusive disabilities access. Now, after all of that combined red tape requirements, it actually cost around $800,000 to build each one of those, quote-unquote, affordable units. In other words, all those priorities, which are valid and worthy in their own right, had the effect of killing the affordable housing bill. And that is called the Everything Bagel problem. And, It's why we appreciate Canada's wartime branding of the continent's housing crisis. To build affordable housing, you must focus on affordability and nothing else.

And what does red tape actually look like? Well, it looks like an everything bagel. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Zuckerberg, who dismantled Facebook to make it more like TikTok, now wants to bring back the OG Facebook. What's it all mean? One social network is actually getting social again. Now, Yeti's Jack and I just flew back from Chicago. I was in the aisle.

I was seated next to a grandfather, and that grandpa actually spent two-thirds of the flight flipping through Facebook. Honestly, my neighbor, who was a grandma, did the same exact thing. Yeah, makes sense. Facebook is now basically a digital senior center. That's what it is.

It's the Bocryton of social network. It is, and we've got the data to back it up. 55 to 64-year-olds use Facebook the most. And the younger you get, the less you use it. You see, it's actually the opposite with TikTok. 18 to 24-year-olds use TikTok the most, and the older you get, the less you use it. Now, honestly, we think Facebook should just embrace the boomer generation,

but after 10 years of Facebook, basically being a punchline and losing users, Zuck wants to make Facebook cool again. Or, based on his new political idea, He wants to make Facebook great again. Which leads to the news. Zuck is bringing back elements of the OG Facebook, including the Friends tab.

Translation, we can stop swiping on strangers and we can start poking friends again. And if you don't know what we mean by poking friends. It's totally appropriate. It's totally appropriate. And you're not going to get our next Y2K reference either. So Jack, to sprinkle on more context here, could you

please tell us about the year 2018? In 2018, TikTok arrived in the U.S. in a real way. And that's when social media started to become antisocial. Because TikTok prioritized videos, not images and text. And those videos are of people you don't

know. And watching those videos of strangers you do not know, it turns out that was algorithmically addictive. TikTok started stealing time spent on Instagram and Facebook. Okay, so Zuck got his team together a few years ago and said, you know what? We're going to copy that same

formula that TikTok uses with a new thing called Reels. He sucked the idea. He told his engineers, do exactly what TikTok is doing, but in this new tab called Reels that we're putting in Facebook and Instagram. Now, to go back to when Jack and I

were roommates together in college, you know, back then, you would write on someone's Facebook wall after a party, maybe give him a poke, and then you tag him in some birthday picks, right? But today, you open Instagram, and you just scroll videos of some hotel influencer you never met,

and then swipe to the next video, another influencer you've never met. And then another video of like some news clip, it's a friendless space. It's actually a very different physical action because today you're just scrolling through and consuming, but 15 years ago you would make actions and interact. It's a different physical action. But ironically, all the changes that have happened to Facebook, which Zuck was behind, now he wants to undo them all.

Because Zuck has realized that Facebook's original friend focus from 15 years ago is actually a differentiator today. So he's changing the app to be more about friends, less about strangers. The OG Facebook, it's back like 2006 spring break with Carson Daly. Zuck realized there are no social networks anymore. There's only stranger networks. Now Zuck likes that social networks are now stranger networks, doesn't he, Jack? But on Facebook, he's bringing back the Friends tab. It will be free of promoted posts and free of content from people you're not friends with. You're actually going to see your buddy Timmy. And Jack, we should untag him in that photo. So, man,

what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in social media? Prediction. Gen Z is about to turn Facebook into a verb again. Now, yetis, we've said that retro tech is having a comeback right now. It's the return of Y2K.

Remember how Yahoo email address signups are jumping right now? Yeah, and also, we've told you our 20-year rule of nostalgia. Facebook was launched in 2004, basically 20,000. years ago. And we know that loneliness levels have hit record highs among young people. In part because of the algorithms, which send us down friendless holes of content with strangers. So, Jack's in my prediction, it's that Gen Z will embrace Facebook for the first time in their

lives. The next time you see a 20-something, they might be poking instead of TikToking. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Hooters is bankrupt, but it's getting bought back and re-huterized by the OG family. Hooters changed sports bars by 3% and it worked back then. It's Virgil Ablo's fashion rule in action. For our second story, Canada's new PM is declaring a warlike plan to double the number of new homes built. But the key is cutting red tape, which looks like an everything bagel of policies. And our third and final story, Zuckerberg is making changes to Facebook that will prioritize friends. It's going from a stranger network back to a social network.

And we think Gen Z is going to make Facebook a verb again. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know that. Okay. The front pages of CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and every other major news source have been the same for four straight days, right man? Speculation about Trump's tariffs. What will he do? What won't he do? What will he pretend he's going to do? What will he fake us about? Nobody knows. But we will actually find out today when the president announces Liberation Day at the White House. We'll digest, we'll analyze, and we'll probably whip up a takeaway about it in tomorrow. I was pod. And second, OpenAI just snagged the biggest private fundraise in the history of money.

Again. I feel like every time they raise money, it's the biggest ever. Hey, Sam, you set your own record again. You beat yourself. This time, Open AI raised $40 billion from venture capitalists at a $300 billion valuation. But there is one interesting caveat, isn't there, Jack? Some of that money is conditioned upon Open AI successfully converting to become a for-profit company. Elon Musk sued Open AI to stop that conversion and that case is going to trial. Drama. And finally, the NFL is eliminating the first down chains.

They're going full electronic to decide if you got a first down or not. Third and one, quarterback sneak. Not sure if you got the first down. You're not going to call out the chain gang anymore. We're not going to look at the chain and the tip of the football and see if it touches it. Okay, just repeat. We're talking about the two dudes with the two big things with a chain between them that awkwardly sprint onto the field.

Full disclosure, I've been a member of several chain gangs. The worst part is, like, if there's a tackle happening over there, you might get destroyed as a member of the chain gang. It's an awkward position, Jack. I'm glad you shared that with us. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me to tell you the best brand April Fool's jokes from 24 hours ago.

Yesterday, Subway introduced Subway. It's a line of protein shakes from the subway chain that isn't happening, but actually it should happen, yeah. Then Yahoo launched a touchgrass keyboard, which is a keyboard with actual grass growing in between the keys, so you get a little outdoor time when you're typing away. Then IKEA launched a new store concept called the linear store layout. It's actually a straight line, not amazed.

You're in and out in 20 seconds. It's actually wonderful. And then the Kansas City Chief shared a picture of Andy Reed, but with no mustache. Right, which was only topped by Warren Buffett, who's going to acquire Tesla for $1 trillion. That last one wasn't an April Fool's joke. It was just a lie.

Oh, by the way, Skims is not launching a Wall Street line. That was our April Fool's joke. A lot of people wanted the Skims' sweat-wicking shirts. Yeah, we made that one up. I hope that didn't feel like a lie. I think that was pretty clearly a joke. But that's a story for another pot. Yeties, you look fantastic today.

And we know exactly where you should go after this show because we've got the best idea yet for you. We got a link in the episode description to hear the untold origin story. of the iPhone. You are listening to us probably statistically speaking mathematically on an iPhone right now, but you don't know where that iPhone really began. And if you miss the iPod, this story goes in that too. Oh, we're going back into the grand papa of the iPhone. Tap the link in the episode of description. Nick and I will see it tomorrow. Can't wait. Before we go, a happy birthday

to Yeti Sophia Rodriguez turning 14 years old down in Greensboro, North Carolina. And happy birthday to my buddy Dave Fleming from Brattleboro, Vermont, now crushing the slopes in Utah. And Hannah, the Yeti I ran into on the airplane with her luggage. Hannah, fantastic to have you with the show. I'm glad we saw you on the way back from Chicago. Thanks for enjoying the pot. Congratulations to Will Martin of Cork Island, who won a golden tie at the starties in New York City. And congratulations to Guy Raz and the How I Built This Team, who won Best Business Podcast at the Ambies. We were honored to be up there with you. What an amazing group of nominees and what an incredible show and experience, man. We were hoping we would win, but if anyone was going to beat us, we're glad it's you.

Congratulations, guys. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple.