The Best One Yet - ⚽ “Ghost Tickets” — StubHub’s CEO scalper. Béis’ hater luggage. DeepSeek’s anti-Ferrari AI. +Chipotle’s Mexican 1st

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

StubHub faces class action Ghost Ticket lawsuits… as the CEO was outed as a ticket scalper.Béis sells $250M in luggage every year… its newest viral Weekender bag was designed by haters.China’s DeepSeek reportedly plans to IPO this year… because most American businesses don’t need Ferrari AI.Plus, Chipotle’s opening its 1st restaurant in Mexico… $STUB $RACE $CMGGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, July 16th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. All right, Jack, it's a herd of elephants, a flock of seagulls, a conspiracy of ravens, a parliament of owls, a pride of lions. There's different words for different groups. So then, Jack, what do you call a group of billion-dollar AI startups?

A hallucination. A hallucination. Only a human could have come up with that one. Jack, three fantastic stories for the coolest show in capitalism. What we got on today's spot? For our first story, Stubb Hub's CEO was just accused of being the biggest ticket scalper in the country. Have you heard of ghost tickets? That's now a thing.

It turns out he also owns a hedge fund that funds ticket buying bots. Sounds like a scalper. For our second story, China's Deep Seek is reportedly IPOing later this year for $74 million. Because American companies want Honda AI, not Ferrari AI. And our third and final story. Summer is suitcase season. and the viral-based luggage brand just hit $250 million in sales. Their newest luggage drops today, but it's designed by the people who hate it.

But Yeti's, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, no one else doing that mix. Fantastic Mix, Jack. Congratulations to Chipotle. Because they're finally opening up their first location in Mexico. Besties, Chipotle's official corporate name is Chipotle Mexican Grill, but this is their first trip south of the border. So how will the Mexicans receive America's best Mexican-American?

American cuisine? Well, Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style and it turns out there's a very funny history here, right, Jack? Of American chains expanding to the countries of their cuisine and, uh, but totally failing. Call it caloric colonialism. What do we got, Jack? Call it regional rejection. Because Domino's Pizza was founded in Michigan. Oh boy. And eventually they opened up 29 shops in Italy. But then shut down all 29. P.F. Chang's was founded in Scottsdale and then they opened in Shanghai. But shut it down within one year. It took Starbucks 47 years to muster the courage to open their doors in Italy. Oh, and the founders of Outback Steakhouse, they never even visited Australia once.

Not even for a foreign exchange program in college. No, no, no, no, no. But the craziest part about Chipotle opening up across the border, what is it, Jack? It's that Taco Bell already tried this. Twice and failed fantastically both times. Apparently, the Doritos Locos Taco isn't authentic. Chicano cuisine. I mean, Jack, does cheesy gordita crunch Supreme not translate into en Español? What's going on? So Taco Bell even tried to Trojan horse their way into Mexico

one time. Yeah, 1992 Taco Bell launched a food cart down in Mexico City. There was no Taco Bell branding, but everyone could tell, this isn't our people. Got destroyed by a tamale vendor. So good luck to Chipotle on their Mexican move. You may need a return ticket and don't make the Gwok extra. Jack, what's it over to do you start? 15 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 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, Stubhubhub's CEO has been outed as the ringleader of a mass scalping organization. Ghost tickets and a ticket scalping conspiracy. Stubhub is the LVP of this World Cup. Cue the Hulu documentary, Jack. Vesies, this World Cup, it's been, as the French team says, Inquiable. Well, until they lost in the semifinal. The tourists have discovered ranch dressing, 100 urinal gas stations, and Boston's

lack of legal happy hour did not stop the Scots. Not one bit. Messy, Mbapé, and Harry Kane, they have been harassing goalies, but Cape Verde's goalie was a hero. Jack Norway gave celebratory parades to their team upon their return, even though they didn't even win the thing. It's been incredible to watch, and this Sunday, Spain takes on Argentina in Not MetLife Stadium, which is just outside Manhattan.

Besties, over in court, the people are taking on the CEO of Stubhop in the other World Cup final. Before we get to the lawsuits, which focus on the CEO himself, not the company, the company Stubhub is getting a yellow card for ghost tickets. Stubhub has let non-existent World Cup tickets be sold on the platform to unsuspecting fan victims. So, Jack, could you please sprinkle on some context to this new concept of a ghost ticket? A ghost ticket is when someone sells a ticket on Stubhubb to a game, but doesn't actually have the ticket that they're selling. It's a phantom ticket.

Their hope is to sell that phantom ticket for a high price, because they assume that. they'll be able to find it for a lower price that they can deliver to the buyer eventually and profit off of the difference. They're hoping it's a profit puppy. But if the seller fails to find that ticket, which happens every once in a while, then the buyer is stranded outside the stadium with the ticket they're holding that is fake. Stubhubbhub gives these people a refund, but they traveled all the way from Lisbon to Los Angeles and their trips ruined because they can't even get into the stadium.

No amount of ranch dressing can make up for that, unfortunately, Jack. The ringer calls Stubhubhub's failure to prevent ghost tickets on their platform, Stubhub's World Cup own goal. So out of all up, Yaddies, and Stubhub is the loser of this World Cup. But class action lawsuits reveal they actually deserve a red card. Because the co-founder and CEO, Eric Baker, isn't just running Stubhub, he's also America's top scalper. He is also financing a sophisticated ring of scalpers who rip people off on Stubhub.

That's right, according to the investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Stubhubhub's CEO is scalping you on his very own platform. Now, when Stubhubbioed last September, our takeaway on this podcast was that Stubhub had a dirty little secret with its business model. Pause the podjack. I believe we literally said last year, Dirty secret, Stubhub's business model depends on scalpers. But we had no idea then that Stubhubb's CEO was the biggest scalper of all. Because get this, Eric Baker is the part owner and managing director of Andro Capital, a hedge fund.

Not just any hedge fund, a hedge fund that happens to invest and engage. in mass ticket scalping. So it's not just the World Cup fans, the Swifties are going to want to hear this takeaway, too. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are anyone buying tickets? Stubhub acts like the referee, but it's also the biggest player in the game.

Now, Yetis, when Taylor Swift tried to sell tickets to the Arestore for $100, automated bots harvested all of them before the fans could and then sold them on Stubhubhub for five to ten times the price. Scalpers run those automated bots. Yes, they do. But those scalpers aren't guys standing outside,

MSG like they used to be. And who wants 50 bucks? 20 bucks. I'll do it for 30. These days, scalpers are backed by Wall Street firms like Andro Capital, which is run by the CEO of Stubhub. What we're saying is Eric Baker takes a salary as CEO of Stubb. Who charges Taylor Swift fans a 20% ticket fee when they bought that ticket from a scalper

on Stubhub. But he also takes a 400 to 1,000% profit on the ticket that he scalped in the first place. And we're not pressing that to Ching Putt in a little. in the positive way right now. No, we're not. Because Stubhub's CEO doesn't just double dip, he triple dips, and we're paying for each dip. Now, there are straightforward things that Stubhubhub could do to stop mass scalping on their secondary ticketing platform. The easy stuff, like limit the number of tickets any one account could sell. But Stubhubb hasn't done that, because their CEO's side hustles as the MD of Big Scalping Inc.

So, Basties, if you're wondering why Stubhubb's platform has been so unfriendly to the fans of this World Cup, well, here's your answer. It's because Stubhubhub isn't the neutral referee they claim to be. It's actually a steroid-fueled player on the field competing against the fans. For our second story, after shocking the AI industry last year, Deepseek is now preparing to IPO. American companies are switching to Chinese AI dupes because most companies just need a Honda. Yeah, I just need a civic. But besties, check those counters because one year ago, Deepseek gave Silicon Valley its Sputnik moment. Sputnik moment.

Like when the Soviets shocked America during the space race, China shocked Silicon Valley. With Deep Seek, the Chinese AI that showed that cutting-edge artificial intelligence could be done at a fraction of the cost. America's AI leaders

called Deep Seek and their Chinese peers, cheaters, for the record. And they complained last month that Deep Seek, quote, brazenly stole their American tech in the process called distillation. Although it's an ironic complaint,

given that the AI industry has taken content without permission since it's very originic. Moby Dick, I don't think you paid for that one, Sam Altman. Yeah, it's their original sin, some call it. Nonetheless, Deep Seek is an icon of China's AI industry, and why is that, Jack? It offers almost as good AI for way lower costs. Kind of like TEMU AI.

And according to Bloomberg, it's $74 billion deep seek is now getting its paperwork ready to IPO. They're hoping to go public before the end of the year. The besties, this is what Jack and I find fascinating. What's the bigger story here, Jack? We've seen Lulu Lemon... Well, we've seen Lulu Lemon... yoga pant dupes. Yeah, yeah.

We've seen Elf Beauty lipstick dupes. Yeah, we've seen those too. Why not artificial intelligence dupes? Why not?

Because American companies are now downgrading from expensive American AI to cheaper Chinese AI. Basically, the hot new trend in AI

that no one's talking about, it's buy China's AI dupes instead. Now, Yeties, we've covered the sticker shock that CFOs are

having from their gigantic AI bills. Look at their monthly receipts are like, who is Claude? And why are we paying him a million dollars every month?

Per employees. The era of token maxing is over. Some startups are spending more on AI right now than on payroll or on their office lease. They're dropping more on chat cheap E.T than they do for the building. NPR spoke to several tech startups who canceled chat TPT recently to sign up for cheaper Chinese models instead. We're talking deepseek, Alibaba, Shiomi, Tencent, ZAI. They're offering high-quality, low-cost AI compared to Anthropic Google and Open AI. Bloomberg even reported last fall that Airbnb,

whose headquarters is down the block from Anthropic and Open AI, by the way. They're using Alibaba's model. As Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky put it, it's very good. It's also fast. And it's cheap. DoorDash, Coinbase, Uber. All San Francisco companies, all using AI models not developed in San Francisco.

Added it all up besties, and we've got Made in China furniture. We've got Made in China toys. And now we've got Made in China B2B agentic enterprise chat customer excellence agents. It's taking over. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies? is looking at the Chinese AI dupes. Cutting-edge tech companies need Ferrari AI. But for everyone else, it's Honda AI.

Yeti's one analyst described Chinese AI as having N-1 technology, with N being the best, frontier, most cutting-edge, fanciest model of AI. The Chinese models Nick and I have discussed in this story, they're about six to nine months behind what Anthropic, Open AI, and Google can offer, technology-wise. N-minus one is one way. to describe. So N-minus-1 is one way to describe these Chinese AIs, but another way is that they're the Hondas of AI. Now, for a pharmaceutical company that's trying to use AI to develop a drug that cures cancer, a Honda's not good enough. No, no, no, no. Jack, Pfizer's research and development

team, they're going to pay up for the Anthropic, the Ferrari of AI. And a cybersecurity firm that's trying to stop AI-armed North Korean hackers. They're also going to pay up for the Ferrari of AI. But what about an insurance company's sales division? Jack, what about a fashion brand's marketing team? Or for operational work of this podcast, frankly, what about us? A Honda, that's six to nine months behind the cutting edge American AI? That'll probably work just fine. Nick, I don't need sentience.

I need a spreadsheet. Besties, there's always been a big market for N-minus-1 products, the doops. Yesterday's bagels are half off. Last year's Madden video game is 80% lower price, and Chinese AI is 90% cheaper. It's all N-minus-1. It's the dupe economy. Cutting edge tech, it needs Ferrari AI. But for everyone else, Honda AI I'll do just fine.

Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Base, the popular luggage brand, doesn't just rue hateful comments on TikTok about its products. They're relishing them right now. It's grievance as a growth hack. But first, a happy suitcase season to all those who celebrate. After Christmas, July is the biggest,

sales month for the suitcase industry. Yeah, because what was that thing you told me the other day, Jack? You don't want to show up to that Labor Day sharehouse with a beat up to me. No one does. But besties, the luggage carousel, it's actually a fragmented industry. Globally, Samsonite has 20% of the market, with Ramoa as number two, with six percent. Yeah, half the flight from San Francisco to New York is rolling with an away carry-on, but away? Just 2% of the global luggage market. However, Besties, Gen Z's go-to viral suitcase is known as base, which just hit $250 million in revenue. Now, to be clear, bass is spelled really strangely.

There's like an accent. It's not B-A-S here. No, it's B-E-I-S and was founded by the actor Shane Mitchell. And their Weekender bag is so popular, my wife has two of them. Why does she have two of them? It looks like in a way suitcase that got adopted by the Kardashians and then studied abroad in Santropak. I think Alex is just trying to prove that she's not millennial.

She's Gen Z, even though she's a cuspur. But that doesn't explain why she sleeps in this. the base, Jack. That was an interesting decision. But back to base being duped. Bass has decided to respond by doing something Amazon Basics can't. Yeah, they shook hands with Selena Gomez. A proud Gen Zier. And launched suitcases based on the celebrities' lip liner shades. Oh, Jack, you know you're on the cutting edge of culture when you're doing colors of a product based on a pop star skin tone. Meanwhile, away is N-minus-1 to use last story's terminology. Festies, this is what Jack and I find fascinating. With great success comes great hate. That's why Bass's top selling bag is getting the

most negativity online right now. Okay, but here's the plot twist. Base has harnessed all that negativity to launch a new version based on that negativity. No joke, base's new luggage, which launches today, was inspired by TikTok trolls. That's right, because Bass instructed their team to catalog each and every negative review or comment on Instagram or TikTok and put it in one database. Like this mean comment, the strap looks like a snake and it's ripping my shoulders apart. Jack, how about this one? The bottom of the bag is so wide, it always gets stuck in the TSA machine. I didn't realize this zipper requires two-factor authentication to open at base.

I mean, this is just burns, but apparently they're the new product roadmap. Now, the positive comments obviously outweigh the negative. Base's weekender bag is the it travel accessory right now. Again, they're doing $250 million in revenue right now. In the case of Alex, the it-it travel accessory. But Bays is taking the one-one-star review as seriously as the 25-star reviews. And it turned that annul of animosity that the team collected into its new muse. They documented the hate like a court stenographer, and now they're launching a product.

So the new Bays Weekender bag, it was accidentally designed by online haters. Jack, it's like we say, feedback is a gift. And for chronically online CMOs, even mean-spirited feedback is a gift. You don't want to read it. We should probably read it. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Base Luggage? It's the grievance gruff hack. Yeties, two years ago, we did a story on Shark Ninja's strategy, which drove their stock price to triple.

Shark Ninja studies reviews of other appliances on Amazon, focusing on the negative reviews. Then they'll launch their own version of that error friar that solves for the most complained about problem. Now, base has a pride the same strategy, but to itself, to its own haters. Because a focus group, yeah, it's compromised. Oh, and customer service complaints, they have a bias. You don't get that many of them. But the unfiltered, frictionless, mass comments of social media that are sometimes anonymous, oh, besties, if you can organize it all and not take it personally,

then that is the greatest resource of honest feedback on planet Earth. But if you can't not take it personally, then just ignore them. But if you can, that is grievance as a growth hack, and base has mastered it. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Stubhubbub's CEO side hustles as a Wall Street-backed tech-savvy mass ticket scalper. When you put it like that, it doesn't sound good, Jack. Oh, this is not good neck. Ghost tickets, their Stubhub's yellow card.

Scalping tickets to sell on Stubhub, that's the red card. For our second story, with Deep Seek prepping to IPO, it highlights the huge market for Chinese AI dupes. For cutting edge tech, you need Ferrari AI. But for everyone else, a Honda AI will do just fine. And our third and final story is base. The $250 million bag brand now designs luggage based on negative TikTok comments. Because grievance can be your growth hack.

As long as you don't. take it personally. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, big week for the banking industry, both Finn and FinTech. In traditional finance, all the big banks announced record profits this week for the second quarter. Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan's selling big earnings thanks to the big fees from that SpaceX IP. They all reported that spending is looking good for this economy, and JP Morgan is close to becoming the first bank with a $1 trillion valuation. Over in FinTech, PayPal might now get acquired by Stripe in a $50 billion deal. And that $50 billion Veno request will be the biggest of all time. And second, Open AI's new iPhone

killer is reportedly not actually going to look like an iPhone. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI's first hardware will be a screenless smart speaker with a camera, basically your personal AI companion. Kind of like a Tomogacchi with legs that also happens to have, you know, AI. But because there's no screen, it won't kill the iPhone. It will complement it. And finally, for the first time, Since 2019, Olive Garden's never-ending pasta pass is back, baby. In the inflation era, there's more demand than ever for a $100 deal to get unlimited pasta at the Olive Garden. In this economy of the Carbonara every single night.

Now, the Olive Garden was first to this trend. Like, they pioneered the restaurant subscription. I mean, Applebee's date night pass, Taco Bell's Taco Lover Pass. They all began with the OG at the Olive Garden. And today, Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern, for $100 each, only $10,000. passes will be sold. Now, Jack, as the former wine salesman of the month at Olive Garden 20 years ago, what wine would you say pairs with these never-ending pastaas? The most expensive wine, Nick. The most expensive one. Now, time for the best fact. Yeah, this one whipped up by Jack and I,

because we found it in our research and we just had to share it with you. Well, if you want to set a PR on your bench press this week, sniff some chocolate first. That's right, because a new study by Frontier of Physiology Journal tested smelling different foods before you did. your weightlifting. And the most powerful performance-enhancing scent was chocolate. Get this. Sniffing milk chocolate chocolate, led to notable difference in strength. Milk chocolate sniffers did nine more leg extension reps than those who just sniffed water. Okay, but sniffing dark chocolate led to the greatest difference in strength. Eighteen more repetitions on the leg press. So, Vasi, you see some dudes smelling a Hershey bar on the bench press or some ladies sticking a

Reese's pieces up her note. They're just trying to get it. Get huge. By the way, if you've got the best fact yet or you want to shout out on the show, fill out the form. We got one in the episode description. Dude, I set a like 15-year bench press PR today. Did you have like a milky way in your schnattas? What's going on? I did three reps.

With a three musketeers bar, I bet. Would have been 50 if I had a crunch bar. Yeties, you look fantastic today, Jack. You are glowing over there in that slamming salmon tea. Yeah, we just talked to the venue for our San Francisco show. Oh, it's big. And they reminded us, you know, we built this venue for the World's Fair? True story. That's iconic. It's the Palace of Fine Arts

in San Francisco. If you haven't got your ticket yet, grab it now at T-Boypod.com. Wasn't the Eiffel Tower also built for the World's Fair? I mean, I'm so Factor, we're basically playing the Eiffel Tower, Jack. And if you want to see us live in Boston or live in Seattle, grab those tickets. There's a link in the episode description. Nick and I hope to see you there. We'll definitely see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yetty, Aaron Romero, listening every day with 9-year-old Madeline and 11-year-old Hugo down in Brooklyn. I'm going to break my own rule for the pot on this one, Nick. Happy birthday to Mark Thirst Lick.

Best last name ever breaks my rule that you can't say lick on the pod. He's turning 42 years old in Queens, New York. And Rachel Jodov, the sushi chef queen of Green Bay, Wisconsin, is getting another birthday shout-out. We love celebrating with you every year, Rach. Happy birthday to Jennifer Wong, who's also celebrating two years in New York City. And Justine and Rob, 32 years together down in Riverside, California. Congratulations, guys.

And a big shout out to Jorge Gill and a reminder that wonderful friendships are made in Monterey, Mexico. And Felipe Torella is celebrated an IBO, initial baby offering, baby Raphael, born in Laguna Hills, California. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations to Casey Moore,

who just graduated from the raw school of business at Michigan and already has a job at Lincoln International. I mean, can I get a go blue, Jack? I thought you had to go blue. Go blue, baby. And to anyone else, celebrate something today. Make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack, I own stock of Amazon, Nick own stock of Lulu Lemon. We both own stock of Chipotle. I own one share of SpaceX. Nick owns more than one. And we both own private stock and away luggage.