The Best One Yet - 🥑 “Guac size matters” — Chipotle’s dessert add-on. YouTube’s shade-throwing. Pollen’s Bieber-fest.

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

Get this: 50% of Chipotle orders include guac (which is extra), so their next innovation isn’t another big protein, it’s little extras (#dessert). YouTube’s throwing shade at TikTok while it’s zucking TikTok. And Pollen just raised $150M to Bieber-fy your group festival trip.$CMG $GOOGFollow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn 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. It's Thursday. The new Friday, April 28th, and today's pod is the best one yet. For our first story, Chipotle CEO only cares about three things right now. Gwok, yep, queso, and flon. It's not the size that counts. It's how you order it.

For our second story, Google's earnings. We're all about YouTube. And they really, really didn't want to talk about that one competitor. Tick. Don't say it. Is it you talk or is it tick too? For our third and final story, it's pollen. They just raised $150 million to get you front row seats at your next group vacation.

Jack, the future of vacation is travel entertainment. But before we hit that wonderful mix. Fantastic mix for a new Friday, Jack. Let's take a moment to appreciate the pineapple, which is a pine cone that wants a lot of attention. Jack, it's honestly a more glamorous fruit on the inside because you get that bite of like tardy sweetness. It always makes my tongue numb. It's charming. Now, a whole pineapple costs about $4.4.

at a grocery store. But Jack, how much were you ringing up on a pineapple 300 years ago? It used to cost $8,000. $8,000, according to T-Boy listener, Ryan Edwards, from New York, who sent this into us. In the 1800s in Europe, a pineapple was the Gucci of produce. It was so rare because you only got him after a three-month voyage over from the New World. Europeans only tasted a pineapple after America was discovered. They were a decadent treat, only served for intensely special occasions.

Oh, you graduated from college? Where'd you graduate from college? Cambridge, you deserve the pineapple. Now, the price of a pineapple 300 years ago was $8,000 in Europe in today's dollars. It was so expensive and so exotic looking, people didn't even want to eat it. The pineapple became something for the eyeballs, not for the mouth. Yeah, the pineapple wasn't just a food. It became furniture. It was honestly just too expensive to eat. So you stuck it on the table and just stared at it instead. Yeah, you'll leave it on the table for a long time so you could show that you could afford a pineapple.

That pineapple really brings the room together, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. And since these pineapples weren't eaten, that led to a whole new industry. No joke, pineapple renting was a thing. Yeah, 19th century hustlers, they would rent out pineapples to people who wanted to be seen with a pineapple. Word on the street, you could rent it eight times and then still sell it to somebody fresh. The pineapple became a symbol of hospitality. It still is today. Thursday is the new Friday.

So treat yourself to a $4 pineapple. You're not renting this thing. You're buying it. Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the bad 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. For our first story, Chipotle has a new plan,

a bold new plan to add guac to all of your eating habits. Because it's all about. those costly extra add-ons. Okay, the number one lesson in life, Jack and I should probably, you should learn this now. This is the time to learn this. Squawk is always extra.

Maybe it looks free, but you were paying for that somewhere else, right? You're paying for it somewhere else. It's in the barbagoa. Yesterday, Chipotle stock price rose because they managed to defy the laws of inflation last quarter. Sales over Chipotle, I'm 9%. They are crushing estimates. Burrito prices are up.

Like, Chipotle has raised the prices, but you're still buying them. Doesn't matter. Your stuff in your face at 1 p.m. You're not asking for the price of that thing. But here's our favorite question from a Wall Street analyst to the CEO of Chipotle during the earnings call. That question, menu innovation. How are you thinking about the proteins versus the other food parts? Well, spoiler, Chipotle's not focused on proteins at all.

So, T-Boy listeners, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this Chipotle story. The CEO sees opportunity not in the big dishes, but in the little dishes. In the extras. In the ad. Now, guac was, of course, the most mentioned food in the entire conference call after the earnings. Okay, Jack and I controlled F'd this whole earnings call. Jack, what kind of numbers we've seen on the guac? Gwok and avocado were mentioned twice as frequently as chicken and beef were.

And get this, 50% of customer orders include guac too. And that's huge for Chipotle, because add-ons like guacamole, those are profit drivers. Because you don't even think about the price. You just say yes. You get up to the register and they're like, guacamole. Gwock is extra. You just are agreeing the affirmative. You don't even know what the price is. I looked it up on Uber Eats. It's $3.15. The extra for guac here in Shelbur and Vermont. If you told me it was $10, Jack, I probably would still pay for this.

Right. You just toss it on. And that's why Chipotle's next innovation isn't some quarter pound protein to be like the foundation of your burrito. No, no, no, no. Chopole CEO said that the next innovation coming from Chipotle is dessert. Maybe flan, maybe churros, or maybe a Nutella, Caso dip. Exactly. It doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter what it specifically is. The key is that it's an add-on. You do it at the end of the meal and it costs extra. Deep fried sugar-dipped chalupas. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Chipotle? It's not the size that counts. It's how you order it. Jack, can you repeat that one for us? It's not the size that counts. It's how you order it. Chipotle is not focused on you ordering four burritos for the entire family.

Big orders are nice, but meat is expensive. So, like, fill. pulling up those four burritos with a bunch of meat, not necessarily profitable for Chipotle. Exactly. That's why Chipotle's focus is on how you order. And the key is that your ordering happens at the end. And then that order is indulgent and spontaneous. That huge order is only as profitable as the guacca toss on at the finish. The profit is determined at the register. At the end, when you say, yes, I want a side of Ksa. It's the impulsive add-ons. Those impulsive add-ons, that is Chipotle's true, Not the headline proteins, the beef, the pollo, oasado, the big burrito bowl.

It's not the size of the order that counts. It's how you order it. For our second story, are we both wearing flannel today, by the way? I know I am. Is that maple ensconced? No, but the pattern makes it very clear what the material is. It's made out of lumberjack? I am one-eighth lumberjack.

But for our real second story, YouTube, it's growth, it's slowing. YouTube won't mention the name of their biggest competitor, but they will blatantly copy their biggest competitor. Big week for tech earnings. Whole lot of big tech earnings this week. Alphabet owner of Google decided to share their numbers yesterday. Revenue slow to Alphabet and profits actually fell compared to last year. Okay, so the stock fell, but you don't have to go start like a GoFundMe page for Google quite yet.

No, because remember, Google still has a monopoly on this little thing called the world's internet search. Jack, 91% of the world's search traffic still happening on Google. That is a monopoly on mankind's curiosity. But despite that power, there is one threat facing Alphabet's monopoly. That threat is TikTok. That threat is TikTok. Because Google and YouTube, they were number one and number two every single year

for websites with the most traffic. They just stopped giving awards for this stuff. But last year, they gave the award back because TikTok dethroned Google as the number one website with the most internet traffic. TikTok, step on off. More internet was consumed last year via the TikTok app and its websites than on all the Google websites. So a funny situation because yesterday was Alphabet's earnings call. Jack, did Alphabet acknowledge the TikTok in the room?

No. No. They refused to say TikTok in the earnings call. They literally wouldn't even say the word TikTok. But Alphabet has zucked TikTok with their very own thing called YouTube shorts. What a funny coincidence. Shorts happens to be YouTube's vertically oriented short video feature. that looks just like a TikTok.

An Alphabet announced this week that 30 billion shorts are viewed every debt, which is quadruple as many shorts as one year ago. If you watch an 18 second video of a cat driving an Uber, that was on TikTok first, but it also could be on shorts right now. But this presents a problem because viewing on shorts is taking away time spent viewing regular old YouTube videos. And Jack, there seems to be a problem within that problem. YouTube hasn't monetized YouTube shorts.

So what we're saying is that eyeballs are moving away from YouTube's moneymaker and they're moving over to YouTube shorts. But YouTube shorts doesn't make any money for YouTube. And that's the problem within the problem because shorts doesn't make any money for YouTube yet. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at YouTube? We're introducing to you the Zucking monetization cycle. The initial Facebook app was truly innovative. But since then, Zuck is kind of just acquired and copied everything over to Facebook. Yeah.

and acquiring a copying, we call that Zucking. And that's what YouTube has done with YouTube shorts. Okay, let's walk through the four stages here. Jack, step one of a zucking, observe the threat. In this case, the threat to YouTube was TikTok. Jack, step two of the zucking, copy that threat. In this case, that's YouTube shorts. Step three of the zucking, promote the copycat.

YouTube has pushed shorts hard. And that's helped contribute to quadrupling of viewing on shorts. Which leads to step four of zucking, monetize the zucking. Bloomberg reported yesterday that YouTube is now jamming ads between those little videos you watch on YouTube shorts. Jack, that kind of looks like stage four of YouTube zuck and TikTok. YouTube has reached stage four of their zucking of TikTok. And that could bring growth back to YouTube's revenues. And now worried about our sponsor, Robin Hood.

We see ads all the time. All over the place, 10 bucks off this $5. promo code for that, Jack, you can buy three suits, you can get one free. But something we always thought was cool about Robin Hood, the free stock promo. Yeah, this was wild. The promo isn't like some X amount of dollars, it's one stock. If you signed up for Robin Hood, they'd thank you with a single share in a publicly traded company on the house. And that free stock promo, it actually helped drive Robin Hood's growth and got new users in the stock market right away. One of the most creative moves in promotional

history. So when Robin Hood became our sponsor, naturally Jack and I said, we got to do the free stock giveaway. If you're not on Robin Hood yet, want to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-B-Boy and choose your free star. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. For our third and final story, Paulin is offering pre-planned epic trips and they just raised $150 million. Paulin thinks the future of travel isn't just seeing Bieber. It's all-inclusive Bieber. full Bieber experience. By the way, technically spring break is over right now. And you know that

means one thing, Jack, right? Yeah, this is you're too late to plan your summer break. Like on JetBlue right now. It costs more to fly to Nantucket than to buy a house on Nantucket. Basement View Room? What is a basement view room? Oh, I'm sorry. It's not even available anymore. Fantastic. Well, the startup, Paulin, books curated group vacations for next year, apparently. and they just raised $150 million of venture funding to reach a half a billion dollar valuation. Based in London, pollen offers planned group vacations, but the key is this. They are all based on one single event. Right.

The vacation is all about this one big event, which tends to be a concert or a music festival. They call it travel entertainment because they made up a word and now no one can question them on that word. So let's say you and all your buddies are hardcore believers, okay? Yeah, and you're free in August. Right. Paulin has an entire August vacation for your whole group. And a Justin Bieber concert is right in the middle of it. Now, we all have that one buddy.

And that buddy, by the way, is not our buddy Timmy, who plans an entire itinerary, handles the spreadsheets and does all the back and forth six times changing your flights. You're all in the same row. In my group, that buddy is me. But pollen can be that buddy. Paulin can be the planner for the trip. Except for the airfare and the taxis, everything else is included in this single one-click vacation. So, Paulin's basically a techified traveling.

agent who's really into Bonner. Now, what Jack and I thought was interesting about pollen is how they've gone about doing this. They've turned a market of booking vacations into a single menu. Let's go into one classic example that's on their website right now. I know which one you're going to go into because there are a lot of options. The Electric Zoo Cancun Adventure. It's just four days of EDM concerts in Mexico. I think there's only, is it four days of concerts or it's just one concert?

I think it's one concert, but by the end of it, you think you're thinking you're you were at four concerts. Now, typically, to book a trip like that. Depends what you were eating in Tulum. To book a four-day itinerary, you'd have 140 emails with a bunch of booking platforms and companies. The research takes months. You're trying to do this for Becca's batch.

You're going to have one person who doesn't want to fly out of the country and six people who happen to be vegan and they're not going to go. But it's confusing. Instead, pollen's got a menu. It shows you a few hotels you can choose from, a bunch of activities you can choose from. And, of course, the concert, that's a given. So that's the core. but then they let you add in the boat party brunch.

Right, if you're into a boat party brunches. Or jump into the menu and grab a mangrove kayak tour. If you're hoping to see like a... Mangroves? No, what's like a... Two cans? Yeah, I was going to go. If you're hoping to see a two can.

Which we all are. Or you can just toss into your cart the exclusive tequila tasting. Or maybe a private tour of a Mayan ruin is the thing for you. And this is the key to the business model because booking a vacation is typically a decentralized random process on like 18 different websites with 240 clicks and then that really long email chain with all your friends. Not with Pollan though. They've curated all the things to do with the place you're going to into one menu. Yeah. So you pick the things you want like ordering off the menu at your favorite topas bar. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Pollin?

The future of travel is personalized and premium. The two P's just last week, Delta's CEO said that they're seeing a shift at Delta in how you are spending on your Delta MX card. And Jack, we can absolutely attest to this. Apparently, you're spending more on seat upgrades. So you want a little leg room. And you're also spending more on travel agents. You want something that's just for you. Now, this isn't just like escape travel to get away from your pandemic bunker.

This is different. This is treat yourself travel. Pollan sees that trend. And that's probably why they just got 150 million in funding. Because their platform is all about those two peas of travel. It's all about the personalized, and it's all about the premium. Jack, and you and that fantastic flannel whip up the takeaways for us over there. Chipotle's profits are driven by last-minute add-ons that are expensive, but you don't care, like guac.

It's not the size of the order that counts. It's how you order it. Ain't that the truth. For our second story, YouTube's growth is slowing because of TikTok. Yeah, but YouTube's entering a stage four of the zucking monetization cycle. It's highly technical. For our third and final story, pollen. It offers fully planned epic group trips.

All thanks to the two piece of travel, premium, and personalized. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Bobby Conti from a lovely Louisville, Kentucky. So have you seen this one city in the United States that's obsessed with roundabouts? They're like all making a right turn like this, always. This one town in Indiana, it's their thing, is the roundabout. Every time, you're from Carmel, Indiana. You are pretty proud of the one.

140 roundabouts that you have engineered throughout the city. It must be sentenced number one on this town's Wikipedia page. It's the number one city in America for roundabouts. And Jack, why do they have all these roundabouts? Apparently, they hate the color red, so they don't want to see a stop sign or a red leg. No, this solves that problem aggressively. Now, Carmel loves them because apparently they make less traffic congestion. Yeah, everyone's always moving.

And they're better for the climate. Yeah, there's no idling at the stoplights. And they're better for the economy. Yeah, the drivers, they say more on gas. Plus, it makes Carmel, Indiana feel, uh, a little bit like Paris Trans. Not that Carmel needed that. The stop sign lobby is furious about this.

Tea boy listeners, T-boys, T-girls, Yetis, besties, everyone listening to this pod. You look fantastic today. And if you haven't yet, check out T-Boy pot on YouTube and Instagram. Yeah, give us a follow, and Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know.

And before we go, a happy birth to listener Miles Finley, who was just born and weighs six pounds and 12 ounces. Happy birthday. to Miles and Miles's parents. And belated happy birthday to Renee Escobar, down in Miramar, Florida. Happy 33rd to Blake Lukowitz in Phoenix, Arizona.

And Rod and Medicare, happy birthday over in Spain. Happy golden birthday to Fran C. in New York City. And Tim Takau, turning 31 in Calabasas, California. Happy first birthday to Caleret in the stroller with her mom in Florida. And good luck to Quinn Lambert, prepping for the big band performance in Menofi, California. And congrats to Brack. Ryan Levy for graduating down in Buenos Aires.

Luke B, got a new job over in Chicago. Logistics. Congrats to Amy on the new gig and sustainability in Stanford, Connecticut. Jared Lewis, happy 12-year work aversory in public education. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Block. Wherever you are, celebrate the wins. This is Jack, Nick and I both on stock of Chipotle and Robin Hood. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood.

The first time we swiped up to buy a stock on Robin Hood, Whoa. Yeah, Jack, you get like that. Like a little vibration, boom, you've done a trade. It wasn't just an incredible app. Robin Hood added incredible resources too. That started with the Help Center. Everyone has that.

Then came Robin Hood snacks, digestible financial news. Then came the news feed, providing free third-party news from trusted sources. And then came Robinud learned. A huge trove of articles explaining what the heck in ETF is. Yeah, spoiler. It's like a stock smoothie. Jack actually wrote the article in that way. If you're not on Robinud yet, want to get started, go to robinood.com slash T-boy

and choose a free stock. It's robin hood.com slash tbohy. Certain limitations apply. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC.