The Best One Yet - 🌮 “It’s got a taco elevator” — Taco Bell’s drive-thru supreme. Summer’s housing test-drive. Shopify’s new king.

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

Taco Bell just opened a restaurant that sits on stilts, because a nacho elevator defying gravity is the future of drive-thru. Summer is a startup that figured out how to let you test-drive a home (try-before-you-buy… a house). And Shopify’s shareholders just voted… to not be able to vote anymore. $YUM $SHOP $ABNBFollow 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, June 9th, and today's pod is just the best one yet. It's a T-boy. It's a T-boy. My hair on the other hand? No T-boy today. Are you talking about that one little swan that's sticking out on the right?

I've pushed this thing down so many. You see that? But you're working with an immaculate head. Are you seeing my situation going on here? I got 14 different angles. There's no amount of pomade that's going to keep that thing down. If you're curious about Jack's rogue string, And you can watch this video on Spotify today and every day.

For our first story, in Minnesota, Taco Bell just opened a restaurant that sits on stilts. It's not built on top of water. It's built on top of a four-lane nacho highway. For a second story, Shopify shareholders just voted to make their CEO king. He was knighted with super voting shares. And our third and final story is Summer. Summer is a startup founded by Airbnb Alums. And they just figured out how.

to let you try a home before you buy a home. But before we hit that wonderful mix, Nick. Jack, just the best mix for the new Friday. Thursday's the new Friday. It is the new Friday. We all know where you're headed this weekend. Boom, bachelorette party. Hashtag last call for mall.

The number one destination in America for bachelorette parties. Wait for it. Nashville. Nashville, dirty Nash. 30,000 bachelorette parties honky-tonged their way through Nashville last year. 30,000 parties. That is almost 600 bachelor. parties each weekend. Jack and I did the very easy math on this. That's 6,000 gaggles of gals each

weekend conspicuously celebrating the bride to be. But if you've hit Nashville like nine times and you've already eaten your way through Austin. Yeah, you can't go back to Vegas because we can't talk about it. So there's a new number two bachelor party destination in this country. Boom, Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale just outside of Phoenix. Yeah, we're talking Scottsdale. They weren't even in the rankings five years ago. They're number two. And according to the New York Times last year, there were 4,000 bachelorette parties in Scottsdale. But get this.

This year, there's 12,000. That's about half as many as Nashville. That's 223 parties with Pink Flamingo pool floats every single weekend. Cue the bottle service. Cue the blow hats. Chicago does logistics. Scottsdale does squad goals. These bacheloretts swarats swarming on this city, they've created a new industry.

Yeah, there's one startup in Scottsdale that just books Cabana Boys for Bachelor. At a barrisades, two cabana boys for your pool party, that's going to cost you 500 bucks an hour. Feels like a good side hustle for us, Jack. Oh, another startup in Scottsdale, they just make custom pink tank tops with studs. Naturally, because hashtag Scottsdale before the veil. Oh, and over at Pink Jeep Tours, 75% of their customers are women under the age of 30. Because hashtag Brides Last Ride. But of course, it can't be a Bachelorette destination without one thing.

A big mural on an industrial building. Jack, if you can't post an Insta pic beside a painted wall, what is the Bachelorette party even doing there? No selfie. No party. Oh, and one last thing Jack and I should mention before we go. Please Venmo, Bridget, $12,000 whenever you have a sack. We'll see you at the wedding. Let's end up our three stories.

See you there. 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. 50%. That's a fat. 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. Park the show. For our first story, Taco Bell just opened its first ever vertical restaurant. Because sometimes you got to know when to start from scratch. You just got to know. In the meantime, during the pandemic, drive-thrues, drive-thrus became the victims of their own success.

Get this. Today, over 90% of all. All Taco Bell orders are made through drive-thru, according to one major franchise. If you hear the gong, you want tacos ASAP now, right immediately. That's why Taco has become a leader in fast food speed. Okay, besties and yetis, get this, Taco Bell, their drive-thrus, get you your food with an average wait time of four minutes. Jack, what is the nationwide average?

The nationwide fast food delivery time on a drive-thru is six minutes. 50% more than Taco Bell. Taco Bell apparently is not satisfied with being number one in this. So they just hired Speedy Gonzalez as their new Starkitect. Their new concept store aims for two minutes from order to getting the food. And Jack and I saw what this looks like. It is an architectural marvel. Wow.

Yeah. Taco Bell vertical drive-thru. They call it defying gravity. Yeah, as in like defying gravity. It's like an Eiffel Tower of Tacos. It looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright. It does look like a. Frank Lloyd-wife? Or is it right? Right angles. Right angles. I don't know the guy's name.

But Yetis, you may remember this concept because Jack and I actually covered the blueprint of it when it came out a year ago on this spot. But this innovative new Taco Bell store concept, it just opened this week in Minnesota. Now the second floor, the second floor is all food. Like the Baja Blast Supreme, it's prepped by the chef upstairs, second floor. The magic happens downstairs because the kitchen sits above four drive-through lanes where cars come through. Yeah, connecting all this together is, yeah, a taco elevator. A food tube, as Taco Bell calls it. And this is what brings the Gordita Crunch Supreme from the second floor kitchen down to the

drive-thru window. So it's like a drive-thru bank in the suburbs, but instead of cash, you're getting a crunch wrap Supreme. This is wilder and wider than Interstate 95. It's a highway to hunger happiness. Now, one of the four lanes is your traditional drive-thru, right? Jack, like you yell into a microphone, old school. Right.

And then the dumb waiter brings the food down to your window when it's ready. But the other three lanes are completely humanless. Like Chipotle's Chipotle lanes, you order ahead on the app, and then your phone notifies you when your food's ready. You scan your app when you get to the window, and boom, the food tube brings you the Baja Crunch Supreme. So what we're describing here is a zero friction. experience. It is a drive-through with zero human interaction. Man and machine and melted gordita crunch supreme.

So, Jack, what are the supreme takeaways for our buddies over a Taco Bell? Ironically, this new restaurant embodies the broken burrito dilemma. Yes, it is. And what is that, Jack? Do you repair the wrap or do you start from scratch? Fasties, when you are wrapping up a burrito and the tortilla starts to rip, you could do one of two things. You could repair the wrap or you can start over from scratch. Well, the way Jack and I see it, it's the same with America's drive-thrus. They're broken.

They can't keep up with all the demand and there are long, long waits. So Taco Bell could have repaired their existing drive-thrus with new technology and some renovation. Like improve the microphones, repaint the lanes, add bigger signs. Instead, with this new Defy Store concept, they rebuilt the entire drive-through concept from scratch. Just like Jack's broken burrito, sometimes you just got to start from scratch. Supreme. For our second story, Shopify shareholders just voted to end their democracy. Super voting shares is the big asterisk of American finance.

Okay, Jack, can we talk about one of America's great strengths, innovation? It's innovation, yeah. And a big reason America is so good at innovating is our capital markets. Another cool aspect of American capitalism. Not just innovation. It's democratic. Capitalism in America is democratic. It's democratic. The CEO of a company isn't in charge. The shareholders of the company ultimately are in charge.

If you own stock of a publicly traded company, you own that publicly traded company. All right, let's sprinkle on a little context here. Jack, what's going on over at ExxonMobil? For decades, the CEOs at ExxonMobil refused to take action on climate change. But then, last year, shareholders, they voted for a change at the oil company. Shareholders voted for change by electing three new climate change action board members. And now, begrudgingly and awkwardly, the CEO of an oil company is embracing a pivot to clean energy because of what those shareholders voted on. That's democracy and action.

Yes, it is. But in business, not in politics. Yeah, so if you own one share of a company stock, you get one vote on their future. If you own 10 shares of a company stock, you get 10 votes. If you own half a share, you get half a share. you get half a vote on the company's future. So American capitalism is democratic. It's a democracy, each company.

Except when it's not. Yeah, that's the situation at Shopify right now. Shopify is the $50 billion publicly traded software company that powers every online store that's not Amazon. And the shareholders of Shopify, which, awkwardly for this story, include Jack and I, just voted to let the company's co-founder and CEO have 40% voting power.

Full disclosure, neither Nick nor I, like, saw the email that we were supposed to be voting. So we didn't vote, which means like our representative did the default vote, unfortunately. I feel like we're covered, Jack, because we were preparing the story on this? Yeah, let's use that excuse. In any event, the CEO of Shopify, Tobias Lutka, now controls 40% of all the votes in any company election. Okay, just to make this clear, Jack, let's whip out the electoral. college, Shopify shareholders just made one dude, California, New York, and Texas in one state. Yeah. If Luca, the CEO, if he wants to triple his salary, he only needs to sway 10% of the

remaining shareholders because he's going to vote yes. So Shopify shareholders, they basically just voted their CEO king of the company. We did that. Inaction is action, Nick. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are all investors? Super voting shares are the big asterisk of American finance. Yeah, besties, why would shareholders vote away their democracy just like Shopify shareholders just did? Some believe that the founder should dictate the company's future. And giving that executive super shares keeps them invested in the long-term success of the company. Others don't want the founder to be like king forever.

Others think this is simply messed up these super shares. Yeah, it's like a big, ugly asterisk on American finance. Sounds wild, but Shopify CEO is basically king of the company. But overall, these supervoting king and queen shares are actually more common than you think. 32% of companies that IPOed last year had these dual-class shares, as they're officially known. At Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Lyft, Robin Hood, founder's shares are more powerful than the rest. Supervoting shares. They're the big asterisk of American finance. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood.

Nick, you got introduced to the Robin Hood app the old-fashioned way, right? Yeah, I did. My girlfriend now wife's older brother, who was that guy who worked in tech and, like, knew about the next iPhone before Apple did. He told you about the Robin Hood app. You told me about the Robin Hood app. All right. So you signed up because you wanted to buy a stock. Because, like, it was hard to figure out how to buy a stock when you're 25 and it's 2014. Yeah, back then you had to find a broker. Call a broker on the phone. Call them pay a commission to that broker.

Instead of calling, suddenly there's his app. You just swipe and you could buy the stock. Robin Hood's interface felt as easy as ordering an Uber or snagging a sandwich on Siemens. And it still is. So if you're not a Robin Hood user yet and you want to get started, you can go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and you can choose get this a free stock. That's robinode.com slash TBOY. Certain limitations apply and all investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC member SIPC. Robin Hood, by the way, no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. For our third and final story, which by the way, I just realized,

is perfect for Scottsdale. The story is like made for Scottsdale. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This is it. It's a Bachelorette pad. It's a Bachelorette pad. For our third and final story,

two Airbnb alums just launched a startup called Summer. Because Try Before You Buy has finally arrived to the housing market. Oh, Jack, can we talk about like one of the unspoken about problems for businesses right now? As consumers, we have been spoiled by really loose return policies. We've been conditioned. to easily return things. 30-day, money-back guarantee. There you go.

Try it. Risk-free. Return to any location. No questions asked. Return anywhere. We won't even care. Just give it to somebody. If you return it,

we'll give it to charity. So you're doing the right thing by return. Everyone makes it so easy to return now. So if you can't return something, you may not buy that thing. And that's the problem. Enter Summer, a startup that just raised $15 million to creatively finance

a new product category that's never been financed. Home test drives. Like home test drives. Try before you buy, but for a house. So, Jack, this is like Casper's 100-night mattress, risk-free guarantee. But it's for a two-story tutor. It's a house with a refund policy.

So Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style. And here's what we found fascinating about the company. It's founded by two Airbnb alums. And Jack, how does it work? Basically, they buy a home. And then they pretty much Airbnb it out to people and give that person who Airbnb the home the opportunity to buy it after a certain amount of time. Exactly. We'll go into more detail. Summer sees a home. They buy the home. Hey, it's a condo on the Cape. Maybe it's a mansion in Marin.

And they're going to start by renting this home out to somebody. So first, if you're curious, maybe you want to buy it, but you don't want to buy it yet. You pay a 20% refundable down payment. After that, you can move into the home and start making monthly payments on the home. But they're not mortgage payments like a traditional home purchase. they're rent payments because you're still just trying it out. Maybe you rented for just a weekend. Maybe you rent it for a week. Maybe you do it for a whole month or six months. For up to three years,

they let you decide whether you want to purchase this home or like get out of here and get your money back. So like I'm picturing you in there, Jack. You're like testing out the kitchen, seeing where the pots are. You like where the sinks over here. You like the cupboard over there. I'm actually mowing the lawn because that really gives you the home experience. Well, they are going to pay all the management fees.

Like summer is going to cover. the lawn care and the toilet that broke three times. Just like a landlord would. Now, if you decide not to buy it, then you get your 20% down payment back, but you lose all that rental money you paid. Yeah, the company keeps all the rent that you've paid in the past three years. But if you do decide to buy it, then your down payment counts toward the payment of the home. Plus, half of the rental payments you've made so far go towards the purchase of the house. Jack and I were more curious, and that's why we came up with this takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies is over at summer. When there's mystery, there's margin. Look, yet he's the home buying process. It is

expensive. It is scary. It is confusing. And then it gets more confusing. The average American only purchases a home three times in their lives. Nick and I just hit number one time, both of us in the past few years. And it's awful. Fees are totally unclear. There's title insurance fees you're paying. You have no idea where that came from. Didn't know about that term. You're at a lawyer's office, It's like going through this closing and just astonishing stuff you didn't realize you had to pay for and you have no leverage to like negotiate. You will cry. You will cry. That mystery behind the purchase of a home is why brokers, platforms, insurance companies, lawyers love the real estate industry. Yes, summer comes in. They streamline that whole process. It's beautiful. But summer isn't UNICEFs.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Summer's not doing this for free. They know there's profits in that mystery of real estate. Summer's pricing those rent payments in the home price at a profitable rate for themselves. Because where there's mystery, there's margin. Jack, can you whip up the Supreme Takeways for us over there? Taco Bell's new Defy drive-through concept is open for business in Minnesota. The burrito was broken. Taco Bell started from scratch. For our second story, Shopify CEO basically just became king and Nick and I are complicit.

Who's given super voting shares, the big asses. Asterisk of American finance. For our third and final story, Summer, it's a startup that lets you live in a house before deciding to buy it. Because where there's mystery and price, there is margin in that price. Yeah, there is. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I see it. I see it. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Kyle Daly over in Orlando, Florida. What should play now? Let's play. Subaru is sometimes referred to as the state car of Vermont. And for good reason, 11.3% of cars registered in Vermont are Subaru's.

But it wasn't always this way. The Japanese automaker began selling tiny fuel-efficient and cheap sedans in the U.S. in 1968. When Consumer Reports reviewed the car, they were unsettled by the size and construction of a vehicle compared to other cars on U.S. roads, and deemed it the most unsafe car on the market, and subsequently, U.S. Subaru's sales ground to a halt. Subaru's pivot focused their efforts on markets where consumer reports had less sway, thus rural regions far away from big cities like Minnesota, Washington State, and Vermont. Okay, so Jack, basically to whip up a takeaway here, they just tried to outrun the bad press is what they did in Subaru. And they did so by running up north of Vermont where it's so cold people didn't live.

And then they made all their cars R-will drive so that people would actually buy the cars there. Now, in Vermont, you know you really made it when you upgrade from your Subaru station wagon to a Volvo station wagon. That's what makes a Subaru a Super. Yetis, you look fantastic for the new Friday. And remember, if you need a cabana boy, Jack and I are available. 500 bucks an hour. We'll take it. H-Y-H-T-B-O-I.

Have you had the best one yet? If you know, you know. promo code SPF. And before we go, congratulations and happy birthday to Yeti, Nome Shy Carol, who's turning one in Vermont-Gon-I-N-I-R-Majing Dr. Michael Snell, happy birthday in York, Pennsylvania. And Luke Mullins, happy birthday over in Bayonne, New Jersey. A big congratulations to Cash Pendleton, who just finished the last day of kindergarten,

listening in the car right now to T-boy. And happy eight-year anniversary to Peter and Katie Freshie over in Seattle. Congrats to Andres Alvarez, who's celebrating their first day as an investment analyst at Elvar Equity Venture Capital. 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 Airbnb, Shopify, and Robin Hood.

And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. The first time I tried to buy a stock, I got burned badly. Is this when you wanted to buy a share of Ford? Because you like the chassis over in Detroit? Yes. I had $200. So I bought $200 of Ford stock. I didn't get $200 of Ford stock, though. I got $192. Oh, the commission fees. By the time the stock climbed back to $200, I sold it, but again, I didn't get $200. I got $192 again.

Another commission fee. The stock rose 8%, but I was down on my investment. Because commission fees made small money investing impossible. So Robin Hood came in and killed commission fees. And commissions are still dead in stock in crypto trading, thanks to our sponsor. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and choose a free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees. View their fee schedule at RBNHD.C. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC.

Oh, and by the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. And the stocks Jack just said are for illustrated purposes only and are not recommendations. 500 bucks. 500 bucks? Well, the one, two, pole. Can't you just have one? I think you need two poohas, I guess, for the symmetry, like the feng shui.