The Best One Yet - 💰 “Lean Media gets Fat Checks” — Axios’ bullet point. The Climate Bill’s Tesla goal. Oatly’s martyr milk.

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Help create the next Tesla: That’s the goal of the biggest climate bill in the history of the climate, which just passed. Newsletter startup Axios just sold for $525M because Lean Media gets Fat Checks. And Oatly sales keep pumping, but its stock isn’t because it may be the Martyr of Alt-Milk.$OTLY $TSLAFollow The Best One Yet 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 Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, August 9th, and today's pot is the best one yet. This is the best one, yeah. Jack, can you tell the cows to wait for me? Hold the maple syrup, baby. Nick is coming to Vermont tomorrow. Here we go.

I can't wait to see it. What's going on up there? The biggest thing to happen to this date since chocolate milk. Literally, the population's increasing by like 40% tomorrow when I'm there. It's going to be a cowout. All right. One question. Have the leaves changed yet?

Am I going to see a red leaf? No, yeah. I really want to see a red leaf. Come back in September. Can I see a yellow leaf? First story, what's going on, Jack? Oatley, the inventor of oat milk has a problem. Yeah, Oatley isn't an oat milk.

Oatley is a martyr milk. Oatmilks also not welcome in this state. Excuse me while I destroy my stash. For our second story, the Senate just passed the biggest climate bill in the history of the climate. Yeah, this is the main goal of that bill. Help create the next Tesla. And our third and final story, newsletter startup Axios, isn't just obsessed with bullet points. They just sold for $525 million.

Because lean media gets fat checks. But before we hit that wonderful mix, Nick. Wonderful mix. I can't wait to get on that paddleboard. He's a three, but he swipes from his standing guard. Jack, she's a four, but she matches from her board meeting. They're both on dating apps, swipe while at work. And they're both tens.

Yeties, according to Tinder, half of the singles on their platform, swipe and match while on the clock while in the office. We repeat half of you are swiping and matching while you're at work. Working on spreadsheets, thinking about bedsheets. Yeties, you should be at the office prepping a slide deck. You're actually sliding into the DMs, though, of a 31-year-old named Riley. Yeah, well, that is why Tinder just launched a new feature that they call desk mode. Desk mode.

So you can find Mr. or Mrs. Wright, right from your cubicle, sneakily. Yeah, it is very sneaky. If you log into Tinder from a desktop, you can now click on the... new briefcase icon on the top left of your screen. So here's the wild thing. All your matches pop up, but in the form of meeting notes. So if you click the briefcase icon, if your boss is walking by, it'll appear on your screen like you're crunching numbers, not swiping.

Oh, in case you're wondering, your boss is walking by. If you have to look over your shoulder, you're too late. Because finding the one is a 9 to 5 job. That's why Tinder is letting you multitask to secure that mate. So now you can single and mingle while you're at the... copy machine. And your boss won't know. Unless they're on Tinder too. So to all the single yetis out there swiping on the job this T-Boy Tuesday, Jack and I, we see you. Your boss doesn't. Unless you swipe your boss, in which case they absolutely see you too. Swipe at your own risk.

Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best B percent. That's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know you know, because we Red to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. For our first story, Oatley's oat milk sales continue to climb, but its stock is doing the opposite. Because Oatley has become the martyr of milk. Okay. By the way, Eddies, in case you're wondering, no, we have not reached peak plant milk. Apparently seeds are getting milk. We're talking about seeds. Sesame seeds, sesame seed milk. That's now a thing.

You can down it. Total dairy downer story is sesame seed milk. But Yeties just last week, Jack and I were telling you how Starbucks is living its best life thanks to Gen Z ordering cold brew concoctions. But that pineapple passion fruit refresher from Starbucks, fantastic. It's delicious. It comes with oat milk and not just any oat milk. Oatley. It comes with Oatley. Sweden-based Oatley invented oat milk back in 1994. Great year. In 1994, they took some dryouts up in Sweden and somehow squeezed some milk out of that. How'd you do that, Greg? I got nipples oat milk.

Can you squeeze me? Yeah, don't push it, Jack. They will. They will literally show up and do it on this pod. But Jack, just to sprinkle on some more context here, how are the sales at Oatley doing? They were good. Revenues jumped by 22% for Oatley last quarter, which is up from 19% growth the previous quarter. But Jack, how are the Oatley losses doing? Past due. I wouldn't taste that. I wouldn't drink that. Losses tripled to 74 million last quarter. That is why this Pure Play oat stock is down 82% since it's May 2021 IPO. One share of Oatley costs less than one single espresso right now. So Yeti's Jack and I were preparing this story and we realized we should break this down barista style. There's three reasons

we see for Oatley's awkward stock situation. Or reason number one, Oatley put the Oat in don't. Yeah, Oatley's marketing says that oat milk is better for you and it's better for the environment than dairy. But some of those ads got banned because they didn't have the facts to back up all those claimed benefits. Oat milk is better for the environment dairy. But Oatley's marketing mistakes hurt consumer trust. Okay, reason number two, supply chain sadness. Oatley can't keep up with all the demand for oat milk that they created. Like Starbucks literally had to tap an Oatley rival because they ran out Oatley. And the third reason is that competition in the oat milk market caught up to Oatley. All right, Jack, passed the planted Oat. Have you had planted Oat? I have. I haven't had a

Planet Oatley as the number one drink in oat milk by sales. Planet Oat is, Planet Oat is owned by a big food company. So the disruptor has been disrupted by the disruptee. By the disruptee? By the disruptee. Yeties had all this up. And it's like Oatley is acting like a sad celebrity story. They can't keep up with the fame they had early on.

Oatley was America's alt milk sweetheart. Now Oatley is puking in the toilet on. Now, Oli is getting embarrassing face tattoos. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Oatley? Oatley is a case study in the corporate martyr. Yet he's martyrs. They sacrifice themselves for a greater principle, a greater conviction, a greater belief. Martyrs create a movement, but martyrs don't survive to see their movement fulfilled.

Well, O'Ley is becoming that corporate martyr. It's the Joan of Arc of Alt Milk. We found evidence in slide 10 of their latest earnings presentation. We did. What did say, Jay? Oatley shows that the oat milk market is growing way faster, three times faster than Oatley's sales are. That's fantastic for the OatMilk movement, but not so great for Oatley's shareholders. And Oatley isn't the first corporate martyr that we've seen before.

No, it isn't. Remember Napster? Napster pioneered music streaming, but didn't survive to see its potential. And then you got MoviePass too. MoviePass pioneered movie subscriptions, but died as AMC mainstreamed. Some companies don't survive the innovation they created. Oatley literally created oat milk, but its stock makes Oatley look like a martyr. For our second story, the U.S. Senate just passed the biggest climate bill in climate world history. The real goal of this climate bill, though, is to help create the next Tesla.

Okay. First of all, Jack, headlines, you and I didn't expect this weekend. Politicians working a summer weekend to pass a bill. Yet he's last week, we discussed the influx. bill that wasn't really an inflation bill. I'm sorry. I just don't remember that chapter in Schoolhouse Rock, Jack. The Senate worked on Saturday and Sunday, like late nights, both nights. I'm just a bill. I'm just a bill sitting here on a weekday on Capitol Hill. Yeties, the bill we're talking about is called the Inflation Reduction Act, but that's because of political branding. It is because like everyone hates inflation. That's what we told you last week.

This bill barely affects inflation, but it has a huge impact on drug prices and planet Earth. All right, Jack, can you whip up the number context for us over there? The bill raises $700 billion in new corporate taxes and from savings, and it spends $369 billion to fight climate change. And that bill just passed the Senate, so it's destined to become law. Forget all the revenge travel plans. This summer has been a summer of new legislation. Now, yet he's Jack and I were trying to figure out how we could describe this bill to you,

and it basically comes down to this image. It pays you to stick things into power out. It pays you to stick things into power outlets. This bill includes a lot of subsidies for electric things. For us consumers, this bill includes $7,500 off new electric vehicle purchases and $4,000 off used electric vehicle purchases. It's not just cars, though. This bill also nudges us to buy electric stoves and ovens and ranges, also heat pumps and air conditioners, because electric ones don't use gas. But we know what your parents are going to say.

An electric car and an electric stove are only as clean as the power they use. It's true. So this bill also encourages energy companies to finance green energy projects. So the next time a developer wants to replace that old coal plant, they're going to ask themselves this question. Natural gas or wind and solar energy. Now, with this bill, the developer might think wind and solar. Yeah, why not? Because government subsidies are going to make the cleaner option more lucrative for them than they were before. Add all this up besties and no Western country, including the collective European Union,

has made such an investment in the climate. This bill is expected to hugely cut the amount of CO2 and methane that we collectively toss up into the atmosphere. Okay, so Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the United States? The real goal of this bill is to help create the next Tesla. Yeties, Tesla isn't just an electric car company. Tesla is a world leader in clean energy. Of course, Tesla is Elon Musk. It is.

And Tesla is butillions of hours of hard work by Elon and the Tesla team. But get this. Back in 2010, the economy was down, Tesla had only sold 500 cars and it was barely hanging on. Fortunately, Congress had passed a stimulus bill. And that's when Tesla got a $465 million low-interest government loan that was critical for. Plus, the first 200,000 Tesla cars that were sold. sold were cheaper because of a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government. With emerging technology like Tesla was, government support helps early innovators survive

and eventually thrive. Clean energy. It's still an emerging tech. That's why this bill's goal is to help create the next Tesla. 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 Seamus. 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. slash T-Boy, and you can choose, get this, a free stock. That's robinode.com slash T-B-O-Y. 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, Axios, the newsletter company was just acquired by Cox Enterprises. Because it's lean media that gets the fat checks. Okay, Jack. Remember when Dr. Evil said like his father, would just make outrageous claims.

Like that was the whole plot. Like you invented the question mark. Yeah. Well, Axios, they claim that they invented smart brevity. Oh, it was you who invented smart brevity. Honestly, Jack, Axios probably thinks we've done this story too long already. We've wasted way too much time and way too much space. Yet these three former Politico guys started the company Axios, a new digital news agency back in 2017.

And their focus was smart brevity. deliver you important news efficiently via newsletter in your inbox. Real focus, though, was bullet points. Some of the bullet points had their own bullet points. Rather than AP-style paragraphs, Axios's 43 newsletters break information into bulletproof. Here's our favorite unverified fact. If a sentence starts with a bullet point, it feels 40% shorter no matter what. Although personally, I'm a dash guy.

I don't use bullet points. I know you're a dash guy. All right, Jack, I jumped in T-Boards. You know how many bullet points were in the late? latest Axios newsletter today? How many? 27 bullet points. That actually sounds like a low day.

You got to hit 30. You got to hit 30. Nick and I both read the Axios AM newsletter like every day. We do, we do. It's a fine product. And every one is about seven stories. And then two ads paid for by deeply unliked companies. It's like Facebook is taking action to keep its platform safe.

Here's how ExxonMobil is making the world a cleaner place. Philip Morris, we donate sometimes to some charity. Here is the news, Yetis. Axios just got acquired by Cox Entertainment, an Atlanta-based media giant for $525 million. Pick that on a bullet point. This is your classic big media acquiring small media situation. Cox does a lot of stuff in media. They own some newspapers and they own some cable TV channels. Oh, and Jack, they also own auto trader, we discovered. Yeah, you can buy used cars on it. And they also interestingly invested in Rivian. And electric truck company. And now Cox is doing national newsletter journalism.

with Axios. They're paying $525 million or over $1 million per Axios employee. Yeah, that's the statistic. Jack and I are most fascinated by. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Lean media gets the fat checks. Yeties, Axios's pitch has always been lean content. You'll save time and get smarter reading our stuff. But it's not just the lean content. Axios's real differentiator is their lean operative. Is there lean operational? That's what Jack and I think, because 525 million, that may not sound like a huge media deal to you, but Axios, that's a lean company. They only have 500 employees.

Let's compare Axios's acquisition to that of Washington Post, which happened back in 2013. That newspaper had 2,000 employees when it was bought by Jeff Bezos for $250 million. All right. So if we look at just the price. In that case, Axios sold for double what the Washington Post sold for. But let's look actually, Nick, at the price per employee. In price per an employee, Axios actually sold for eight times more than the Washington Post. Yeti's news media is a hard place to make a profit.

The ones that are profitable are the lean ones. The athletic, cheddar, morning brew, axios, they all achieved high price acquisitions all lean. It's the lean media that gets the fat checks. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Oatley sales are only growing a third as fast as the rest of the oat milk market. Honestly, it looks like Oatley could be the martyr of alt milk. For our second story, the Senate just passed the biggest climate change bill the climate has ever seen. The real goal?

To help create the next Tesla. Our third and final story, Axios just got acquired by Cox, which will invest even more in Axios local newsletters. Axios is lean media. Axios just got a fat check. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando, Florida. Trivia. What country has the most vending machines in the world?

You think it's us. Like you think it's the United States. We eat the most stuff. It's not the U.S. No, it's not. Get this. It's Japan. Japan has the most vending machines.

I'm not sure if this is per capita or just total. Let's roll with it. But Japan has 23 vending machines per person. That is higher per capita. than any country in the world. They have vending machines for clothing, for fruit, for flowers. They got vending machines for underwear. They even got vending machines for milk.

Is the cow in the machine? You don't want to know. They've even got vending machines for bow ties just in case you're at a wedding and you forgot your bowtie. If you can vend it. Yeah. Japan's got it. You want bullet points? Yeah.

They got vending machines for those two. Yeties, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. And if you haven't yet, click to follow us on. Apple, Spotify, or whatever app you're on right now. Nick and I, we will see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, happy birthday to Jonah Faye Hurwitz, rent in the runway over in Park Slope.

Happy birthday to Ainslie Monique in Chicago, Illinois. And Katie and Tyler just moved from Austin all the way to D.C. And congrats to Josh Hobson, who's moving to Portland. And Derek Westfall, enjoy that one-year workovertery. Get some good tacos. Good way to celebrate. And happy birthday to Brianna Durkin, who also just had her second kid.

I heard she's gorgeous. Her name's Marley. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. And now 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. dollars. Ah, 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 grows 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 and 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 TBOY. Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees.

View their fee schedule at RBNHD.co slash fees. 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 illustrative purposes only and are not recommendations.