The Best One Yet - 🍍 “Marijuana’s lockdown liftoff” — Pot stocks pop. The “Project Apollo” war effort/ Cat Person’s spinoff launch.

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

Businesses like Ford and 3M are entering phase they haven’t hit in decades: War Effort mode. The Harry’s Razors innovation arm whipped up its 2nd startup — a direct-to-consumer cat brand called Cat Person that’s changing direct-to-consumer. And marijuana companies faced an oversupply problem pre-coronavirus, but quarantines may be their cure.Learn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday, March 25th. Hold up, Nick. Am I reading this right? 11% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial average? Jack, no need to wash off those Warby Parker.

You're looking at a straight up clear 11% baby. Okay, I'm also reading that is the best gain for the Dow since 2008. Actually, you're incorrect on that one. You're going to have to throw on your Great Depression khakis. Best gain since 1933, Jack. Who's even president then? What is this in FD? our fireside, chat? Snackers, we've been in the desert for meaningful good news lately because of the

coronavirus. And it sounds like the Senate is this close to agreeing to a $1.6 trillion government spending package to rescue us from this crisis. Investors were parched. This is like a water park on their faces like a Gatorade port on the World Series winning manager. Nick, enough analogies. Let's get to the best one yet, Snacks Daily, which we prepared for the snackers. Jack, first story, I think we're thinking Project Apollo on this one. Ford Motor Company's got assembly line expertise. Yeah, their founder basically invented the whole concept. And Ford also has factories that aren't making cars right now. Yeah, so they're going to side hustle and help GE and 3M make ventilators and respirators because we kind of need those yesterday. We love the name, Project

Apollo. Is it going to be a tear-jurking Disney movie in about three years? Just watch this happen, Snackers. For our second story, Nick, you not physically moving? Yeah, not physically moving. No physical activity whatsoever? Not pretty much staying indoors. entire time. Just sitting at home eating stuff, right? Yeah, pretty much just heated up three things. Yeah, that's what it did. Well, that's a perfect recipe for marijuana companies getting a lockdown lift-off. This may finally bring balance to the existential imbalance in the pot industry. For our third and final story, if you're thinking about launching a cat startup, sorry, the best name ever just got taken. No joke, we just discovered. It's called cat person. This is a direct-to-consumer company

that's messing with the future of direct-to-consumer business. Can we just repeat, great name. Full disclosure, this is Jack. Nick and I are both docked people. Before we jump into all that, also there was a little bit of a history of a reptile phase I went through. Before we jump into all that, Snackers, we've been sitting, we've been working from home, we've been wondering how you can help make someone else's T-Boy Tuesday. Now, you've called your grandma like six times. You've even logged into the neighborhood front porch forum to see if there's any elderly folks around. You need a helping hand from a young gun like you. You're basically walking around with a monkey wrench. Where can we use this monkey wrench finally?

But we jumped in snack style to do a little research on how you and me and everybody can actually contribute to this crisis work. Jack and I found a wonderful mix of nonprofits. In addition to our wonderful mix of stories, we're going to drop them over the next few weeks. We found a good one right here. A couple of tech entrepreneurs bought the domain name for maskmatch.com. That's mask dash match.com. We're talking like the Uber for like facial stuff of your health issues. It's actually an exchange portal that connects people who've got to come. a couple leftover N95 masks from the wild files in California. And it connects you with a doctor or a nurse who could really use that mask right now. You don't have to like put up a whole profile on this thing, but Jack jumped in snack style.

Jack, can you share with us the experience? All right. I gave my name. I gave my address. I gave the medical products that I have that could really come in clutch right now for a doctor, which is two N95 masks. Jack, you're given already. I love this. Then I push submit.

A couple days later, I get an email telling me there's a great. doctor in Burlington, Vermont, who could really use that mask right now. This is like a Tinder profile. Jack's like, I'm a flannel wearing man with a strap on N95 mask, looking for a maskless woman or man. It's pretty much a dating site that revolves around N95 masks. Honestly, those Snackers, they gave me the information about the doctor. They gave me the doctor's mailing address. Boom. They gave me a shipping number. All I had to do was send that mask to the doctor where it can be put to much better use. I go way back with Jack Snackers to fresh year, I only just found out he was bimusculal.

Snackers, the website again is maskmatch.com. That's M-A-S-K-M-A-T-C-H.com. Whip up your mask profile and let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks about to hear, food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so, you know. We're not recommending any securities.

Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security Right Snacks is digestible Business news for you Robberhood Financial LLC Member Fenra

Slash SIPC For our first story Ford 3M and GE Are leading America's Mobilization for War On coronavirus Right now really big They're calling this Project Apollo

We love the branding Because it's named after Apollo 13 Jack they could have thrown a new name With this call it Project Tom Hanks already Ford is the actor in the lead and roll here? Yes. And they're calling it a Project Apollo because in Apollo 13, they needed to build ventilators to save themselves, kind of the situation we have today. Yeah, to repeat, those guys are literally rocket scientists. Now, in World War II, Ford was producing the old B-24 fighter. And anybody

who's read the book Unbroken knows that's what Louis Zamperini was flying in during World War II. Literally. They were made right there in Ipsilani, Michigan. He kind of sounds like the fake name you'd assign to a decent throwback World War II movie. Yeah, so Ford stopped making cars, started making fighter jets. Today, we've got some big shortages going on with medical supplies for coronavirus, kind of like a wartime situation. You might need a 24-pack of toilet paper. Guess what? Doctors and nurses need life-saving gear. Back in our home state of New York, the number of confirmed infections is doubling every three days. And guess what? New York needs 30,000 ventilators, Nick. Guess how many it actually has? I'm going to go with less than that, and I have a feeling this is going to be dramatic. 7,000. So we're not even close. And so corporate America has to step up to the plate. And that's what brought Jack and I to Project Apollo, which by the way, Snackers, if you're going to do something big these days, you should make it a project. I'm kind of hungry. I'm about to engage

Project Extra Gwok. Boom. Contact your boss. You need a new budget. Say you're working on Project Grinola. All right. Project Apollo part one. Nick, if doctors and nurses aren't healthy, then they can't help sick people. Yeah, and we happen to be having a huge shortage. of mass to protect those doctors and nurses at the moment. So a company called 3M based in Minnesota, they're making powered air purifying respirators. It sounds intense. Which is like a really teched out fanny pack with an air filter in it that feeds doctors fresh air. Yeah, you've seen this before. It looks like the doctors are like walk in Mars. They're actually using these power air purified respirators from the company that makes Post-it notes. That's correct. 3M makes them, but Ford is offering

their assembly line expertise and some of their idle factories that aren't making cars. And then you had Minnesota and Detroit team up to jump in and boost production by 10 times. It's a team effort. All right. Part 2, Project Apollo. If we don't have ventilators, then we can't help the really sick people. Now, ventilators are what help people who can't breathe, breathe basically. It's kind of like, I think they're nicknamed Iron Lungs.

I'm not sure about that. They kind of look like lungs that are for Jeeps. All right, so General Electric, which is historically based in Schenectady, New York. Wonderful town. They're making these ventilators, but we need about 100 times as many. than are currently being produced. Right, G and Ford are working together, again, the teamwork on simplifying the design so that Ford can produce more. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are deep in Project Apollo? The War Production Act? That's the next step. Snackers,

you know who needs ventilators? Every country in the world right now, plus all 50 states. Right, so California is offering like X dollars for ventilators. New York State is outbidding California, and then Illinois is outbidding both of them. Do a little supply. and demand action, that means the price for these ventilators is shooting up because that's what markets tend to do when there's not enough supply and way too much demand. Yeah, there's a huge shortage of these things. Prices are spiking. So technically, the president could invoke the War Production Act, which would control prices, and that would allow them to supply these precious ventilator needs. Now, the president's not there yet, so we're relying on companies like Ford to voluntarily

step up to the plate and play hero. Ford, GE, 3M, let's expand Project Apollo. For our second story, We got a lockdown liftoff situation going on with marijuana stocks, apparently. Yes, but this hoarding is not the same as the toilet paper hoarding we talked about last week and that you're suffering from currently most likely. There's a lot of hoarding going on. This is a different hoarding. We got to talk, though, about what's universally essential. Yeah, we've heard a lot about work from home for non-essential workers.

Well, essential workers include grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals, I'm following. Banks, and of course, Quiznos. If you're not toasting the sandwiches, why are you even eating the sandwich? But what is universally non-essential? Okay, I hate to say this Jack, my mom's going to kill me, but linens and things, non-essential. Non-essential. Not essential. Not-essential.

Betty's Great, non-essential right now. Dave and Busters, I think it can wait until next month. We got a curbside air hockey situation on Jack. Now, this brings us to marijuana dispensaries. This is a fascinating gray area. Jack and I are calling it quasi-essential. You might think recreational drugs are non-essential, but some people might find them essential. Right, and that's for both recreational reasons and for medical reasons.

And we noticed a little theme going on with the states. No one can make up their minds. Illinois has decided that all marijuana stores are essential. They're staying open. Right, all of them. They're all staying open, and 11 other states totally agree with Illinois. Massachusetts is drawn a line in the sand. They say medical marijuana dispensaries may remain open.

Okay. But we're shutting down the recreational ones. Meanwhile, over in Denver, they closed the liquor stores, close the marijuana stores. Then there was an outcry. Now they've reopened the marijuana stores. It's a surprise to nobody that the city of Denver had an epic outcry to shutting down the marijuana stores. Meanwhile, California and Maryland, they're remaining open, but they're like, please just do curbside pickup, please. Now, regardless of the legality of this whole situation, the legal cannabis industry is on route for one of their biggest quarters ever. In fact, it's such a regulated industry that Jack and I noticed,

The government reports on the numbers of marijuana sales. They're coming out before the company's report earnings. Last week, the four states with the highest sales of marijuana saw their sales jump by 50% thanks to a bunch of hoarding going on by freaked out people. Meanwhile, the same states, medical marijuana sales, those jumped 41% in each of those states. In San Francisco, sales have surged 150% as people have been ordered to stay at home. Meanwhile, up in Nova Scotia, they're up 76%. Nova Scotia, of course, is the main of Canada.

Jack, I think all of Canada is the main of Canada these days. Now, one guy even purchased enough marijuana to last nine and a half years, in case this stay at home order lasts a whole generation. He's like awkwardly showing off his whole thing. His fridge looks like he threw a Christmas tree in there. It's actually awkward and aggressive. We also have a baby Yoda toy situation because one type of cannabis is truly perfectly suited for this moment.

Apparently, edibles are having a life moment. gummies, brownies, chocolates. They're all winning if they're packed with CBD and cannabis. You don't have to share them with other people. There's no passing. There's no touching in the face. Easy. And you're not messing with your respiratory system, which, you know, could be vulnerable in the age of COVID-19. The World Health Organization is like bottom line subsidizing these things. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the weed industry? This marijuana hoarding may bring some feng shui balance to an oversupplied cannabis industry. Snackers, Aurora, canopy, Tilray, the big pot stocks, all. fell in 2019 before this coronavirus crash happened. That's because they each overestimated the

popularity of legalized cannabis, so they grew way more product than they were able to sell. Let's go back to the old econ charts. We had oversupply. We had under demand. That's the economic circle of life, gold and rule situation. That's what the professors live for. Now, this borderline paranoia hoarding could restore the balance of supply and demand to the industry. And unlike toilet paper, this type of hoarding is actually good for the pot industry. For our third and final story, this one's wild. We got our newborn baby not yet unicorn kitten of the day that company is called Cat Person.

Cat Person is a baby startup and it may be the first post-direct-to-consumer company. Now Jack and I got to whip up a second disclosure here. We're both dog people. I had a black lab named Bo, a Rottweiler named Bruno, an American Bulldog named Tubbingham-Worthington. She also mentioned I went through a reptile phase. The name was Scaly Whaley. Also had a bearded dragon named Beardie Weirdy. That was a while ago, but great guys.

I don't think I have enough sweaters to be a cat person. You have to have so much cable knit. It's a lot. Let's get back to the cats, though. Cat person, that's the real name of the company. No joke. Cat person is like the Casper mattresses of cat product. It's direct to consumer feline anything.

So if you're like Emma living in Louisville and you got a few cats, boom, this is your go-to suddenly. And the founders naturally are cat people. Yeah. And they had a problem with cat stereotypes. They believe that the way that we describe cats through stereotypes is outdated. In fact, 74% of cat owners, they really agreed on that one aggressively. Intellectual, coy, and judgmental? No, no, no, no, no. Cat people want that to be updated.

Trendily intellectual, chicly coy and fashionably judgmental. That's what cat person wants to recreate in this new era. They're jumping on the same pet-obsessed trend as chewy.com. And the way they're doing this is with products that basically mean your cat's going to be living a way, better life than you do on a day-to-day basis. A cat person's cat Instagram is definitely going to give you foam up. Now, the products, Jack and I went on, jumped in snack style, and basically enjoyed an entire afternoon of browsing the products.

The first one we found, essential dishes like duck and turkey patte. I can't believe we're calling cat food a dish. If it comes in a can that you need a can open before, it's not a dish. This isn't just any can, though. It looks like the same container of Shabani Mango Greek yogurt. Interesting. And it also comes in like a wrapped-up. Allbirds box that's beautiful and Instagramable as well.

The second product Jack and I found were the, you know, subscription meal plants for cats. There is a gourmet menu with 19 recipes that are all based on a grain-free, low-carb food philosophy. Your cat's going to want to jump on a peloton by the time they're done their brunch. We're not making this up, people. The final product, Jack and I are blown away by an $80 designer bowl that's got to prevent, you know, whisker fatigue. We're not kidding on this.

Does it really say whisker fatigue? It actually said Whisker fatigue on this because whiskers get tired. If you're not gramming your cat being all smug, why did you even get a cat? Fun fact we also noticed here, Cat Person, the company, didn't just launch on its own like any old startup. Yeah, Cat Person, the company, was launched out of the Innovation Accelerator run by Harry's Razors, the billion-dollar Direct-to-Consumer Razor Blade company. Not too shabby. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Cat Person?

Direct-to-consumer is transitioning from a business model. to just a launch strategy. Snackers, Jack and I also found this fascinating, the key words from their founder. Direct-to-consumer happens to be a channel we're launching in originally, and then we want to quickly evolve. With so many direct-to-consumer companies struggling,

D2C is a label that startups want to avoid. Yeah, look at Casper Mattress. It was valued at $1.1 billion. Now it's down to $150 million. Outdoor Voices is reportedly losing $2 million a month. It's gotten so bad the founder had to step down. How about brandless, which literally went out of business last month? Cap person could become the new future business model and launch strategy of direct-to-consumer

startups. Here's how Jack and I are seeing it. You launch as a direct-to-consumer company online and you build up brand loyalty directly with your audience. But then to get past those early adopters, you expand fast to big retailers like Target, Walmart, or Bloomingdale. And then at that point, you're selling indirectly to these stores because it's cheaper than running expensive Instagram ads directly to customers.

Expensive Instagram ads is like Casper's number one problem. Jack and you purr like a cat and whip up the takeaways for us over there. Ford is leading Project Apollo to help doctors and hospitals get the crucial medical supplies that they need. They're treating COVID-19 like a warfare, even though the White House hasn't really ordered that yet. For our second story, marijuana is getting hoarded like a mama bear before a long hibernation. They're buying up excess supply right when the industry needs. needed it. Our third and final story, cat person. It could be the first post direct-to-consumer startup. And they never gets sold. They're selling online directly to you for now, but eventually

they want to get involved with a middleman. The middleman being the big box stores. Time for our snack back to the day. This one sent in by Alejandro Alainis in Chicago, Illinois. Jack, I'm feeling like we're getting a lot of Chicago vibes lately on the snack facts. I'm like in the Midwest vibes. Multiple parts of this one. It grows like an onion. What do we got, Jack? So Tokyo announced yesterday that they're officially postponing the Summer Olympics. It was going to be in July and August, I think, but it's probably going to be delayed to next year. Now it would be in 2021, which would make it the first Olympics held in an odd year, aka not an even year. It's not a particularly strange year. It's just an odd year. Right. Also, this is the first

Summer Olympics canceled for anything other than a World War. Now, Jack and I dove into this one a little deeper snacks out. We noticed the last time the games got canceled was 1940 for World War. War II, but get this. It just so happened to be Tokyo that canceled those games as well. We don't want to make things awkward, but now Tokyo has canceled on two games. Also, Snackers, yesterday we wanted to clarify one thing. We mentioned option A and option B for America's coronavirus response. Option A was like what the whole entire world is doing, which is aggressive social distancing. India just announced they're going to do aggressive social distancing for their 1.3 billion people. Then you got the UK, China.

of South Korea, basically every country on earth is on board. Right. Then we mentioned option B, which seems to be exclusively America's idea. Right. Reduce social distancing and kind of partially restart the economy. What we wanted to clarify is, public health experts think option B isn't a real option at all. Yeah, we want to make this clear. Public health experts think it would backfire, hurt the economy even more, and it may not even be a viable option at all. And ultimately, potentially get a lot more people sick. Which would lead us back to option A.

You all looked fantastic today. We can't wait to do this tomorrow. You really did. Check out mask dashmatch.com. If you happen to have an N95 mask hanging around. We'll see you tomorrow. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts

who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision.

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