The Best One Yet - 🪨 “Michelangelo Millionaire” — Italian Marble’s resurgence. Apple’s Pixar Lamp. 8 Sleep’s $1B not-mattress.

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, August 20th. And today's pod is the best one yet of this. Oh, this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Now, you know, Jack, one of the Yetis said I should accessorize my IV bag with a Laboubu doll. What do you think about that? Should I pull this off? I think it's a great idea. I support it. Put it on the company credit card. We're writing that off. It's the right off, Yettis. If you've got a slam-and-samine-lobubu referral. No, dude, we should do a mystery box and open it live on the pot.

Starting point is 00:00:34 I'm sold. I've never bought a booboo dog. But Jack, three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do we got on the T-boy? For our first story. From 2006 to 2016, Apple launched the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, and AirPods. In the 10 years since? Ah, well, Apple's next big thing?

Starting point is 00:00:52 It's codenamed Bubbles. And it tells us everything we need to know about how Apple has changed. Bubbles. Our second story. Italian marble is experiencing its biggest business moment since the Roman Coliseum. Because the Italian marble industry doesn't waste the dust, literally. And our third and final story, Eight Sleep helps Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg lull to sleep every night.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Now, we don't know what lullabies they sleep to, but we do know the business model. And Eight Sleep just got a $100 million fat check fundraise to do it. But, Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, no one else is doing that mix. Feels great. Love the mix, Jack. Ladies and gentlemen, please remove your hats and caps for the singing of the national anthem. Of robots. Because the first ever world humanoid robot games just wrapped up in China.

Starting point is 00:01:46 And the winner wasn't R2D2, wasn't Jack? Here's what happened. 280 teams from 16 countries competed in a three-day robotics competition. Oh, and don't forget the 18,000 computer computers. right? True. Because the athletes were human-shaped robots, but they competed in real Olympic sports. I was talking the 100-meter dash, the 400-meter robot dash. They did the long jump. They did the high jump. They even did five-on-five robot soccer. I mean, the only thing missing here, man, a Jamaican bobsled team of bots. But Nick and I watched the highlight videos, and the athletics,

Starting point is 00:02:20 they were pretty unathletic. They did like the boxing match was two robots who failed to actually make contact with each other. The referee had to end it, so he randomly chose one robot and said, you're the winner. One robot actually hit a top speed of 10 miles per hour, which apparently is a new world record. But that's a third as fast as Yusain Bolt runs. Now we should point out, Jack, the U.S. was represented, but the most golds went to China. A Beijing startup called Unitri brought home four gold medals out of the 21 competitions. But here's what we found fascinating Yetis.

Starting point is 00:02:54 The Robot Olympics wasn't just athletics, wasn't man. There was also a housekeeping challenge and a garbage sorting challenge. Basically test to see how well the robots do things that we actually want the robots to do. One event was robots making a bed. And the robots couldn't even do that. Although honestly, I can't either, Jack. So congratulations to all those participating athletes in the humanoid robot Olympics. Just don't use any of those performance-enhancing chips next time.

Starting point is 00:03:20 Our IT team is testing. We see you, Russian robots. We see you. Hey, Bob Costa spot. Let him play. Jack, let's hit our three stories. I think North Korea's robot just exploded. 15 years before this song,

Starting point is 00:03:36 two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause 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.

Starting point is 00:03:54 We can't wait no more. So just start the show. show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Apple is building the lamp from Pixar as an actual smart robot product. That's their next big thing at Apple. But we're focused on a change in Apple strategy, from delivering to promising. But first, Yetis, before we jump into the story, a breaking news update from Ben Stiller and Apple.

Starting point is 00:04:33 You want to share it with the Yetis, Jack? Apple has acquired the rights to Ben Stiller's next movie, which is about pickleball, and it's called The Dink. I don't know if that's double income, no kids, or like some pickleball reference. Now, besties, other than that Ben Stiller movie news with Apple, being on the Apple, PR team has been incredibly unfun lately. They're constantly on the defense. First, CEO Tim Cook had to give President Trump a fake gold trophy to avoid tariffs.

Starting point is 00:05:00 Meanwhile, every country is suing the app store, calling it a monopoly, and trying to trying to kill Apple's app tax. Siri still hasn't learned how to speak AI yet. The Apple Vision Pro is a complete done. Now look, Apple is still the number three most valuable company in the world. The stock is just 9% off their all-time high. But Apple needs some mojo jack. So last week, Apple strategically leaked to their favorite Bloomberg reporter,

Starting point is 00:05:26 something exciting they're working on. Here's the big news. Apple is working on Project Bubbles. Project Bubbles is three next generation AI-powered robot companions. Okay, so Jack, how about we go full QVC on this thing and talk about the product lineup here? Okay, first is a tabletop robot from Apple, right? It's basically got a body that's a smart speaker with an arm coming out of it that holds a movable and turnable iPad at the top. Okay, so like the iPad is like the head of this robot.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Then the arms turn the head to face and follow the speaker as you move about your life. So what does this look like, though? The Pixar lamp. This one. That's right. Yeah, he's Apple's newest product. We'll be inspired by a character and a toy story preview. Now, you'll be able to use this thing for FaceTime or watching a YouTube video or to be like your kitchen assistant. It would wake up, the screen would face you, and then it would turn on the video you need. They're also building a smart home with security cameras. If your whole house is Apple, you're less likely to switch to Open AI.

Starting point is 00:06:30 Plus, they're rolling out a rolling house robot for your home as well. Kind of like Amazon's Astro. It'll stock. you from room to room being ready for taking orders. Now, Jack, let's whip out the whiteboard and add this up for a sec. What did CEO Tim Cook of Apple say about these project bubbles robots? According to Bloomberg reporting, he said, I can't talk about them, but they're amazing, guys. They're amazing. I'm sorry, pause the pod for a sec, Jack. The Apple CEO can't show it to us, but he promises it'll be amazing. Which leads to our takeaway. I've been promised amazing before. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple?

Starting point is 00:07:08 Apple used to deliver. Now, they just promise. Yeties, Jack and I, obviously Apple power users, also Apple shareholders, and we've noticed a major change in the way Apple launches products. How about we go back in time, Jack? Let's go back from 2006 to 2016, the golden era for Apple. Ah, yes. In that 10-year span, they launched the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, and AirPods.

Starting point is 00:07:32 Now, in each of those cases, Apple kept the development super top secret. They only announced the product when they were ready to sell it. Then, as Apple began to struggle to innovate, they began announcing before they were ready to sell a product. For example, like remember the Apple Vision Pro headset? That was unveiled eight months before they actually began taking orders. And then Apple just began overpromising. Yeah. They launched AI features on the iPhone that didn't exist yet.

Starting point is 00:07:59 And still don't exist, Jack. And we don't know when they will. I mean, now Apple is basically leaking products that are years away or may never come to fruition at all. So why is Apple pre-promising these days? They're trying to convince investors that they still innovate. So besties, the way we see it, the decline in Apple's innovation can be seen through the evolution of how they launch things. From delivering to promising, to over-promising, to empty promises. For our second story, the hottest commodity right now, Italian-Lodews.

Starting point is 00:08:36 Marble, not since the Romans, has marble thrived at these prices. So Nick and I are breaking down this super interesting, 2,000-year-old ancient and yet booming industry. Vietti's King Arthur Flower, they have been making flour in America since 1790. The Hartford Current, they've been making newspapers in America since 1765. But, Jack, could you enlighten us about Carrara, Italy, marble? There's a marble quarry there that's been in conno.

Starting point is 00:09:06 continuous operation since 30 BC. We're talking 2,055 years in business. Same mountain. The only time the business was paused was when the barbarians invaded in the 7th century. No joke, their top customer was Julius Caesar. This guy wouldn't walk on anything but Carrara, baby. Now, in the early medieval era, they pivoted to ornamental marble use cases. In 1501, Michelangelo visited and bought a 12,000 pound slab on.

Starting point is 00:09:36 on credit that ended up becoming the Statue of David. But more than two millennia after being founded, Carrera marble has never been more valuable. Get this, the Italian Natural Stone is now selling for $1,200 a ton. Jack, according to Women's Wear Daily, that is actually the highest level since the Roman Republic. Now, by the way, a ton, that's more than you're going to need for a kitchen countertop, but the retail price you'll have to pay is going to be double that $1,200, if not quadruple. Marvel. It's like gold, but you're willing to eat off of it. However, Yetis, this is what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. Marble as an industry has barely changed in 20 centuries, and yet it's adapting like a nimble little startup right now. First, I'm pulling out the globe. Most marble today is mined from just four countries. Italy, Turkey, China, or India.

Starting point is 00:10:27 Can you share that wild stat we discovered about the businesses who are doing the mining in these countries? One family-owned company in Italy owns Italy's biggest marble quarry and America's two biggest marble quarries, which are located in Colorado and Vermont. We're talking about the institution known as R.E.D. Greneti. You haven't seen their logo, but they probably made the countertop. And I visited that marble quarry in Colorado. Marble is just basically cut out with a giant saw

Starting point is 00:10:55 straight out of the mountainside into giant blocks or giant slabs. Yeah, the blocks for monuments and statues, the slabs for the countertops. and the bath fixtures. But unlike other commodity businesses, like oil or corn, not all marble is the same. That's the wild difference. It is mined like a resource, but it is marketed like a fashion. And why is that, Jack? Marble is differentiated. Based on their colors, their veins, their styles, you charge a different price. Most marble is white, but some is colored, like your Palisandro Botuccini and Pordeaux varieties. You know, that's going on the shelf right

Starting point is 00:11:30 there. But the two most popular varieties of marble are Carrara and Calicata, which are also the top sellers right now. The housing market may be cold, but the renovation and travel markets are hot. Yeah. And for bathrooms and spas, you want Carrara or Calicata marble. And that's why Italy's marble exports are up 14% in the last year. Oh, and when the existing quarries in Italy and Vermont and Colorado run out? The next stop is East Africa and Brazil, which leads to a wild stat. I'd love to share, Jack. You got this? Oh, is this an extra stat? I don't know. know about? You know, New York's legendary original Penn Station that was all pink marble? The one they tore down in the 60s? It exhausted an entire Italian marble quarry just to be made. Wow, that's amazing.

Starting point is 00:12:12 I wonder what happened to all that marble? That's the story for another pod, Jack. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies making the Rolls Royce of Rock's Italian Calicata marble? Don't throw out the dust. Yeties, the marble industry has evolved. Early on, the customer was royalty, and then sculptures, and then interior design. Now, they're actually using the physical quarries as destinations. It's a moneymaker. You can have a wedding at a marble quarry. Or other recent use cases?

Starting point is 00:12:40 Hosting fashion events, music videos. They're doing entire runway shows by booking out marble quarries. Premium stone? It's a premium venue, too. But here's the twist. Marble surprising profit puppy is actually marble dust. After you cut those giant blocks of marble, marble dust is processed and purified.

Starting point is 00:12:59 to be used in toothpaste, cosmetics, paint, farming ingredients, and magazine paper. That byproduct is called calcium carbonate, and it's what you get when you cut the marble. And Jack, what's it like on a per pound basis? It's actually more price here, more valuable than the original block of marble. By the way, Tums Jack, that's also calcium carbonate. So besties, a lot of businesses have byproducts that you may think of his waste. Stuff just on the cutting room floor. But the marble industry is a reminder to not blow away that dust.

Starting point is 00:13:29 Sorry to use another rock analogy, but there's diamonds in that dust. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Elon and Zuck both go to sleep at night on the same thing. An eight-sleeve mattress cover, which just raised $100 million. Eight sleep's surge brings up a big life equation. The benefits of rest and sleep are huge, but are they worth $3,000? But Jack, how about we kick things off here with some namestorming, some brainstorming for brand names. What do you want to call this sleep company?

Starting point is 00:14:11 I want to call it eight hours of sleep. Okay, so that's too many words. We're not going to do that. How about eight sleep? Eight sleep, that works better. And yet that is probably how eight sleep's name came to be. Eight sleep, the tech sleep company that was named in 2014. It's a mattress cover and smart blanket in one.

Starting point is 00:14:29 It tracks your heartbeat, your body movements, and you're snoring, and promises that AI will improve all of that for you. They were founded by Italian entrepreneurs in New York City, and 8Sleep is beloved by people who own entire social media companies. Yes, apparently, because Zuck recently posted on threads, I've really dialed in my 7 to 8 hours a night with 8 sleep. And not to lose attention, Elon posted on X, it's good in reply to an 8 sleep tweet. They've done $500 million in sales since 2019, and they're riding that momentum to $100 million fundraise. Their valuation is just short of a billion dollars. Apparently the only thing everyone in tech agrees on is what they sleep on.

Starting point is 00:15:12 No content moderation policies to worry about when it comes to your mattress. Yeah, got the same bed. But besties, here was the big question Jack and I were wondering. Eight sleep versus Casper mattress. Why is one mattress brand a dream business while the other was a nightmare? explain. You see, Casper Mattress, Mattress, Mattress, Mattress, Pioneered the millennial direct-to-consumer mattress in a box business. It was the first ever Sleep Unicorn. But Casper's stock fell 90% after their IPO, and they ended up getting bought for a fraction of their peak valuation. Eight Sleep didn't

Starting point is 00:15:46 want any of that. So they don't even make a mattress actually. Instead, they make a intelligent bed cooling system. So it's a mattress cover, not a mattress, with a built-in blanket and cooling heating system. Unlike Casper, 8Sleep has a subscription too. So they collect recurring revenue if the customer wants the best features in the sleep data. Yeah, the difference here is the price. Eight Sleep costs $3,000 for just the mattress cover. You're still going to buy a mattress. That's three times more than Casper's mattress used to cost. And it's $20 more a month then if you want the auto-temperature adjustments or the auto-antysnoring or the vibration alarm or the sleep date on all that stuff. Yeah, the auto-anty-slor. Apparently, instead of your

Starting point is 00:16:26 wife elbowing you when you start snoring, it'll tilt you up, which gets you to stop snoring. Yeah, so no black eye while you're snoring. That's another benefit. Fewer black eyes. But that huge price tag? Yeah, it's not an issue for Zucker, Elon, but how is eight sleep going to get non-billionaires to splurge on the mattress covers? Well, eight sleep promises you'll sleep up to 25% more with their system. And strategically, they're trying to tie quality of sleep to your paycheck. Because when you fall asleep quicker and sleep deeper, you are better rested and perform better. The pitch, that's the difference between a B student and an A student, an all-star and an alternate, a promotion, and a demotion. Sleep changes everything. So, Jack, what's the

Starting point is 00:17:10 takeaway for our buddies over at eight sleep? How do you make those benefits believable? Yeties, you've seen studies. Eight hours of sleep will turn you into a superhuman, a superior version of your former self. We try to get as much sleep as we can, too. That all sounds amazing. but 8Sleep has to get people to believe that their system will help them achieve that. So we noticed that 8Sleep is basically throwing the whole playbook at people to get them to believe, the whole kitchen sink. First, they got celebrity endorsements. There's a bunch of testimonials from famous people that 8 Sleep is the best. But then they got non-celebrity endorsements.

Starting point is 00:17:47 They refer a friend program gives 100 box off to both of you. And they're actually using this $100 million fundraise to build showrooms in big cities to let you actually lay down in their system. Our prediction on the next step, they're going to up the 30-day return to a 90-day trial or something like that. It's expensive and it's risky, but it could be worth it to convert to beliefs. And that's what the $100 million fundraises for, to help them expand beyond early adopters and techie types. Because if your brand promises benefits, you got to transform that into belief. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? People at Apple leaked to reporters about the exciting new table table table.

Starting point is 00:18:30 robot they're working on. Code name, Project Bubbles. Apple, they used to deliver innovation. Now they promise it. For our second story, the Italian marble industry is more valuable than ever. 1,200 bucks a ton, and this 2,000-year-old business is still evolving. The lesson we can all learn from Italian marble, don't waste the dust. And finally, eight sleep just raised $100 million as Elon and Zuckerberg are power users. Sleep, it brings a lot of benefits, but you guys got to convert those benefits to belief. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Intel is becoming the hottest stock on Wall Street right now and the White House. SoftBank invested $2 billion into Intel yesterday, giving them a 2% stake in the OG chip company. And apparently

Starting point is 00:19:23 President Trump wants to own 10% of the company as well. He wants the government to invest. Why is Intel so important? Well, the United States needs a chip champion. InVedia only designs the chips. Intel actually makes them. And second, a wild new concept from Robin Hood. CEO Vlad Tenev says that his business has an apocalypse squad. Jack, what is that exactly? For Robin Hood, it's 150 top employees to save the company in the event of a disaster. And finally, Louis Vuitton is 171 years old, but they just launched their first ever beauty product. Louis Vuitton is a $20 billion luggage and handbag business within the LVMH luxury empire. But they just launched in a $160 lipstick.

Starting point is 00:20:09 Now, 160 bucks for lipstick, yeah, that sounds expensive. But it's a lot cheaper than a $1,000 Louis Vuitton scarf. That doesn't mean it's less expensive, Nick. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Macias Chen from lovely Zurich, Switzerland. Push and play. Here we go. Hey, besties and yetis. Do you know that emoji is actually a Japanese word where E stands for pictures, emoji stands for characters?

Starting point is 00:20:36 This came into my attention when I was searching for emoji today, and there's a map of Japan in the emoji list, not other country. So I googled and found out actually it's because emoji originates from Japan. That's why we're using the Japanese word emoji rather than the English word emoticon to refer to it. I mean, Macias, thank you for sharing this. I kind of wish Jack and I could react right now with emoji, but audio product here would be tough for the listeners. Yeties, you look fantastic today. And if there's a marble quarry near you

Starting point is 00:21:09 where you think Jack and I should do our next live show, just tag us, and we will put our microphones on that marble, baby. Dude, that would be sick. I don't think the acoustics are going to be sick. Oh, the acoustics would be great because there's that giant cavern in the quarry jack. We'd be really, really love. Wow.

Starting point is 00:21:27 Besties, remember to tap to follow us, leave a five-star rating and write us to review. We love reading them, and most importantly, it helps us grow the show. Tap, tap, tap, paro. And Nick and I, if you know, you know. And before we go, a congratulations to Yeti Thasia, who's starting Columbia Law School, originally from Houston, baby. Congratulations to Zach Berenson from Moore Park, California, who just got promoted to his dream job. And Jerry Pinto in Cameroo, California's got a new job as V-TOP. P at S-E.

Starting point is 00:22:01 And a big shout-out to Zanana Scrub, a new Yeti, now everyday listener from Brooklyn, New York. Great to have you with us. And Samantha Hirsch from Oceanside, New York. Congratulations on Landing That New Job. And we got some belated birthday shoutouts from Nick's absence. Rupa in Cranberry, New Jersey's turning 25 years old. And moving to the UK, congratulations on Cambridge, Rupa. Happy birthday to Lisa Coyvue in Geneva, Illinois.

Starting point is 00:22:25 And Marina Markovic down in D.C. is having a Capri-themed birthday. Yes, we'll have a pack. Happy birthday to Girish in St. Thomas. And Jimmy Gaston, 35 years old in Forest Hill, Maryland. And happy fourth birthday. Belated birthday, but still an epic one, to Jude Yang in Pecatonica, Illinois. And a chow, happy birthday to chow in Canton, Michigan. Hey, chow.

Starting point is 00:22:50 This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. Nick and I both from stock of Apple and Robin Hood.

The Best One Yet - 🪨 “Michelangelo Millionaire” — Italian Marble’s resurgence. Apple’s Pixar Lamp. 8 Sleep’s $1B not-mattress.

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