The Best One Yet - 🎸 “Mom, you take the James Taylor ticket” — Live Nation’s slingshot. Darkside’s hacking Inc. Blind’s gossip app.

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

Concert legend Live Nation has become a slingshot stock with a new calling: Make concerts make money like sports. Darkside is the cyberhacking ransomware crew that may have just jacked up your gas prices. And Blind raised $37M for an office gossip app that your HR team hates so much… they just might pay for it.$LYV $NET $PANW $ULGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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 Tuesday. Tea Boy Tuesday, May 11th. The Dow dipped 0.1% from their record high, but the tech-heavy NASDAQ, it fell worse. 2% yesterday. Oh, Jack, where's the circuit breaker on my portfolio?

I'll tell you, any SPAC I invested in the past year, I wish I hadn't. NASDAQ pulled my hammie. This, though, is the best one yet, despite our portfolio's losses. This is our best pod we've ever done. Jack, first story, what do we got? It's the most significant, successful attack on. energy infrastructure we know of in the United States. Not a quote from Jack and me.

That's actually, that's from an expert. That's colonial pipeline. And we're talking ransomware. Getsamware. Second story. What do we got, Jack? The concert industry had literally nothing to do after March 15th, 2020. So instead of doing literally nothing, live nation is going to make concerts look like sports.

For our third and final story, blind. Just raised $37 million to become the social media app for office gossip. All right, here's the best part about this. HR departments hate this app so much. They just might pay for it. But before we hit those fantastic stories. Wonderful, Mix Jack. Work from home.

You may have thought that leads to a decline in productivity. Yeah, you may have. But guess what? Over one place? It's the opposite. Ben and Jerry's. Okay, you were working from home. You were eating ice cream.

And that led to a 20% sales boost for Ben and Jerry's last year. I'm eating it right now. So Ben and Jerry's, it had to keep up with the calorie creativity just to be there for you. Get this. The ice cream icon. The Dairy Daddy. It pumped out 40 new flavors mid-pandemic last year. We're talking.

Ben and Jerry's just had its most innovative year ever. Their words. Only Taylor Swift's three albums dropped during the pandemic compete with Ben and Jerry's 40 flavor drops. Turn that into a pint. I need that up all day. I love the poetry you're spinning out. Now, this is all thanks to a team of nine flavor gurus who work in Waterbury, Vermont,

at Ben and Jerry's headquarters. Real positions, real titles, actual people. flavor gurus. What do you want to be when you grow up? Most popular answer in the 802. Jack, 10th flavor guru. Now, these flavor gurus, they have a very important job. They want to make sure that the cocoa ganache is swirled counterclockwise into that pipe. Someone's got to make sure the cookie dough is consistently inconsistent in size. And their hard work paid off with 40 new flavors last year. Get these result snackers. Of those 40 new flavors, two new dog treat ice creams and five new dairy-free options.

Combocha Sorbet? Ever heard of it? Now a thing. How about the new whiskey business flavor you've been seeing everywhere? I guess you've got to get carded for this thing because the real whistle pig bourbon in there. There is. 2020? Yeah.

A taste best forgot. Snackers, it's Tea Boy Tuesday. We want to know if you had to come up with a flavor for the whole last year, what is that flavor? 2020. What were the ingredients for you? What is the Ben and Jerry's name you would give your 2020 ice cream flavor? Happy Tea Boy Tuesday. You are the 10th guru.

We're going to hit our three. stories. Hit us up at Robben & Snacks with your flame. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. It snacks about to hear rain food. It's 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. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news to you. Robberhood Financial LLC. Member Fenra IPC for our first story, colonial pipeline. The colonial pipeline is frozen. There is no gas and no

diesel flowing up to New England or mid-Atlantic right now. Okay, you know what we're going to say here, hacking just got capitalistic. I don't think they knew what we're going to say that. Snackers, the colonial pipeline is like I-95 for gasoline and diesel fuel. I love this because it's figurative and it's literal. If you've gone from like New Haven to Providence or something like that, you've been involved in the colonial pipeline. Okay. 35% of the fuel for the east coast of the United States is supplied by this extremely long tube. Or as they like to call it, because tube isn't totally flattering America's energy lifeline from Houston. The oil capital.

To New York Harbor. The traffic capital. Now, this giant pipeline was forced to shut down last week because colonial pipeline is the victim of ransomware. Snackers, let's say you work at colonial pipeline. Basically, you show up to work the other day, and this is kind of the situation you saw. First, you turn on your computer because you want to get some shopping done before the day begins. Then you don't get any shopping or work done because you see like a black screen with a white skull and crossbones laughing at you. Not literally.

That's how we're visioning this thing. Jack and I have good imagination. This is our dramatized like hacking scenario because criminal hackers got into colonial pipeline. Yes, they did. They froze the computers. Yes, they did. They're demanding huge money or else the pipeline will stay frozen and they're going to fry. trial the computers. I mean, Jack and I are reading about this. I mean, there were so many things to

discuss. We almost broke the whiteboard. First, what is colonial pipeline? Great question. You never heard of it. No, you have. But we all kind of depend on it. We do. And it's actually co-owned by a whole bunch of bigger corporations, kind of like, I can't think of an example. Co-owned by Coke Industries, the biggest private company in America. It is. Also, you got Shell oil. And then you got KKR, private equity. Now, so far, Shell and KKR stocks, which are publicly traded, they aren't affected right now because of this. But your wallet might actually end up. being affected. That's because the gasoline market is in the crosshairs of this store. So this led to our second question, what's going to happen with gas prices now that this entire

pipeline has been shut down. Yesterday was day three of no flow. No flow. Today is day four of no flow. And so far, gas prices have remained stable in the Northeast. But if this last, you know, a few more days, then technically you could get a gasoline shortage and you could see a price hike. We'll keep you updated. But finally, who's behind this? Like, who hacked into this pipeline's computer? It's a fair question, which led to us to an entirely new industry, RAS, Ransomware as a service. Darkside has claimed credit for this. And they are a legitimate business model, Darkside has.

Yeah, technically. But a very illegitimate business. The name sounds like a cartoon villain who Moonlights as a wrestler. Now, criminal hackers pay Darkside for access to their hacking software. Yeah, they do. And these criminal hackers used it against the colonial pipeline. They did. Now, the FBI, they're investigating this.

But so far, it's like a whack-a-mole situation trying to track this down. When it comes to hackers, it's a whack-a-mole situation. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Dark Side and all of us? Hacking has made a major pivot from the chaos industry to the profit industry. Snackers, close your eyes. We're going to do a little exercise for a moment, except if you're driving. And picture a hacking scene. Okay, I'm picturing Russia, mingling in the 2016 election.

That's fair. I'm picturing Bruce Willis in like the die-hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard. You could have said die-hard three through eight. I think any one of those would work. historically, Snackers, hacking has been about cyber warfare, one nation state attacking another nation state's assets. And there have been some corporate hackings before. We've seen them. But they're usually pretty chaotic, like what you've seen with Target or Marriott or Yahoo, kind of a thing. In those mega hacks, which we've covered, Nick and I have before. Yeah, we have. Your social security number or your phone number, they got sold on the dark web for like cents to bucks. But funny thing about Darkside, Darkside actually has a corporate looking website on the dark web.

They're issuing press releases, Jack, they're selling software to criminals like their sales force. It's a different league. It's like an evil mark Benny up. Now, Snackers, data on the number of hackings and the severity of cyber attacks, it's hazy. We don't really have it in America. It is. And the funny thing here, companies are actually embarrassed to say when they were hacked. So we don't know all the info, but the Biden administration says that hackings are up in the last year.

If the hacking industry starts being incentivized by profits and not chaos like the past, then that's a whole new scary world. For our second story, Jack, this pond's actually kind of acapella, if you think about it. Is it? It is. It is kind of Snackers Live Nation just jumped 4%. Because it's booking its first summertime concerts in a big way. Live Nation stock is higher than ever. That's wild. Because concerts are sportsifying themselves. And that part's key. Now, Jack, it's always fun when we get to cover a company whose KPIs are like number of events and number of fans. Yes. And it's always fun when we acapella the sound of lightsabers, which we did last week's pod. We got a lot of good press for that, a lot of good coverage. Unfortunately, despite those awesome KPIs of number of events and

fans, concerts are the OG super spreader of this economy. They are. And that's why when you look at the numbers on Live Nation, not pretty. Revenues last year plummeted 84%. And this year, in the first quarter of 2021, Live Nation has already lost $300 million. But then Jack and I jumped in snack style because the stock jumped 4% Monday when an analyst called it a pure play recovery stock, more on that in a bit. But despite that enormous loss we just described last year, Live Nation, the stock, which owns a ton of music venues. It really does. It produces a bunch of concerts. You hear them all the time. It even owns Ticketmaster. Which is awkward. Their stock price is higher today than before the pandemic. And here's why Jack and I think that's the case.

This is pretty fascinating. We think the future of concerts is actually to be like sports. If you want to watch the LA Dodgers, you can go to Dodgers Stadium and pay for a ticket, or you can just stay home and watch from your couch. Jack, am I going to see at the garden, catch the Rangers Islanders? Or what are you going to stay home? Watch on MSG Plus. Sports has found in equilibrium. They make money through tickets for the live events and through TV rights.

Funny thing about concerts, they haven't. You either saw Ariana Grande live or you didn't. And if you didn't, you can't say with us. Now, there are some rare exceptions where concerts are watchable from home. True. Great point, Jack. Beyonce, the Coachella exception, a marvelous exception, if we can say so. Homecoming. Amazing production on Netflix.

And you got like the live recordings that are common, but then you can only listen to the audio a thousand times over. Mumford and Sons live from Red Rocks, always the number one on my listening. But back in January, Jack and I noticed a funny thing. Live Nation acquired a majority of a startup called Veeps that has a live streaming platform. And Live Nation has already equipped 60 of their music venues with the cameras. and microphones necessary to live stream the concert. Jack, you know what it's going to look like? Mom, you take my ticket to James Taylor.

I'm going to stream his wonderful voice from here at home. The key here, first of all, you're the great son giving your mom the ticket. But also, you're both going to enjoy the James Ticket concert, and you're both going to be paying for the concert to Live Nation. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Live Nation? Pure Play Recovery Stock, that's too simple. We've got a new thing to describe Live Nation. Snackers, there are recovery stocks.

and then Jack and I think there should be a thing called slingshot stocks. Slingshot, because it doesn't just recover. They're going to come back even stronger after the pandemic. I mean, case and point here, wild numbers from Live Nation. They have already booked twice as many concerts for 2022 as they did in all of 2019 before the pandemic. Garth Brooks broke the Ticketmaster record. Reminder, Live Nation owns Ticketmaster. 50,000 tickets sold in under 30 minutes.

Oh, Jack, you want to go to Banner? Go home. It's sold out. Tickets drop at 10 a.m. Friday for Dave Matthews band, who hasn't done a concert in like three years. Well, if you get there at 10.03, you're too late. Snackers, you're going to hear about recovery stocks, but get curious about slingshot stocks. Live Nation, we think is one of them. By way, Jack, first city for a Snacks Daily Live pod. We got to do New York.

Someone's got to help us with this. For our third and final story, Blind. Blind is a niche social media app. It's the little guy out there. That has an HR love-hate relationship. It does. It does. And it just raised 37 million in VC funding because of a frenemy situation. Four key words in this story. May I speak freely? You may I speak freely? Those are the four words. May I speak free? It is perfect because you see it in the military. You see it in the courtroom. Snackers, you see it professionally. But this app is all about that. May I speak freely is something people wonder at work about the company's policies, about the company's pay, about who's getting promoted, who is not getting promoted.

Your boss says they're all transparent. He's got a glass office. She's got a glass office. But you're have no idea if you're paid half of Jeff's salary. Or if you're paid double, but Jeff's getting paid. Maybe you are. That's why Blind is the latest breed of social media. They let coworkers chat about anything at the office anonymously. Picture like Glassdoor meets Reddit, the splash of LinkedIn anonymously bundled into a digital watercolon. Yeah, if you scroll the blind app, you're going to see a bunch of other people who work at your company and you're just going to see like career advice mixed with company gossip mixed with pay information. Snackers, for the Snackers over at Microsoft, we know 84,000 of you are on blind right now.

For our Uber adjusted snackers, 21,000 are on the blind app. I love what you did there, by the way. Over at Pepsi, it's like 400 people on this company. Tech workers, they adopt new apps quicker than the rest. They do. But this brings up like a really interesting situation with social media apps because the biggest differentiator for blind is anonymous but verified. Okay.

When it comes to anonymity in social media, there's a slightly. different reputational risk when you're posting something anonymously on Reddit. Correct. Or when you're posting something on your corporate LinkedIn account. One's got your face with a tie. One has a cartoon of an animal. Now, Blind is interesting because they verify who you are and what company you work for. That part's key.

They do that using your company work email. But then after you're verified, they give you a pseudonym. So, for example, Nick Martell could become faceoff guy 22. Yes. And Blind says, despite that anonymity of. posting, conversations haven't become toxic. Yeah, no one's saying like blank from accounting. The worst.

Five million people have signed up for blind. Five million people are verified to be who they say they are. True. And get this, 80% search for things related to how much they get paid at the company. Makes sense. And what titles they can get promotions for. And then they look further into those. So they're looking for negotiating tips.

This is what they look for. You might scroll blind and see a post that says, oh, you're looking for a promotion. Tell Eric, you love his homemade apricot jam. It'll boost your chances. It's not too tart. It's not too sweet. I'd love 20,000 more. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Blind?

Blind hopes to turn its main adversary into its main customer. All right, Snackers, here's the wild part about Blind. Our instinct was that employers probably hate Blind, but Blind is trying to embrace those employers. Okay, Blind is a free space where employees can share uninhibited, unfiltered, juicy salary details amongst each other. That sounds like HR's nightmare. It does.

And then Jack and I jumped in Snacks style. We noticed that blind sales team is actually catering to employers, specifically HR and recruiting. First, they're trying to offer insights on worker morale that they find within the blind app. For a fee. Here's the pitch. People truly are honest on blind. They're less honest in your corporate survey monkey. The second service they're offering HR departments, something called talent is blind, which is a platform for recruiters.

For a fee, here's the pitch. People on Blind are obsessed with their careers. They're open to switching roles. You could find that on Blind. Blind just raised a bunch of money. They don't make any money yet. Good point. But they could turn their biggest detractor into their core customer.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Colonial Pipeline is at a standstill because of a ransomware attack. Hackers, they're chasing profits now, and that's a little scary. Live Nation hopes to have twice the number of concerts in 2022 and stream them online. It could be our first slingshot. stock. For our third and final story, Blind, sees that millennials are switching jobs and that companies are hiring for the recovery. Blind, it could be the frenemy the recruiting team needs now more than ever. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by Neelan Chalya,

Mrs. Washington in the Mrs. America pageant for the great state of Washington. Nick, Sunday was Mother's Day. And over 120 million phone calls were made in America on that wonderful holiday. Now, more phone calls are placed on Mother's Day than any. other day of the year. Combine. Combine. No, not combined. It's nearly a 40% spike from the daily average, not too shabby.

Snackers, here's the takeaway. If you haven't yet, better late than never. Call your mother. Pause the pod. Call your mother. Appreciation for the gestation. Snackers, you'll look fantastic today. Jack, I'm going to give you a compliment you've been looking for.

You look like the fifth mumford son. I'm not wearing suspenders. That's not true. No, it's a good beard, though. It's a good beard. Snackers, we want to know your Ben and Jerry's flavor for your 2020. Hit us up with the name and the ingredients at Robin Hood Snacks.

We'll be looking. We'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, Hanny Young, congrats on passing the driver's test over in Hong Kong. Where Jack, I think they drive on the opposite side of the road there. Do that. It must be nice.

Congrats on getting engaged to Annie and Henry in Evanston, Illinois. Let's see the ring. We want to see the picks, guys. Nick Reed, Mouse, happy birthday in Hamilton, Ohio. And Miles Bori in Woodsie, California. And happy birthday, Maggie Ruffin, Turning 21, down in Florida. and Annie Buck in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And Snackers, if you want a shout on in this pod,

we got a link right here in the episode description every day. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix. 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. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.