The Best One Yet - 🩳 “Mommmm, can I get this?” — Hollister’s parent trap. Puttshack’s adult mini-golf. Facebook’s $1,500 headset.

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

Hollister just fixed the #1 barrier to Kid-commerce: How to get mom’s credit card. Puttshack just raised $150M to keep growing its mini-golf / restaurant/night club. And Meta just unveiled its Virtual Reality goggles, but the real surprise was who joined Zuck on-stage.$ANF $BOWL $MODG $METAFollow 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 Thursday, the new Friday, October 13th, and today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. Yeah, it is. It's a T-boy. Jack, first story, what do we get? It's official.

We now have the first VC-backed PUT-putt golf. Put-Chack just raised $150 million for a mini-golf DJ nightclub putting bar. For our second story, Hollister, just figured out the number one barrier to teens buying their stuff. How do you get mom's credit card? And our third and final story is Facebook. They've finally unveiled their latest VR headset for $1,500. But here's the shocker, Yetis. Guess who was on stage with Zuck?

You wouldn't believe it. Clickbait, clickbait, clickbait. Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix. Just a perfect mix. No pun intended, Joe. Today's pod is the worst one yet. Yeah, Yeties. Today's pod is actually a T-Woy.

Because it's the greatest day for disgraceful work. It's the perfect time to be less than perfect. You know it, Yetis. It is National Failure Day. National Failure Day, October 13th, a whole 24 hours dedicated to the stuff you did not get right. National Failure Day is an annual celebration over in Finland. It's a Finnish holiday for the errors, the faults, the miscommunications in all our lives. We heard about this first when Yeti Lloyd Broughtman told us about it a few years ago.

Yeah, so Jack said, you know, let's do it. Let's make it an annual tradition too. And here's the best part. If we fail to remember that it's failure day one year? That's kind of honoring the spirit of failure day, Jack. It's failure day. Don't celebrate the wins, yetis. Bestie celebrate the losses. Because you can't succeed at this.

Unless you fail at that. It's okay to be ready for more spaghetti. And then spill that spaghetti on your shirt. It's okay to sit down, stand up. And then sit back down again, but fall off the chair when you do it. It's okay to trip up on a takeaway. Because the next pod is the best one yet. Because why do we fall?

Master Bruce. So we learn to pick ourselves back up. Happy National Day of Failure. Jack, let's hit our five stories. For our first song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that cost a cultural 50%. That's a fat tip.

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. For our first story, Putschak is adult mini golf, but indoors and with club vibes and with a lot of money now. They just raised $150 million because they're stealing like an artist. Ah, Jack, the colorful balls, the neon balls.

The ambidextrous putter that you can put from either side. The AstroTurf that skins your knees if you fall. And the ice cream stand at the end of every round. That's what I'm thinking about. Yeties, we're talking about mini golf. Great for dates, great for vacations, and great for arguing with your sister about her mini-mulligan. And if you hit a hole in one on the 18th hole, you get another game for free. Sorry, Katie, we saw you tap that twice.

But what Jack and I are curious about now is the newest. version of adult mini golf. Putshack. Putchack. Putchack, which calls itself the world's first and only upscale, tech-infused mini-golf experience. Put-Shack, based in Chicago, but so far, they've only got six locations. But they just got a $150 million check from Black Rock to expand fast. They're hit in Boston and Miami this fall, but then, Jack, where are they going next? They're opening new locations in Nashville, Houston, and St. Louis. Now, yeties, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Venture capital funding just

hit its lowest level in years. But Putshack is riding a trend and it is riding it hard. That trend, revenge experiencing. We repeat, this is a company that describes itself as upscale tech-infused mini-golf experiences. Like bowling, with Putshack, there is one big activity you play, minigolf. Now, also kind of like bowling, the profit puppy here is the food and the drink, but in this case, it's like a high-end cocktail dinner situation, date material. Yeah, they're not making money off the mini-golf. They're making. They're making. money off the margaritas. What's the slogan again, Jack?

What are they saying here? See up, eat up, drink up. See, like your three putt to finish, then you crush a Cosmo and then you're face deep into bowl a shishishishishish pepper. That's how the day goes at putchette. Unless you want the adamami, Jack. You can do the edamami too. They have chicken wings and nachos, Nick?

If you deluxe this thing, but I don't know, I guess we're going to lose money if you go on this date. It's not pigs in a blanket. It's pigs in the bunker. And it's Kobe beef. But Jack, the big question, how is a mini-golf tech-infused? How do you tech-infused? How do you tech-infused?

It's tech-infused because the balls you putt, they have sensors in there. And so you don't need a score card or a pencil to keep the score. The ball counts the strokes itself. Oh, if so facto, the scores are displayed automatically. So there is no cheating, Katie. Stop laughing at me, clown. Actually, you can't physically cheat. Also, we should point out you're going to have to bring your ID if you're going to go to this thing.

Kids are welcome at Putschak, but one hole has a ramp so that when you put the ball, the ball jumps in the air. and the goal is to land the ball in one of the beer pong cups. And then you have to turn upside down, do six pushups and yell, Sig-Eap, Sig-Eap, Zig-Eap. Jack, we turn down the lights, we turn up the tunes, let the good times roll. That's their other slogan. They have like six slogans.

Because there's a DJ around the fifth hole. Like trying to putt and then Tiesto blast something in my ear. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Putshack? Put-Shack is stealing like an artist. Now, Yet he's, we know what you're thinking here. Does this sound like the company TopGolf? Because it does sound very similar to TopGolf, Jack. TopGolf revolutionized golf driving ranges with drinks, food, and technology.

Yeah, the startup TopGolf ended up getting acquired by Callaway Golf for a whopping $2.6 billion. Well, Putschak wanted to duplicate that success, so they launched the putting version of TopGolf. It's like the same concept as Top Golf, but it's for your short game. In fact, the founders of Putschak also co-founded Top Golf years ago. What are the odds? But the way we see it, Putchak isn't stealing the top golf concept because that would be zucking.

Putchak is putting their own spin on something that already exists. Exactly, Jack. This is inspired, not stolen. It's related. It's not ripping off. Putt shack isn't stealing. It's stealing like an artist. For our second story, Hollister just created a new concept for kid commerce.

Not e-commerce. How to use technology to get your mom's, credit card. Jack, should we reveal the, the dirty secret about Abercrombie and Fitch? Should we just say it? Yeah, we should. We should. I'm wearing the clone right now. No, you should tell the real secret. Over half of Abercrombin and Fitch's company sales aren't Abercrombie and Fitch. They're Hollister. That's right, besties. Over half of Abercrombie is actually Hollister. Hollister is like American Eagle. But I grew up watching the OC. Hollister. They basically take an Abercrombie and Fitch model and then they make them bleach their

hair again. But the newest product at Hollister isn't a hoodie a sundress or a tube top you can wear surfing. No, this is what Jack and I were shocked by. The newest product from Hollister, the company for teen clothing, is in-house tech that they made. The technology is called share to pay. Share to pay. Hollister just unripped their jeans and engineered a fintech payment gadget just for Hollister. We did not see this coming because what Hollister has done here is create a digital equivalent of nagging your parents for cash at the mall when you were 12. That's right. Hollister has eliminated the friction and awkwardness of getting mom's credit card. Because there is friction and that is awkward. Jack, we should sprinkle on some context here.

Here's how share to pay works. All right, Jack, let's say there's a shopper, maybe 13 years old. They want to buy board shorts, so they click to buy them in size medium. Okay, great. Well, now you have to pay. So you don't have a credit card because you're 13. So you click share to pay instead which gives you a link. And then you just text that link to your parents, and then they click that link, boom, one click. They can buy your size medium board shorts. Because the cart was already full, medium's already in there.

The kid input the address, too. All the parent has to do is give the payment info. It sounds simple, but it is powerful. It smooths out the number one barrier to kid commerce. Yep, permission. Like a permission slip. Between little Jimmy finding those board shorts and dad actually buying them, there are a lot of opportunities for miscommunication, a lot of friction.

That's why Share to Pay makes it so easy. It's basically a digitized permission slip. Oh, and get these numbers, Yetis. The Wall Street Journal says that when kids use Share to Pay on Hollister.com, the purchase got completed twice as often. Hollister's your wingman to get mom's credit card. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Hollister? Behind every abandoned shopping cart is a potential goldmine.

We were shocked by this. According to Shopify, a whopping 70% of all shopping carts that get filled online get abandoned. 70% of your almost orders don't get completed in the end. Jack, I got all these tabs open right now. I'm going to fill up like 10 shopping carts, but I'm only going to buy three. Hollister knows that only 30% of shopping carts get paid for, so they're attacking one type of abandoned shopping. Yeah, the hang on, let me go get mom's credit card kind of shopping carts. Because behind every abandoned shopping car is a potential gold bond.

Mom, what's your zip code and your social security number? Three digits. Back in the card. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. You can do just about anything from your phone, but some industries, they've just been slow to move. The finance industry was slow to move from phone to computer and then from computer to app. Robin Hood wasn't. It's the Silicon Valley-based brokerage that's been updating app since it was born in 2015.

Using the Robin Hood app for your stocks and crypto is, almost as easy as downloading it. So you can invest to your pace on your terms by downloading the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y limitation supply. Stocks are offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, Zuck. just unveiled his virtual reality headsets,

but more importantly, is the surprise partnership with Microsoft. Because first, the boardroom, then the living room. All right, besties, one month ago, remember where we were? Jack and I,

we were telling you about that awkward hotel room leak, the awkward hotel. One poor meta-engineer left the secret meta-vr headsets, not yet unveiled. He left them behind in the hotel room. And of course, a picture of it, a bunch of pictures of it, got leaked to the media.

Yeah. This is a dramatic buildup. I love it, Jack. Well, just yesterday, Zuck officially unveiled meta's newest virtual reality headset, the name, Jack? The Meta Quest Pro, which we already knew because there was a sticker on the box that got leaked to the internet. What we didn't know about Facebook's

new toy a couple weeks ago was its price, and Jack, what is the price? That was the only thing we didn't know. It's $1,500. $1,500 for a set of glasses with virtual reality that will make you look like some kind of insect. This was a huge event. We're talking a lot of lights, a lot of cameras, and the critics were underwhelmed.

They were underwhelmed. TechCrunch called this big product on Vell Event, over scripted, and incredibly thirsty. Apparently, Zuck didn't show any compelling reasons you should actually spend one month's rent buying this expensive thing. But of course, others left to his defense. plotted him for building because techies are obsessed with building. A product manager, Jack, I'm a digital construction worker. My hard hat is a VR headset. But yet he's ears with Jack and I found fascinating about the story.

The real announcement here, the real surprise, uh, meta has found a mate. Meta has found a mate. And that mate is Microsoft. Yeah, guess who else was on stage was, uh, come on out. Jack, who do we got? I was shocked that the CEO of two trillion. dollar company Microsoft, Sacha Nadella, was there. Showed up at Facebook, at Meta's virtual reality live event.

And they basically eloped. They announced a marriage of convenience between their two massive tech companies. Within Microsoft teams, Microsoft will build the virtual meeting rooms for you to enter in your Facebook virtual reality headset. So how are you going to get into the virtual meeting room to get some work done? You're going to use your meta virtual reality goggles. Well, who's running that virtual meeting room? It's going to be run by Microsoft teams.

Microsoft provides the software. Meta provides the hardware. In the not too distant future, these two companies think you're going to work from virtual spaces. And actually, Meta's kind of kicked up the virtual reality, like capability a notch or two. Zuck says that the new sensors in his latest headset, read your facial expression while you're wearing them,

but then others in the virtual room, like in the virtual conference table with you, they'll see your facial expressions too. It feels like we should issue a warning. here, Jack. Yeah, if you're in the virtual meeting, if you roll your eyes at someone's pitch, everyone will see that you're rolling your eyes even though you're in the metaverse. Don't bite Carol, bite a carrot. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at meta? For the metaverse to scale, it must do what your phone did. Companies first, consumer second.

All right, yeties, new technology. It is expensive. It always is so expensive. The year Nick and I were born, Steve Jobs launched a computer that cost $13,000. in today's dollars. People, they don't want to pay up for expensive new technologies that are still unproven. We see that in surveys, which show that nobody wants the Metaverse right now. It's too new. We don't know if it's valuable. And it's way too expensive for these headsets. But wait, let's stop for a second. Let's look at the adoption of computers and smartphones because you learn their value when you use them first at work. For example, you carried a Blackberry for years at work, which made you understand a smartphone's value, which is why you eventually bought your own iPhone.

If a company splurges $1,500 per employee for meta's virtual reality headsets... Which companies can afford. And you may find more value in them by trying them first at work. Because for new tech to scale, they start with companies first, consumer second. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? But check. It's adult mini-golf, but indoors and with Tiesto bumping. They're not stealing top golf's idea. They're stealing like an artist. For our second story, Hollister.

helping kids get their parents to pay for stuff for them. Because behind every abandoned shopping cart is a potential gold mine. Our third and final story, meta, just unveiled the most expensive holiday gift of the year and a partnership with Microsoft. Yeah, for this thing to scale, though, it needs companies first, consumers second. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Kimri Blackwelder in lovely New York City. Earlier this week, at the end of the pod, we gave a shout out to the famous Hollywood sign

for the 100th birthday. Yeah, we said it was the 100th anniversary of the legendary Los Angeles landmark, the Hollywood sign. Except it wasn't. Oh, Mike. Yeah, he's apparently, it turns out the sign is only 99 years old, not 100 years old. Yeah, 1923. That sign got put up.

So it's 99. When it got put up, it didn't even say Hollywood. It actually said Hollywood land. Yeah, it was promoting some real estate development. Yeah, so didn't even say Hollywood, and it's actually 99 years old. So Kimmery pointed out not just one, but, you know, but it was promoting some real estate development. Not just one, but two errors in a random shoutout at the end of the pod. And the way Jack and I are seeing it today, we're like, wait a second.

Kimri, this is actually the perfect timing. Happy National Failure Day, everybody. And a happy national failure day to YouTube. This was the worst one yet. If you got anything to commiserate today, celebrate the failures. Mattress, mattress. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, congratulations.

Congratulations to Amber Jan, a Yeti who just had a major product launch with the creator growth team in New York City. And we're wishing Bon Voyage to Abby Huong, who just flew to Asia for a three-month trip. And she's meeting her boyfriend Calvin over in Hong Kong. This sounds delightful. Happy five-year anniversary to Brady and Amy, celebrating on the lovely lakes of Duluth, Minnesota. A happy birthday to Jake Widener down in Phoenix, Arizona. And happy birthday to Pertique Perak in San Mateo, California. Adriana Alvarez, happy birthday

over in Sacramento. Happy birthday to Michaela Cully, who's celebrating her birthday with her very first Broadway show in New York City. I love Brian. You're gonna love it. And happy birthday to India Stevens in Philadelphia. And happy birthday to Ali Ekbal in Boonton, New Jersey. Last year, we wished him a happy first birthday.

This year, we get to wish him a happy second birthday. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins. And the failures. This is Jack Nick and I both on stock of Apple, Shopify, and Robin Hood. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Jack, rule number one about a kitchen renovation,

tell your friends about your kitchen renovation. We know the cabinets are expensive. Well, in the pandemic, a lot of companies renovated their businesses, focusing on apps and digital. Robin Hood didn't have to. It was built digital from the start. Robin Hood's mobile first and intuitive design makes investing a little easier for every stage of your investing journey.

Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or, stocks through Robin Hood Financial or buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood crypto, you can do all that right on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash TBOI. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.