The Best One Yet - 📷😜 “My office feels like a hotel” — Rise of Envy Offices. Billie Eilish’s VC secret. Shopify’s holiday win.

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Shopify won Black Friday and probably Cyber Monday too, even though you never saw them — Shopify shows the value and the drawbacks of white labeling.The new trend in the workplace is fabulous instagrammable offices — When HR strategies change, so do our office designs.And Indefy is the VC-like finance firm investing in emerging musicians — It’s the new biz model of music: It’s never been bigger, to be smaller.$SHOP $SPOTSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, team boy, Tuesday, November 28th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a team boy. Welcome, Mr. Jack. How was the flight? What was your seat like?

You didn't get stuck next to a non-window, did you? No, I had a real window this year. And Jack, do you want to share with the eddies where you were staying on your trip to San Francisco? I'm staying in my room. Yeah, you are. We made a room for Jack. Your guest room at your house is nicknamed Jack's room. I kind of feel like a concierge at a hotel.

Jack, do you have any allergies or aversions we should be aware of? Those sheets better be silk. Can I interest you in a moist towelette? Gibbs on the top bunk, just like in college. Would you like the steak medium, rare, or slightly chilled? I'm not worried about it. If you can just leave a 20% tip, we'll leave the rest from there. I cannot wait to stay at the Casa de Martel.

We guarantee wonderful service, Jack. Just leave five stars at the end of the steak. And a 20% tip. Jack, first story for today's show. what do we got? One company, one Cyber Monday, and you never even saw their name. Shopify has one Cyber Monday because Shopify shows the power of stoxygen. For our second story, there's a brand new trend in real estate that will get you back into the office. What is it, Jack? The Envy office, because Yeti's, they're now designing offices like fabulous hotels. And our third and

final story. Who is the brilliant mind that discovered Billy Eilish, post-belon, and and a whole bunch of top new music. The answer is a venture capital firm. The cool new record label operates like a VC, and you can invest. Jay G. Wentworth over that. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a fantastic mix of stories. And I just want to point out, you just got off a flight and you're hitting the microphones

beautifully jacked. I woke up at 4 o'clock Eastern time. Not easy. Which is 1 o'clock Pacific. Not easy. And I'm probably going to bed at midnight. We do have your bed ready. You didn't request the early check-in, but we'll see what we can.

can do, Jack. The show must go on. Yet is, it's not quite the end of the year yet. But we do now have the word of the year. Because the Miriam Webster Dictionary has published the official word of 23. And that word, Jack? Authentic. Authentic is the word of the year. Because authentic has been used more this year than any previous year. Authentic was the most searched for definition in the dictionary all year long. So Nick and I have to ask, why are people obsessed with the word authentic this year? Well, Jack, do you want to drop a hint for us over there? Yeah, we just typed that question into chat GPT.

Because this year, Yeti's AI made you question if that picture of a flying elephant was really authentic. And then we had AI Tom Hanks, which made you wonder if Forrest Gump is authentic. And if everyone on Twitter now has a blue checkmark, then is a blue checkmark authentic? But Nick, this authentic issue, it goes way beyond tech. Right, because the movie of the year had a fake Barbie in the real world. Oh, and how about Taylor Swift? Is her love for Travis Kelsey authentic?

I think it is. And Jack, if a robot over a Chipotle makes your guacamole, then is that burrito authentic? Oh, and how about the double-stuffed Oreo? It's not even double-stuffed. So are cookies now inauthentic? Yeah, it is the word of the year is authentic. And the theme of the year is whether the things we taste, whether the things we see, and whether the things we hear are actually authentic. Nick, yes.

You and I name the show the best one yet. Is that authentic? Yeties, we are 100% absolutely positively certain that today's episode is the best one we've ever done. Cookie Crisp approved. Cha-ching, cha-ching. Let's hit our three verified stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. an idea to cause a cultural storm.

It's the best. 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. Start the show. For our first story, the big winner of Cyber Monday is a company

whose name you never see. The big winner of Cyber Monday was Shopify. It's Shopify. The Canadian tech company that's happy to take no credit at all. All right, yet is before we begin the story, should let you in on a little thing. I actually texted Jack over the weekend. I had to chat with him about something. And I said, Jack, can you speak? He texted back, no. Shoppy, shoppy, shoppy, till I dropy, dropy. I didn't know what he meant, but I think it means you were shopping.

Is that what that means, Jack? I're going to blame this on Wilder. Let's say he took over my phone. It was confusing. Anyway, Jack apparently did a lot of shopping this weekend, and so did you. Here's the two headlines you saw about Black Friday this year. These were the two big statistics about Black Friday. Total online spending jumped almost 8% from last year. That's a big Black Friday. That's a good sign for the economy, Jack. The second headline about this year's Black Friday is that Amazon passed UPS in terms of numbers of packages shipped. Amazon is the biggest shipper of packages in the country outside of the U.S. Postal Service. Amazon ships more packages than FedEx and UPS. But the biggest staff that Jack and I noticed is about a company

who you never see. Shopify. Shopify. Shopify stock just hit a 52 week high on your shopping, even though nobody went to Shopify.com this past weekend. And you bought no products that say the word Shopify. Shopify. Shopify.

It's what Nick and I like to call a stoxygen stock. Ah, a stoxygen stock. Jack, can you explain a stoxygen stocked all the Yeties and the besties out there? It's a T-boy term. It's like oxygen. It's all around us. We need it to survive. but nobody can even see that it exists.

Because Yetis, Shopify handles the back end of your e-commerce needs. Shopify is plugged into so many websites. It's like the internet's cashier. Because Yetis, when you were buying that cute top this weekend, you click Add to Cart and then you complete the purchase, and Shopify is doing all of the back-end work there. Unbeknownst to you, Shopify is the tech that sent your order to the warehouse. And here's the news on Shopify.

Sales on Shopify. Shopify run websites jump 22% this Black Friday. 22%. That is a really big jump in the number of sales on Shopify run websites. But Jack, what's the real surprise? It's the size. The size. Because in one day, Shopify sold $4 billion worth of product this Black Friday. $4 billion.

That sounds like a huge number. But Jack, can you sprinkle on some context for us, please? Americans spent almost $10 billion online this Black Friday. Yes. Shopify handled $4 billion of it. Besties, Shopify is now the size of 40% of America's e-commerce. If you push ad to cart on a website and it's not Amazon, it's probably a Shopify website. Yeties, we are living in Shopify's world and we don't even realize it.

It's the internet's cashier. It's toxygen. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies doing shoppy, shopping, shopping? like they dropy, dropy, dropy over at Shopify. Shopify reveals the value and the drawback of white labeling. Yeti's, why is it so shocking that a company we never see is behind so much of our online shopping? It's because Shopify's techies up in Toronto, they do all the coding, but they let the brands take the credit. Because Yeti's Shopify is a white label product.

If you're a brand, you just plug in Shopify software to run your online store. instead of having to build your own e-commerce system. That's why Slam and Sam loves Shopify. He can focus on selling sweaters, not on coding. But a white-labeled product like Shopify also has limitations. Great point, Jack, because very large companies can grow beyond Shopify. It's one-size-fits-all, and that doesn't fit everyone when they get big. White-labeled software works for that sneaker startup.

Right. But Nike may have to build its own software. Besties, white-labeled products are like, They're invisible to the end customer, but they are everything to the brand. And Shopify reveals both the value and the drawbacks of white labeling. For our second story, there is a new trend in office design, and it's called the envy office. Because the best way to get you back in the office, it's to make the office feel like a hotel. Make work just feel like a vacation.

Make it feel amazing. Upgrade us. We'll take the suite. Yetis, we're calling it now. There's going to be a show on TV, like MTV Cribs, but for offices. But for offices. And the reason we're saying that is because the New York Times just took a tour of a cereal company based in New York City. They visited Magic Spoons headquarters. A breakfast cereal company, we should point out. They have 50 employees based in Soho. It's a gorgeous office. Okay, Yetis, the lobby of their new office was inspired by a raspberry muffin. No joke.

The walls were painted, and I quote, Razzle-Dazzle red. Razel-Dazzle, right? They took that from us. We invented the term Razzle-Dazzle. Sprinkle. The hallways at Magic Spoon's headquarters looked like a 3D Pinterest board.

It's like Etsy exploded. And their conference rooms, they have color-coded themes. Each conference room has a bookshelf with books only of the color. You're not going to get a book off the shelf to read. You're going because it's 50 shades of magenta and your retinas can't look away.

This serial company didn't hire an arch to design the headquarters. They hired an influencer. If we had to look at any more pictures of this thing, we would have started licking him. I'm not sure. We want the word licking the show. I kind of like that you're uncertain about it, Jack. It is the most Instagramable office we've ever seen. And it's part of a new office trend that's called the envy office. Companies are trying to lure you back into work by making the office feel like a spot.

It's actually part of a multi-part strategy of office design. of office design inspired by the hospitality industry. They're combining the comforts of your living room with the glamour of vacation, but it's your office. Yeah, they're like, you know when we get people back to the office? I don't know, making it feel like a Ritz Carlton, Jack. Here's the insight. Employees want the comforts of their home after three years of on and off working from home.

So why not make the office more comfy just like their homes? So instead of investing in a wooden conference table, they're investing in cozy sofas in the conference room. You're getting a cozy conference couch, not a cozy conference table. But to get workers to finally come into the office, it can't just be equally as comfortable as the home. Right. It still needs to be comfy like a home, but it needs to be worth the trip of traveling to the office. That's why the envy office doesn't just have houseplants. It is full of rare palms from the Caribbean. And those rare palm trees happen to look really nice in photographs. That combination of both comfort and indulgence gets you to travel to a hotel on vacations. Why wouldn't it also get you to travel to the office? That's why, Yetis,

you're going to see more and more office spaces popping up with just Insta candy for decor. Because if you would take a photo of your vacation in Bali, maybe you'd also take a photo of your office in Soho. If you'll travel to Bali for Instagram, maybe you'll travel to the office for Instagram. And your buddy Timmy would be pretty envious to that. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who may soon have an envy office. When HR strategies change, so do our offices designs. Yet he's funny thing, behind every office design is actually a message. An HR message to give workers a specific feeling. For example, the first office designs we had after World War II was the cubicle office. The cubicle made you feel like a cog and a machine. Right. Everyone was the same. Everyone's replaceable. So you better work

hard. Well, after the cubicle, the second office design we got was the open office in the 20 teens driven by tech disruptors. That made you feel like part of a team. Spontaneous interactions were intentionally designed to foster creativity and innovation. Well, now, after work from home, the third office trend we have is the envy office. It's curated, it's artistic, it looked fantastic, and it bridges the digital with the physical. The feeling that it gives you is that you're special, that you get to be here, that you want to keep working here, and that you also get to show it off. It's a destination worth traveling to every day and a design you want to brag about. Yeties, this is the third major epic of the post-World War II office design. Because the

evolution of the office reflects the goals of HR. For our third and final story, there is a new way for musicians to become stars. Emerging musicians are new. now getting funded the same way startups do with venture investments. Yeties, can we ask you a simple but not obvious question? Where did Billy Elish come from? Like, where did Billy Eilish come from, Jack? She's born and raised in Los Angeles. Right.

In the year 2001. Okay, good year. But now her music is sold everywhere. When did that happen? We know where she came from physically, but like, what did her music come from? It's not just Billy Irish. Where did Post Malone come from? He sold 80 million records already.

Khalid, too. He's suddenly playing SNL out of nowhere. Over the last five years, artists have gone from zero to 60, and you never even saw it coming. Well, all three of those artists, Nick and I just mentioned, came from the same place. It wasn't a record label, and it wasn't a powerful Hollywood agent. Those three artists were basically spotted by venture capital. Yeties, more specifically, all of this talent over the last few years has been discovered by a music investor platform called Indify. The Wall Street Journal just profiled Indify this week.

How would they describe it, Jack? It's a music financier that treats musicians like VC investments. We should point out, Indify does not know how to get music on the radio. And they don't know how to publish CDs. Oh, and if you want to do a concert tour, like, they don't know, should we book that guy? Should we book this guy? They just don't know what to do with that. The skills of old school record labels, Indify doesn't know how to do that.

Right. But what it does know how to do is how to spot talent. often on TikTok, and then it will finance that talent. And then it will get that music featured on Spotify's new music playlist. And frankly, that's all you need to go viral now. That's all you need to become a star in music these days. And the result is a completely new business model for emerging musical artists. The old model is that a musician signs with a record label to become a star,

but they lose ownership of their music. On the other hand, Jack, what's this new model? for the music industry. Indify finances the artist and takes a 15% cut of the revenue. The artist still owns the music. He's Jack and I were looking at this story and we're thinking to ourselves, you know what? This new model in music kind of looks like venture capital. They're treating Billy Eilish like she's an entrepreneur. It's like Post Malone wasn't just a rapper. It's like Post Malone was a founder. That's how they're looking at them. And it's working. Indify says more than half of the artists they've invested in have become profitable deals. And that is a better

success rate than the old school record labels. So Jack, we're going to make you a star. If you can whip up the takeaways for us for our buddies in the music industry. In the music industry, it's never been bigger to be smaller. The fastest growing segment by revenues in the music industry, it's artists without a label. Independent musicians saw their revenues from streaming jump 17% last year. Now, we should sprinkle on some context here. Within the music industry, indie artists are still small. They're still just 6% of the music industry. But it's the fastest growing part.

And they're growing without record label deals. Because TikTok can get an amateur artist to go viral. But then Indify can help finance that artist to keep them viral. It's the new business model of music. So, Jack, to answer our original question, where did Billy Eilish, Post Malone and Khalid actually come from? They're products of the new business model of music. Independent artists, venture capital.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Shopify one Black Friday and probably Cyber Monday, too. Yeah, they did. Even though you never see them. Shopify shows the value and the drawbacks of the white label. For our second story, the new trend in the workplace is fabulous Instagram mobile offices. Because when HR strategies change, so do our office designs. And our third and final story is Indify.

It's the VC-like finance firm investing in indie musicians. It's the new business model of music. It's never been bigger to be smaller. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Israel and Hamas have agreed to another two days of ceasefire. This could allow for further hostage and prisoner exchanges and get more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. And second, she is.

the Chinese fast fashion giant just confidentially filed to IPO in the United States. Sheehan was last valued in the private markets at $66 billion. Not too shabby. And you might be swiping through its app right now to shoppy, shoppy, shopping till you dropy, dropy. And finally, on Sunday, we had the busiest day ever for U.S. airports, according to our buddies over at TSA. 2.9 million people walked through metal detectors on Sunday.

Seven billion cans of peanut butter were confiscated for unclear reasons on Sunday. Who's trying to bring peanut butter through TSA? People who think that rule is unclear, Jack, and we could use some clarification on it. Why are you checking peanut butter? Or I guess you're not checking it. That's the problem. Makes too much sense, Jack. Now, time for the best fact yet.

This one sent in by Allison Pagel from a lovely Evansville, Wisconsin. Ever wonder why Cyber Monday is Monday and not Saturday or Sunday? Why do you buy things online while you're at work instead of the weekend? Like it feels that we would buy more things online if we weren't at work. It's because in the early days of the internet, home internet was simply slower than work internet. So retailers thought, you know what? It would be easier for customers to buy stuff online on a work day at their work computer

than at home on their home computer. So retailers collectively decided, let's make the biggest shopping day of the year a work day. They made it Cyber Monday, even though. Cyber Saturday and Cyber Sunday, frankly, sound a lot better. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you're looking fantastic in the flesh over there. Very authentic seeing you in person right now, right? I could literally touch you.

I'm squeezing your wrist. There we go. There we go. I can't wait for this live show. That's going to be authentic. That's going to be fantastic. If you're in the San Francisco area, we can't wait to see you on Wednesday. To everyone else, we can't wait to see it tomorrow on the show.

Shoppy, shoppy, till you droppy, dropy. And Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, we just wanted to share. It was awful for us to see the news that happened in Vermont over the weekend with the hate crime up there. Nick and I were roommates in Burlington one summer. On the street where the shootings happened. In exactly that spot, the whole state means a lot to us. It sickens us to think that a crime like that happened in Burlington, Vermont, or anywhere else for that matter.

To the three young students who were hurt, we're hoping you can get back to health soon. And to anyone caused pain by these shootings, we're thinking about you today. And Jack, before we go, we're going. We've got a seventh birthday to Evie over in Los Angeles on her way to school right now. Apparently Evie calls Nick and me, The Brothers. Yeah, we'll take it. I'm so proud of that title, Evie. Honored, we're gonna run with it.

And a happy 13th birthday to Simon Rock over in Boise, Idaho. Happy birthday to Matt Coochard in Brooklyn, New York. And Sasha and Packa, enjoy that birthday over in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Congratulations to John Axelson, who has a new job in Arlington, Virginia. And Justin in Philadelphia got a new job and he's listening to us right now in the sauna, which is a very dry heat. And good luck to the Chicago Booth Investing Club who's going through recruiting week right now. Get those resumes ready.

And Lindsay Ardiff and Ainsley Fox just pulled off maybe the greatest wedding ever. They told their parents they were hosting Thanksgiving in Chicago, but they got married instead. That takes a lot of logistics. And to anyone else celebrating something today. make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both on stock of Chipotle,

Shopify and Spotify. I got my favorite wine this weekend. You can only get at the place. What place? Place. Nap or Sonoma. Can you share all your secrets.

Napal or Sonoma. So you can go shoppy, shoppy, to you dropy, dropy, Jack. Red or wine. Red. Oh, you're breaking your mom's rule. You're letting a guest have red wine at your house. I might skull.

Could it ruin not only our friendship or our business? You'll be drinking outside, Jack. Please take your wine outside.