The Best One Yet - 🛥️ “Operation: KleptoCapture” — Billionaire Boris’ yacht. Rivian’s prices crisis. MyPlace’s friendly house.

Episode Date: March 4, 2022

New phase in the war in Ukraine: Operation KelptoCapture is yanking Boris the Billionaire’s Oligarch yacht. Electric truck company Rivian dropped after an apology… because to err is human, to forgive is divine. And MyPlace just raised VC money for a startup powered by friendship, trust, and your Buddy Timmy’s empty apartment this weekend.$RIVN $TSLA $ABNBGot 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.

Dude, thank you so much for just your unbelievable teammateship. And you know, every time you make my life easier on a day like this, it brings me great joy to return the favor. Great. No, dude, I know. It's nice. It's kind of like our pod love language is helping the other person on base with commitments. Dude, I cannot wait to do a 10 p.m. recording in order to enable your epic lifestyle. Jackman, Guam this weekend.

Is it Sunday there because it's Tuesday here. All right, here we go. Three, two. This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Friday, the real Friday, March 4th. TVOI.

Yep, it's the best one yet. The best one yet. Jack, happy birthday Eve. What are you going to do tonight? What are you going to do tomorrow? Tomorrow, we're going out to dinner. There we go. Slam and salmon.

Baby's getting babysat. Medium rare, which is great. We're going to ski. And I'm setting up Alex's touring setup so we can ski up the mountain. Okay. And then down the mountain. It's like a gift to everyone. With Wilder in a baby backpack. That pod sun better be protected, Jack. I'm working on some flannel-en-sconsed Birkenstocks for you, but not easy to track those down, Jack. First story, what do we got today, Jack? The United States just announced a new special task force. Yes. Operation clepto-capture.

Klepto capture, because Boris the billionaire could be Putin's pressure point. For our second story, Rivian saw their stock dropped yesterday because this Tesla rival, they're really, really, really sorry. Yeah, they're sorry. They're sorry. And they mean it that they're sorry. To err is human, though. Yes. To forgive, that's divine. Poetry, Jack. What's our third story? My place. It's like Airbnb, but for your buddy Timmy to house at your dog. Yeah, they just raise money. But here's the catch. You can only join My Place if you are actual friends. Snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix. A fantastic mix to go into the weekend with. just over a week since Ukraine got attacked.

And Jack and I were talking before the pod, there is one number that stands out for us this week, and that number is one million. There are one million estimated Ukrainian refugees as of yesterday. Yeah, we're talking Ukrainian families fleeing for their lives as shellings from Russian artillery strike their cities. So many Ukrainians are trying to flee the danger. The line of cars to get into Poland is 60 miles long.

60 miles of just cars trying to leave Ukraine. A million refugees. G's is bad, but expectations are this is going to get even worse. Yeah, get this. The United Nations now expects 4 million Ukrainians to flee if things don't end soon. That's more than the population of Los Angeles or two Chicago. Yeah, Snackers. We're talking Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota and South Dakota combined.

Perhaps the worst part, families are broken up because of this. They're not traveling together. Yeah, Jack, a lot of people don't realize this, but Ukraine has made it illegal for men aged 18 to 60 to even leave the country. Ukraine wants every able-bodied man to stay and fight. So when you see the pictures, those crossing borders are carrying babies and grandparents and their entire households on their backs.

The war is uncertain. Yeah, it is. The humanitarian crisis that it's caused isn't uncertain. Now, Snackers, look, it's Friday. And on Friday, we love to tell you to celebrate the wins. It's the end of the week. Celebrate that and celebrate the weekend. But sometimes you just got to acknowledge a loss.

Those one million Ukrainians, that's too big a loss not to recognize. Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. The snacks about to hear rain food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so. 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 for you. Robahood Financial, LLC. Member Fenra. IPC. For our first story, a new thing was just announced in the war in Ukraine. Here it is, Operation Klepto Capture.

Operation Klepto Capture targets Boris the billionaire because of Putin's pressure points. Okay, Jack, should you whip out the old Polysyte 101 books? Comparative policies. Yeah, let's do that. How about, let's start with democracy. Democracy is when power is held by the people. Okay, let's go to monarchy, also dictatorship. That's when power is held by just one person.

Okay. Then let's hit oligarchy. This is in the middle somewhere. Power is held by a lucky few. An oligarchy is a little awkward. For example, President Putin of Russia is the president of Russia. But the Russian oligarchs, that's the new money of Russia that are right there close to pay. And that's how Russia has an oligarchy.

It actually began 30 years ago when Russia had to decide, what are we going to do with the Soviet Union's major industries now that the Soviet Union fell. part. The empire had fallen. Communism was over. They're no longer state-run enterprises. Hey, Jack, we're going to need someone to run the oil, the steel, and all the mining businesses. What ended up happening was well-connected Russian men got hooked up. Yeah, they did. And became billionaire titans of Russian business overnight. AKA the oligarchs. And that is who this new task force from the Biden administration is going after. Here are words from the Department of Justice's press release. Okay. These are aggressive words for a press release.

oligarchs be warned. We will use every tool to freeze and seize your criminal proceeds. First of all, it sounds like a line from a Sean Connery movie. Without the accent. Without the accent. So we're seeing this as a new phase in the war in Ukraine. Exactly. Oligarchs hunting. Snackers, there is a blitz on billionaire Boris of Russia. First, we're seeing Western allies focus on oligarchs penthouses. Oh, exactly. Like over in the United Kingdom, they sanctioned nine Russian oligarchs in just the last few days.

And the Russians love the United Kingdom. There are five Premier League football clubs that have recently been owned by Russian elite. Now, the British Parliament's looking at the situation. They're thinking, you know what, we should drop some plans to seize those Russian oligarchs London flats. They actually plan to use that seized property of the Russian oligarchs to house Ukrainian refugees. We're talking about a lot of real estate worth a lot of millions over a nodding hill. And then the Western allies, they looked at the oligarchs yachts. They're mega ships.

Jack, have you heard about the yacht from Igor Setchin, the oil CEO? It's 280 feet long. Okay, wait, Jack, get this. There is a newspaper called The Super Yacht Times. They claim that this yacht has a pool that converts into a helipat. I don't even know how that's possible. You're on water. Why do you need more water?

It's like a transformer. France decided to seize this super... They did. Oh, in Germany, they just seized another super yacht from a Russian oligarch worth $600 million that was in the harbor in Hamburg. But this latest news is the biggest move yet. Yes, it is. Operation KleptoCats.

Yeah, it was just announced. at President Biden's State of the Union address this week. The Department of Justice is leading a task force with the IRS, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, the Secret Service, the Homeland Security Department, and the post office. You got to get the post office in there. They're like that final Marvel character. This is what President Biden said at the State of the Union. He is going to join with European allies to find and seize yachts and luxury apartments

and their private jets. The reason why President Biden thinks so many government agencies have to be involved in this? Because oligarchs are elusive. Oligarchs are elusive. It's easy to find oligarchs's Wikipedia pages. It is. It's really hard, though, to figure out what they actually own. Yeah, because they use an anonymous shell companies based in Bermuda to avoid taxes and sanctions. Turns out 500 Russians control 40% of Russia's wealth. Those are the oligarchs. That's not even the wildest part. Get this, Snackers. A majority of that Russian oligarch wealth,

it's actually held overseas outside of Russia. And the ownership of that wealth is blurred by complicated corporate structures and really nice Upper East Side Apartments, which leads to the job of Operation Clecto Capture. Discover the assets held by oligarchs and take them. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Operation Clecto Capture? What are Putin's pressure points? Snackers, the West has tried for months for years to curb Putin's international bullying. First, with this crisis, President Biden tried international shaming. Yeah, he alerted the world weeks in advance that Putin would fabricate reasons to invade Ukraine.

That didn't work. So then President Biden tried punishing Russia's economy and the Russian people with sanctions. And so far that hasn't totally worked. With Operation Klepto capture, maybe punishing Putin's billionaire friends. Yeah, because Putin's personal wealth, it's actually tied up in the companies of all these oligarchs. And they're his friends. Yeah, they are. One of them served with him as a spy in the KGB in the Soviet era.

Jack, you see another one of these oligarchs is the judo sparring partner of President Putin. Maybe these oligarchs have influence with Putin, and maybe they'll ask him to stop the war, if for nothing else to preserve their own personal wealth. Yeah, in the meantime, the West is still searching for Putin's pressure points. For our second story, Tesla rival Rivian just tried to jump on the price hiking bandwagon. There's the only problem. Yeah, they already promised a lower price. This is a lesson in, what would you say?

Apologies. Keeping your word. By the way, Snackers, Rivian, first of all, congratulations. You are the winner in the race to electric pickup trucks. If you ain't first, you're a lot. Yeah, because they are literally the only electric pickup truck right now. By the end of 2021, they'd sold about a thousand electric pickup trucks. If you've seen one, you're one of the few.

Yeah, there aren't many. But keep in mind, again, Snackers, the pickup truck, the number one vehicle in America. And this is the first electric version. Well, Rivian, they IPOed at the peak of the stock market like just a few months ago last year. They sold stock at a high because they IPOed in November. It was also my mom's birthday. Everyone was happy. Nice.

And the stock was so high because this was Tesla but with a truck. Yeah, this thing didn't just run on electric. This thing like ran on protein shakes. Today, however, the stock is down to $50 a share. It's from $179 down to $50 a share. Like just about every company that listed in 2021, it's way down. Yeah, the price of Rivian stock is falling, but the prices of supplies to make all their cars keeps rising. So, Inconvenient. So Rivian had a tough decision that they reached last

week. Yeah, here was the decision. Rivian decided to raise the price of their two cars, the R1T pickup truck and the R1S electric SUV. Understandable why. You've got to pay their workers more right now. Chips are more expensive. Metal? I know it's electric, Nick, but still made a metal and it's more expensive. And Jack, they're looking around the conference room. They're looking at the whiteboard. They're like, hey, I have an idea. Why don't we just make the customers pay for all these price increases? They'll never notice. So here's what Rivian did. They bumped the price up of their electric pickup trucks by 20%. 20%. Yeah. That's a lot. It is. And if you look at the price of this car, that's $10,000 to $20,000 more expensive, depending on.

on how many bells and whistles you got. Jack, that feels like a problem. It's not even a sticker price shock that causes. That might cause a sticker price heart attack. You're going to get this car with a defibrillator, which leads to a bigger problem, Jack. Rivian applied that price increase to past orders, too. Snackers, we're talking people who had already ordered the car and already committed to a price, just found out they have to pay more. 71,000 people had pre-ordered a Rivian at the end of last year. They clicked by thinking the price was locked in. Jack, this is like if you order the $5 cheeseburger on a menu and then the waiter

brings it to you with a bill for $10. But either way, you're like, can I speak with the manager? So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Rivian? To air is human. To forgive is divine. Who said that? Snoop Dog. Starsky and Hutch.

Classic, the Alexander Pope of Raff. So Snackers, Rivian, they're a new electric car company. They don't have dealerships. They can't just let a car salesperson do the dirty deed of haggling on price. Rivian is responsible for their pricing. They can't blame anyone else and they screwed this one up. Well, you know what? The CEO apologized in an email to the entire Rivian waitlist. He's really, really sorry, guys. It was sincere. And he agreed to honor the original pricing. He said that the

price hikes, those are only going to apply to orders that happened after March 1st. Unfortunately, investors aren't as forgiving of Rivian. No, the stock's down because 71,000 people on that wait list, they're going to get a Rivian at a price that's probably not profitable for Ritz. Now, here's the question. Jack and I are asking, but will customers forgive Rivia? Well, he did own up to the mistake. He rectified it, and he apologized.

So you got an interesting contrast here. The bungled price hike, that was a hit to investors. We'll see if it's also a hit to customer love. For our third and final story before the weekend, Jack, if I did find a flannel and sconsed maple-colored Birkenstock shoe, what size would you be? He's almost one. So why don't you get past one so you can wear them in this break?

Dude, this is for you. This is your birthday gift. Now I've set expectations way too high. I thought there for wilder. Third and final story, My Place just raised money to house it your home. Oh, Nick, you're so good. My place isn't growing through customers.

It's actually growing through friendships. Did you say MySpace? No, it's not MySpace. See, that's the thing that messes with everyone. It's My Place, not My Space. It gets you every time. Snackers, this story is about MySpace. My place.

My place. Which is also technically a social network, but my place has Airbnb vibes. Yeah, it's a three-year-old startup. They're now in 86 countries. And it's basically short-term home bookings, but with a friendly twist. The business model of my place is both identical to Airbnb and the opposite of Airbnb at the same time. Oh, totally. Because my place is not for finding a home for vacation.

It's for sharing your home because you're on vacation. Here's the founder's story. Yeah. They traveled a lot for. work. Like some day. And the New York City apartment, which I'm sure was gorgeous. Lovely.

Just sat there unused many weekends every year. Yeah, the PlayStation's there, but it's lonely. No one's touching it. But these founders didn't want to list their place out on Craigslist or Airbnb. No, no, no. They don't want like Rando Ronnie smelling up their bed. They don't know who's using that bar so. No, they don't.

So the My Place founders created something in which you aren't publicly listing your one bedroom apartment. It's different. Instead, you're privately listing your one bedroom apartment just for a friend. who can come house sick because you're away. It lets people your friends with know when you're away, and then they can occupy your home. For instance, you might see that your buddy Timmy

is on his engagement moon in the Bahamas. Congratulations. Well, do you want to crash at his place in New York City? I guess it's available. Timmy has pretty good taste. I'd actually be willing to do that. I heard the thread count on his sheets is through the root. But Snackers, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about my place.

It's this strange thing about my place. They're three years old, and they only have 3,000 members. Yeah, but yet they have. have 7,500 people who are on the waiting list waiting to house set. They're really slow playing us here. They could have 10,000 users with a click of a button. Yeah, so Jack and I are wondering, why are they limiting growth? This is a startup that could just let them off the wait list right now.

One reason is because you can only join if you're invited by a friend who's already a member. That's a key. You can't just house it for a stranger. You can only join my place if your buddy Timmy sends you a special link that you're his friend. They don't want just anybody joining. So my place isn't just like Airbnb. Not everybody can join.

And it's also not like Facebook in which it's a social network for everyone. It's invite only. Like the dating apps, the league or riot you might have heard about. And this slow rollout ensures that only true friends and friends of friends can see your friends' place. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our friends over at Myspace? Wait, do buddies count? Did I say MyPlace? The currency of my place isn't money.

It's trust. Okay. First question, Jack and I asked. Does anyone make money on my place? Not necessarily. No. And guess what, Snackers? That is precisely the point.

30% of the bookings on my place, they happen with no money exchanged between the homeowner and the friend who's crashed. They're free. The house owner didn't charge their friend who crashed in their house. This app isn't about making money. On either side, it's about building connections. Which are the friends.

And solving a market need. Which is the unused housing. If you look at social networks, those are driven by ads. And platforms like Airbnb, those are powered by fees. My place is something new, but it hasn't monetized yet. They'll figure it out eventually. The driving force for users isn't money. It's trust and relationships.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend? The U.S. and its allies are going after the Russian oligarchs. The search for Putin's pressure points continues. Our second story is Rivian. They need to raise prices. But you shouldn't do that on people who already clicked confirmed. To err is human to forgive divine. Our third and final story is my place.

It's for buddies crashing at buddy's place because one of the buddies is away from them. It's not about money. It's about trust and buddies. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by Austin Jacobs in San Jose, California. And he actually tweeted this to us and we said, Austin, can you send us your voice? And he sent us his voice. Hey, guys.

This is Austin Jacobs from San Jose, California. and here's my Ukrainian snack fact. The capital of Ukraine, Kiev, is actually the Russian pronunciation, as it's known by most Americans. The real name is Kiev, the Ukrainian pronunciation that we're trying to move towards. Thanks. Feels like the right time to go with Keev. Keev.

Snackers, Jack and I love doing this with you every week, and we can't wait to see on Monday. Absolutely. Have a great weekend. And a great birthday. And before we go, happy birthday. This Saturday to my co-host Jack Kramer. Jack, I got to get back to some Etsy people. Nick, you son of a guy.

My birthday's two days after Alex is not a special birthday this year, 3-4, but next year, I'm turning 3-5 on 3-5. There we go. Well, Saturday birthday is a good birthday. That's a good day for a birthday. That's true. Snackers, happy birthday to Kelsey Simpson over in Olympia, Washington. Happy birthday to Justina Lohen in Riverside, California.

And Carmen and Antonio Verico, a mom and son, same birthday, Burlingame, California. Happy birthday to Shria Newport, a mom and daughter, same birthday in Tucson, Arizona. And Tyler is turning 30 in Gross Point, Michigan. Happy 30th to Andrew Kofke in Chicago. And Elias Artiga, enjoy the 26th in Downey, California. Happy 34th birthday to Alborz de day in Carson City. And Greg Albee, turning 42 in Texas. And Abel Martinez in San Diego. And Ron Dreven in Marblehead, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. Happy birthday to Kelly Bonzani in the North End of Boston. and love that pizzeria regina. And Tice, living in New York City, but from Brazil, happy birthday.

Happy birthday to Alex Coussin in Orlando, Florida. And Kelsey Wickland in Minneapolis. And Yosey Felick in Miami Beach. And Anna, down in Louisville. Happy birthday to Nathan C. In Calispell, Montana. And Carter Johnson, happy first birthday in Edmond, Oklahoma. I love this.

He's got a lawnmower-themed birthday party. I want a lawnmower-themed birthday party. Congrats to Paul and Cecily. We're getting married in Detroit. There we go. And Jacey and Damien, happy anniversary in Chicago. Happy six years together to Noah and Giuliana in College Park. Oh, and Jack, this weekend, Duke is playing UNC in Chapel Hill. Del Classico. And guess what? Grant and Tracy have an anniversary in Chapel Hill.

This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb. And we're both buddies with Timmy. Robin Hood Snacks, Newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc. or any of its subsidiary. or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc., Robin Hood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee

future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.