The Best One Yet - 🤓🍬 “Revenge of the Nerds” — Nerds’ Super Bowl commercial. Does the Sphere make money? Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos’ mining startup.

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Nerds’ candy sales have surged 10x to become the  #1 top selling sugar candy in America — So we’re explaining why Nerds is doing its 1st Super Bowl ad.The Las Vegas Sphere just shared its first full quarter of earnings… and actually had a profit — Because The Sphere is the nuclear power plant of entertainment.And Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos both invested in KoBold, a mining startup for our sustainable future — Because they’ve created a Google Maps for underground. $HSY $SPHR $TSLASubscribe 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, Teenboy, Tuesday, February 6th. Then today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a team boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, first story for today's show. What do we got, man?

During the Super Bowl, you're going to see the first ever TV commercial for nerds. The crazy, colorful, clustered candies. So Jack and I are going to tell you how a 40-year-old nerds candy just became the number one sugar in America. For our second start, it's that. giant entertainment sphere on the Las Vegas strip. They just reported their earnings for the first time. The sphere, it has become the playground for Gen X. And our third and final story, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos just invested in a copper mining startup that made a big breakthrough. Besties, when Bill and Jeff invest in the same company, yeah, we pay attention to it.

Yeah, we refer to them by their first names. Bill, we owe you for lunch. We'll get them back. We got a Venmo that guy, Jack. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. A mix of stories today. I love the mix of stories, Jack. Nick and I searched the entire world, and we have found for you the best airport on the planet. Because America Vespucci Airport in Florence, Italy is the number one airport in the world. The old FLR. Ah, FLR Florence International. Get this, yeties. The new international terminal at Florence Airport will have a vineyard on the roof. We repeat, the Ferenze Airport is going to be under a winery, True story. That's right. Florence's new terminal. It opens in 2026 and it's going to feature 19 acres of living and growing vines.

They're going to have an on-site winery equipped with a full-time vendor at this place. You can stomp on grapes over by Gate 34B. Hey, Samalia, am I sensing notes of tarmac in this vino? That'd be the jet fuel. Yeties, they're growing Sanjayaveze on the runway. They're growing Brunello by the baggage claim. This is the biggest innovation in airports. since the moving sidewalk. Jack, I think this is the biggest project in Italy since Michelangelo's David. It is, because Tuscany is covered in Kianti grapes. The airport terminal might as well be, too. As they say, Jack, when in Rome, grow wine on the roof of your airport like the Romans do.

So here's our big question for you today on T-Boy Tuesday. Yeties, what would you name a wine grown at an airport? Would you name this airport wine Gateway Cabernet? Would you name this airport wine a mile high mer? Whoa. Or would you name it? Oh, no. Is that a Boeing Bordeaux?

Jack, I think technically it's a Boeing Barbarra. That's regionally accurate. We just posted on Instagram at T-Boy Pod. We want you to share your idea in the comment. Comment with your name idea for the first ever airport-grown wine. But here's the best part about an airport wine. Oh, what is that, Jack? It's not aged.

It's delayed. On the Amo, Jack. Let's hit our three stories. Your wine will be ready at 1039. 10.52. 1155. You've been rebooked to a prosceco. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural B-percent.

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, guess who just bought their first ever Super Bowl commercial this year? Nerds. Nerds! Nerds! The Candy just bought a Super Bowl commercial.

Because Nerds has somehow become the number one top-selling sugar candy in America. But Yetis, you know the nerds, you've seen the nerds. It's been a while since you may be hung out with the nerds, right, Jack? You probably still have a cherry pink nerds candy stuck in your molars from seventh grade. Yeah, they come in a box with two colors. The boxes divide in the middle. You're getting the pink side or the purple side.

Which side are you going to choose? Both. I actually found on YouTube, one factory worker explain how nerds are made. And I feel like their PR team was really upset at what he said. You got to share this story. It's such a good story for the Yeties, Jack. The guy said, basically, we start off with a sugar crystal. and then we keep coating it with more sugar.

That's it. There's enough sugar in those nerds to kill an umpalupa. Speaking of umpalupa, nerds was invented in St. Louis, Missouri by the Wonka company 40 years ago. Then they were bought by Nestle and now they are owned by the big candy company, Ferrara. But Nerds is on a sugar high. They're the number one selling sugar candy in America. Get this Yeties.

Nerds has seen sales explode by 10x in the last five years. Five years ago, nerds sold $50 million of sales every year. Now they're up to $500 million. Sit down, stand up and brush your teeth three more times, Jack. And it's all thanks to one mini-innovation, gummy clusters. That was the minivation. Gummy clusters. Can you explain them, please?

Well, nerds are super tiny. They're little like pebbles of candy. So it's really annoying to eat. You might find yourself chugging the entire box. You're so frustrated. Instead, the nerds company realized they could shift into the snacking category by gluing a bunch of nerds together into a cluster and sales just exploded. It's revenge of the nerds.

Literally. So against all odds, nerds finds themselves on top. What are they going to do now? Well, funny thing it is nerds decided to do the most expensive thing that a brand can do. Nerds has a Super Bowl commercial coming this Sunday. They're paying CBS $7 million for 30 seconds of candy karma in a TV commercial. The ads available to watch already. It's a pretty simple commercial.

TikToker Addison Ray is basically dancing around and enjoying herself with a box of nerds. We know what you're wondering yet is after you see this simple nerd super bowl commercial, why is nerds dropping millions of dollars to show you just dancing handfuls of candy? Because of this one hero statistic. 65% of people who buy nerds once, buy nerds again. 65% of you end up buying nerds a second time once you try nerds a first time. Nerds has realized all they have to do is give you a taste and you're hooked. So here's what nerds is thinking. Instead of spending $7 million on ads all year long, they're going to spend $7 million on one ad.

On the ad, a Super Bowl ad. Jack, those are some smart nerds. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at nerds? When you're at the top, you could be resting or you could be investing. Yeties, nerds is the number one selling sugar candy in America. They've won. They're on the top. They're beating everyone else.

They're like the QB after winning a big game. They're soaked in Gatorade. It's time to take a break, take a rest, go on a vacation, go to Disney World. Resting for nerds candy, that would be controlling costs, collecting profits. Maybe the CEO takes a nice vacation and she heads off to Disney World. But nerds isn't doing that. Nerds is doing the opposite. They're not resting right now.

They're investing right now. Nerds just increased its manufacturing capacity by 360%. And they boosted their marketing budget by 200%. And now Nerds is doing a Super Bowl commercial. Nerds isn't going to rest and let Airheads or Swedish fish find a competitive opening. Nerds isn't eaten the fruits of its labor. Instead, nerds is planting more seeds for the future. Because if you're a brand who's made it, you could be resting or you could be investing. For our second story, we just got the first full financials for the famous Las Vegas sphere.

And what are we seeing, Jack? It answers the question, does the sphere actually make money? Yeah, it is the sphere. It's the eighth wonder of the world. It's like the pyramids of Egypt, but with rounded edges. not a single right angle on that thing. Yet he's, you've seen the sphere? Even he haven't been to the sphere. You've seen the sphere. It's the biggest hemisphere on Earth,

and it's visible across the entire Las Vegas trip. Jack, I can see it from here. I can see it from here, man. It was built by New York's James Dolan, the eccentric owner of the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, who's given Nick a lot of headaches as a sports fan recently.

He has, he has. But he loves music, and so he spent his personal fortune to build the sphere. The sphere. It's a wild new entertainment venue that Nick and I haven't gone to yet. Now, when everyone saw the sphere last year,

they thought that he was crazy. It cost $2 billion to build. That's more than an NFL stadium. But we just got the first full quarter of earnings from the sphere. And what did we see, Jack? He made a profit with it. $14 million of adjusted profit for the fourth quarter.

And now yet, he's Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. And this is what we noticed. The surprise isn't just that the sphere made money. The surprise is how it made money. Here's how the sphere made $167 million in its first quarter for revenues. Yet he's first, the sphere depended on concerts. Bono and you two christened the sphere with 40 sold-out performances to end last year.

Next up, it's Fish and Dead and Co. You got a bunch of old bands that are hidden and playing the sphere, Jack. The sphere is the favorite playlist of Jan Xers. JetX feels seen when they see who's playing at the sphere, Jack. But the sphere doesn't just make money on the inside with concerts. It also makes money on the outside with advertising. Because the exosphere, the outside of the sphere, is also the world's biggest billboard. And brands like Google paid $18 million last quarter to the sphere for the whole Las Vegas to see their logo.

So yet he's added all up and concerts and ads are what the sphere is known for. But there's a funny way the sphere actually makes more money. It makes the most money with movies. The sphere shows movies. Like five times a day, they are showing movies inside. of the sphere. They only show one movie actually. It's called Postcard from Earth. It's super immersive. And 18,000 people fill up that arena five times a day to watch that movie. And those 18,000 people are paying 67 bucks a ticket at minimum for that immersive movie experience.

This is the biggest movie theater by far because you're surrounded by the screen. It's iMacs to the max. You're staring out a whale on the screen and it feels like you're swimming with that whale on the screen. So the biggest moneymaker for the sphere is, isn't concert tickets or advertising. It's movies. The sphere is the world's biggest movie theater. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Over at the Sphere.

The Sphere is the world's first nuclear power plant of entertainment. Yet is the Sphere is in the entertainment industry. But the Sphere's business model is like a nuclear power plant. Because the Sphere isn't conventional entertainment. The Sphere is truly something nuclear. It's not just the biggest high-definition screen in the world. The Sphere creates, whether inside of the building to enhance the experience.

As the screen shows like point of view footage of a skydiver, you feel like you're jumping off a cliff and they simulate wind blowing in your face. The sphere also creates fog and cloud and sends inside of the dome. That's nuclear entertainment. And financially, the sphere is also nuclear. Because the sphere's concert venue has the same model as a nuclear power plant. It caused $2 billion to build and it's going to bring in $60 million of annual profits. it'll only pay for itself after 40 years.

40 years until they break even on the sphere. That's just like a nuclear power plant. Which begs the question, Jack, are they going to build a second sphere on planet Earth? Probably not. They plan to do one in London, but the second sphere in London got canceled. Because just like nuclear power, investors,

they don't like a 40-year payback period. For better and for worse, the sphere is the world's first nuclear plant for entertainment. For our third and final story, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates just teamed up to save the world with copper. Jeff and Bill just invested in Cobold to create a Google Maps for the Underground. The company in this story, it's called Cobold. But Jack and I are going to tell you about it in a minute.

Hold on for a second. First, we want to talk about the investors. Because the cap table of investors in this company is like a magnifying glass into the business's future. If you want to get a stethoscope and look into the ear of a company, you just got to look at the number of. investors and figure out who they are. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, they have a climate-focused venture capital fund that invested in this company. Mary Maker, famous for her annual internet trends report, she invested in this company. And Andreessen Horowitz, famous for reinvesting in Adam Newman post-Wework,

they invested in this company. Massa, the Yetis together. These icons of Silicon Valley have just poured $200 million into a mining company? I'm sorry, am I reading this right, Jack? Nick, with investors like that, this can't just be a mining company. I mean, a mining company? What is this really, Jack? Guess what? It's AI mining. Ah, it's AI mining. Yet he's Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, said this about this mining company. They said that their algorithms are working. A mining company with algorithms? I'm sorry, we thought mining was rocks and bulldozers, not bots and engineers eating ramen.

Is this like crypto mining? No, it's not crypto mining. It's mineral and rocks mining. The kind of mining you need a hat for and you're probably going to hurt yourself, Jack. The reason this mining company has algorithms is because minerals are getting harder and harder to find, but we need them more and more because of climate change. Copper and cobalt, nickel, lithium, all of them are super rare metals. They're super hard to find metals, but they happen to be crucial for batteries. The average electric car has 200 pounds of copper in there.

Jack, if you want to build an electric vehicle, you need like half the periodic table. of elements, man. So, a key part of the climate change solution actually comes down to mining. But for centuries, miners explored for those elements manually. They were using rudimentary tools and some pretty basic computers, Jack. They were digging holes in the earth and crossing their fingers, hoping there were minerals down there. But here's what cobalt does instead. This is straight from their website. They use AI systems to interrogate data to model the subsurface in the most statistically valid banner ever. I'm sorry, Jack. Can he grab a shovel and whip up a train of? translation for us over there? This startup uses AI to create a Google Maps for the underground.

A Google Maps for Underground. Like if you put in your destination as copper, what are they going to tell you, Jack? They're going to tell you to make a left in Congo right at the river and then dig 28 feet with a shovel. You have arrived at your destination. Please bring your own shovel. And enjoy the minerals. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over? At Cobald. Sometimes today's price is irrelevant. Yeah, it is surprising. thing about lithium and copper prices that doesn't look good for cobald. Lithium and copper prices have fallen for the last two years. Here's what Bill Gates says about that. We don't care about commodity prices in 2024. We care about them in 2035. And why is he saying that? Because today, demand for

those metals is low because not many people are driving electric vehicles. But by the time this company is producing copper in like 10 years, consumers may have no choice but to buy an electric vehicle. And that is why cobalt projects a $12 trillion shortage of all those critical metals by the year 2050. So they're investing today, expecting prices for these minerals will be way higher tomorrow. Because for certain industries, 2025 prices aren't what matter.

2035 prices, that's what matters. Sometimes today's price is irrelevant. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Nerds is capping off five years of shocking growth with a Super Bowl commercial. Instead of rusting, nerds, is investing. For our second story, it was The Sphere. It's the world's first nuclear power plant

of entertainment. The Sphere. It's incredible and it's profitable, but it costs a lot of time and a lot of money to build. And our third and final story is Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. They invested in a mining company that uses AI to find underground minerals. Because sometimes today's prices are irrelevant. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, King Charles, the British King announced that he has been diagnosed with cancer. We don't know what kind of cancer it is or how far it's progressed, but he's going to pause public-facing events during his treatment. And second, after cutting standardized tests during the pandemic, Dartmouth is the first Ivy League school to reinstate mandatory SATs. Dartmouth believes the SAT is a good predictor of academic success, regardless of a student's background or family income.

And finally, we just got more info on the 20th. The 2020 World Cup that will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The host of the World Cup final is not going to be Dallas. It's going to be the New York MetLife Stadium. It's not going to be Kansas either, I'm here. No, Dallas was the frontrunner, the Cowboys Stadium. It's going to be where the Giants and Jets play, which is technically in New Jersey. Everyone's going to say New York.

And then they're going to get upset that we said New York. So we're going to say it's New Jersey. Just outside of New York. Now, time. for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Laura and Chris from lovely San Francisco right down the street. Actually, I read it through her yesterday, Jack. She told me this in person. Love it. You know, so many countries have eagles as their national animal, including the United States. Well, you know, they got a little more creative over at Scotland, didn't they, Jack?

Scotland's national animal is a mythical animal. Scotland's national animal is a unicorn. The unicorn has been the national animal of Scotland for over a thousand years. Because the unicorn is a symbol of purity and innocence and power and a billion dollar valuation. No, Scott's know the unicorn isn't real, but they like what it stands for. Jack, something tells me that they hired a bunch of creative consultants back in 1,000 AD to come up with that unicorn. It's going to give you a real competitive advantage against the other aisles. So focus groups around the abbeys, they're loving this unicorn. Yeties, you're looking fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday.

And if you haven't yet, click to follow us so you get T-boy every day. day. Tomorrow's episode's the best one yet. Oh, and by the way, if you've got an idea for the best name for a wine that is grown at an airport, we got to hear this, right, Jack? Not today, Cabernet. That's after they delayed your flight till tomorrow. Boeing Brunello, we'll take another. Comment on our post at T-boy Pod on Instagram. Jack and I got some decanting to do, and we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Elestal, who's got a birthday and perfect 2020 vision in Cape Town, South Africa. Happy 34th birthday to Brendan Brunton, Brando Griffin, who's got some Apple Vision prosy showing off.

And a happy birthday to Ilya Izales, who's celebrating that wind down in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Happy 30th birthday to Eric Simonsack in Cleveland, Ohio. Ah, the Paris on the lake. And Stephen Cho has got a fantastic birthday in Greenbrook, New Jersey. Happy birthday to Jackie Rossi in Belgium, Italy, and New Haven. And a happy birthday to Amir Agabae, who's turning five on the way to school right now in Fairfax, Virginia. Congratulations and good luck to David Gamble, who's starting his MBA at Johns Hopkins. And Zach Chickapop has got a new job in Clearwater, Florida.

Jack, he is a registered chiropractor, and he'll take care of you. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the Wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple. Great. Great pronunciation. Stuck.

Dude, on Mondays, I enunciate. Okay. We're going to be talking about. that enunciation for years, Jack. I was there on February 5th when Jack did the annunciation. Did you hear the T roll off the S at the end there? Did I hear it, Jack? I felt that. Considents don't roll like that, Nick. I tasted it. But they just did.