The Best One Yet - 👙 “Saturdays are for Speedos” — Victoria’s Secret’s swimwear mistake. Instacart’s apology round. America’s loooong pump.

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

Victoria’s Secret just realized it made a huge mistake in 2019, so it’s betting on bikinis. Instacart just pulled a move we’ve never seen before: cutting its own valuation (aka “An Apology Round). And if Russia is 1 big gas station and Europe’s its best customer, then America just announced a really long pump.$VSCOGot 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/viewformID: 2097555Learn 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, March 28th. Welcome back. This is the best one yet. It's a TBLY.

Honestly, best pod we've ever done. Our first story is Victoria's Secret, which just invested in a bikini startup. Because Victoria never should have gotten out of swimwear in the first place. Our second story is Instacart. They just announced their valuation. Sadly, has fallen by 40%. Okay. That sounds horrible.

It does. But lower price means more upside. For our third and final story, we told you before that Russia is basically one enormous gas station, that Europe is the biggest customer of us. So the U.S. just handed Europe a new pump. But Snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Honestly, didn't think we're going to do this mix. Now we have this mix.

Last night was my brother next birthday. Great birthday. And it was the Oscars. It was the Oscars. Last night, lots of great awards, lots of long speeches. The 94th Academy Awards, Nick and I, we didn't win anything. No, we didn't. Podcast. Still getting no respect from the Academy. Is it the audio thing? But Nick and I wanted to take this moment to thank some people who helped get us here.

Jack, I'm so glad you brought this up. There are so many people to thank. Where do we start? Our parents. Yes. Our wives. Our siblings. Our editor Adam. Great guy. The Snackers. You, every day. Jack, we should thank coffee. We should thank peanut butter. How about salt and straw ice cream? I want to thank my Thytack. Astrosol for doing with that thing on my thigh. Yeah. The guac, even though you're still extra. I don't want to get emotional here, but there is just... Wait, what's going? Are you kidding me?

What's that? Are we getting played off? I'm not done. This is our podcast, man. I'm not done. Who's doing this? I don't get walked up. I got one more thing. Don't go to commercial. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The 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. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible.

Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. Or our first story, Victoria's Secret, just invested $18 million into a bikini startup. This is Victoria realizing and admitting and correcting a big mistake. Victoria's Secret, which we should. point out Snackers, they have spun off into an independent publicly traded company. Victoria's out on her own now as of last year. Used to be part of L brands. Now it's Victoria's secret, a separate publicly traded stock. But Victoria, even though it's on its own, is facing a problem. Well,

lingerie sales are flat for this company and so is its stock. Yeah. One more problem. We should out check. Yeah, the brand is still tainted from the L brand days when it had a founder and 40-year-long CEO Les Wexter, who was buddies with Epstein. So Victoria is addressing both those issues with a surprise move. Victoria's Secret is investing $18 million to get a minority stake in Los Angeles-based beachware startup, Frankie's Bikini. Frankie's Bikini is kind of a wonderful founding story, Jack. Founded in 2012 by then 17-year-old Francesca Aiello. We repeat, 17, she started this company.

Her mom helped her found it. And the brand has inclusive swimwear that's quite popular with everyone, but also with some super-success. I mean, this is being driven by like Beber Bikini Bottoms is what's going on. Haley Bieber wears the product. Both the Hadid's wear the product. Kylie and Kendall both wear the product. Sales of this company were up 75% year over year because it pairs well with a quinoa ball. Yeah, Snackers. If you're going to Malibu Farms, you're going to be wearing Frankie's bikinis. Now, during the pandemic, Nick, the fashion industry thought that swimwear would dry up

shrivel and die. Yeah, Snackers. Look, you can't travel. you're not happy. So I don't know, maybe you just burn your bikini and call it a day. You canceled your travel plans. You're taking Zoom calls from the closet. Who is going to splurge $200 on like a leopard print tanking? Did you hear they canceled Dana's Bachelorette? Well, they canceled Dana's Bachelorette.

I'm not going to buy a bathing suit. Yeah. False Snackers. This is what Jack and I found fascinating about the story. It was the opposite. Swimware sales hit record numbers in both 2020 and 2021. Okay. In fact, get this, one of the only fashion categories that is beating 2019's levels is swimwear, according to women's wear daily.

Because even during the pandemic, especially during the pandemic, you needed an escape. You did, Jack. You might have taken a 30-minute break up on the roof in the sun in a lounge. But you did it in a one piece. You might have spent three months at an Airbnb out in Austin. And Saturdays for the Speedos. That's why Kim's Skims, Beyonce's Ivy Park. They both launched swimwear lines this year because swimwear is in.

And Jack, did you see what Jay-Z's venture capital arm just did? Jay-Z and Beyonce, they're both getting into swimwear startup. He invested 19 million in a startup. Well, now Vicky has two. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Victoria's Secret? Respect the mistake. Correct the mistake. It's never too late.

Snackers, funny thing Jack and I noticed about Victoria's Secret investing in swimwear. Victoria used to dominate swimwear. Swim suits were a huge part of the thing. their business. They made half a billion dollars a year, but then all of a sudden in 2019, they ended swimwear. Yeah, Victoria's Secret was in a brand crisis. It tried turning itself around and it ended up reshuffling all its offerings. Victoria's Secret ended the product line. That's now the leading product in the fashion industry. That feels like a problem, Jack. That was a mistake. So Victoria's stock, it actually jumped three percent yesterday because now

Victoria's Secret is correcting the mistake. It respected the mistake it made by correcting the mistake it made. Snackers, it's never too late. For our second story, Instacart just shockingly slashed its own valuation by 40%. Before you judge them, though, a falling valuation can actually have a good purpose. People right now are like, oh, come on, guys. You're going crazy over there. What are you talking about? Snackers, earlier this month, we told you how Instacart was partnering with TikTok. Boom, one click and ingredients for Stanley Tucci's Carbonara are delivered to your door. Sounds like a great product.

It sounds like great Nogroni. It appeared. Instacart was living its best life just one week ago. Jack, the stats, oh my God. Instacart owns 52% of the online grocery market, has a $39 billion valuation and is the third biggest pre-IPO startup in the United States. And he can't pass. Instacart, it is beating Amazon.

Instacart is grocery delivery. Shocker news this week, though. Yes, Jack. Instacart just slashed their own valuation by 40%. Okay, translation Snackers. Basically, Instacart is saying they're worth half as much as they said they were worth. They're confessing that they're worth half as much as they used to. They're like, hey, remember the $39 billion?

Yeah, it's actually $24 billion. This is a down round. The rare startup situation where you raise money at a lower valuation than the last time you raised money. It's painful. This is painful. Nick, this actually wasn't a downwrap. That's a great clarification, Jack. Keep going.

Instacart didn't raise new money with this announcement. That means Snackard's Instacart. It actually lowered its valuation voluntarily, unprecedented. Nick and I have been covering the news for over 10 years. Many years. We've never seen something like this. Honestly. No, I mean, Jack, basically investors didn't tell Instacart it was worth 40% less.

We've seen digital, lazy monkeys create a metaverse called the Swamp. But we haven't seen this. Instacart told itself it was worth 40% less. We're calling this an apology round. An apology round. Instacart recognized things changed. Its valuation was too high. So it's looking in the mirror and it's like,

dude, what are you doing? Just like Zoom and Palaton, Instacart's growth has come to a screeching halt as the pandemic waned and we went back outside and did things like we used to. And now it wants to apologize for that high valuation. It's revenue growth, by the way, at the beginning of the pandemic. It was 200% growth the first year of the pandemic at 2020. And that slowed to 10% growth last year.

We got to see Zoom and Peloton stocks fall in real time because they're publicly traded. We didn't get to see Instacart stock fall because it's price. But Instacart admits their stock has fallen. They're voluntarily pegging their private stock to a lower price than the last time they raised money. They're recognizing they got too far ahead. So they're apologizing. It's an apology round. They're making their valuation and their stock price more realistic.

ahead of their skis. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Instacart? There's actually one benefit to this move. Yeah. More upside for Instacart employees. Yeah, Snackers, here's the strategy. Private companies like Instacart, they attract top talent with the promise of stock options. Oh, don't worry about the salary. When we IPO, your stock options will be worth millions.

We're going to pay you nothing. We'll give you free Greek yogurt and we're going to give you stock options. This is episode two of We crashed, by the way. But Snackers, it's hard to imagine a successful IPO right now because that Instacart $39 billion valuation was just too high. It's counterintuitive, but lowering the valuation for Instacart means there is more value in the stock options that Instacart has given its employees. Because if Instacart issued stock to employees at the higher price, those options aren't going to go up that much probably. No, because the price isn't going to go out that much for the stock. But if Instacart offers stock to employees at a lower price, then there's more big.

potential money to be made and you can better attract employees. And with wild competition in tech and the whole job market right now, stock option upside makes a big difference. There's actually one strategic benefit to an apology round. More upside for employees, which attracts more talent. For our third and final story, President Joe Biden just announced the U.S. Is building a gas pipeline to Europe? Not a literal gas pipeline.

Right. Meanwhile, Europe is going nuclear. Literally nuclear. Yeah, literally. Snackers. Russia. You got to think of it like we said before as just it's one giant gas station. It's the Chevron on the block with like the 73 pumps.

And Europe loves Chevron. Yes, they do. It's actually Europe's greatest weakness. It's dependence on Russian natural gas and oil. Snackers, get this. Russia provides 40% of all the natural gas that Europe needs to heat its homes. And it provides 25% of the oil. that Europe needs to power the cars.

I mean, you hear those two numbers, and you can pretty clearly see, there's a huge problem here for Europe. European countries are appalled by what Vladimir Putin is doing, but they pay him billions of dollars every day for Putin's favorite product. Oil.

Because Russia is Europe's gas station and Russia is literally across the street. Okay, President Joe Biden just made a big trip last week. He was in Poland. Yeah, like literally next to the war. And he delivered to NATO, the European unions, and all the allies, basically a PowerPoint plan.

Basically a PowerPoint presentation. Snackers, here is the vision that was laid out. If Russia is Europe's gas station, then the United States is going to set up one pump across the street. Picture one incredibly long pipeline. One incredibly long pump with a huge tube hanging across the ocean. From the United States all the way to Europe. President Joe Biden announced a plan to send 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas to be delivered to the European Union this year. Yeah, this way Snackers, Germany can get its

energy kick from its allies instead of from enemy number one. Now, they're going to send it over in ships, not a pipeline, and they're going to do even more next year and even more until 2030. Yeah, they're thinking about next winter because you got to heat Europe with gas that isn't tainted by Putin. So the United States plan would replace two-thirds of the heating oil and fuel that Europe currently gets from Russia. Yeah, two-thirds of all the heat. heat that Europe is currently getting. And it's not just the U.S. Right. Some of the gas is going to come from other allies. Yes. The details aren't quite hammered. It's an overreve. It's in the appendix of the slides. It's in the appendix.

Like, you know, we're going to get to this later. Slide 43. Click, click, click. Snackers, the plan sounds great. But while it fixes one problem, it worsens another. Yeah, it does. Because it neutralizes Putin, but it annoys Mother Nature. This plan requires that America and other countries pull more natural gas out of the earth, which exacerbates climate change. Is there another way we can neutralize Putin? If you're thinking and wondering if there's another way, if there is a third circle here, then perfect timing because that's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all of our buddies who just want another pump? France and the United Kingdom are going nuclear, nuclear energy. Snackers, cover article of The Economist this week. It just said that nuclear is back in fashion.

Didn't we sound cool saying the economists? It said the end of the Petro States, the rise of the electro states. Yeah, France announced last month plans to build, get this, six brand spank and new nuclear power plants, six new ones. Huge deal, because nuclear power plants haven't been built in like 30 years. Oh, and last week, Jack, you had the UK saying it was going to also build nuclear power plants at what they said, warp speed. Nuclear power has had a stigma across the world since Chernobyl. I mean, we've all seen the HBO show. Chilling but compelling show. But France and the UK, they see nuclear as a path to energy independence and fighting climate change, getting both. It's another thing that Putin has accidentally caused. Yeah, nuclear. Nuclear power

is back in fashion. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Victoria's Secret is investing in high growth swimwear startup, Frankie's bikinis. Yeah, Victoria's Secret respecting the mistake by correcting the mistake. Our second story is Instacart. They voluntarily cut their own valuation by 40%. Yeah, we're calling it an apology round, and it means more upside for employees. Our third and final story, President Biden, he's organizing a new gas pump for Europe.

Also, nuclear. Can't forget, nuclear. Nuclear is back in fashion. Just don't call it nuclear. Yeah, don't do that. Now, time for our snack back to the day. This one whipped up by Jack and me, and we wanted to share it with you because we discovered it

when we were researching daylight saving time just a couple weeks ago for you. Okay, alarm clocks. Like, hopefully your alarm clock woke you up at the right time when we sprung forward a couple weeks ago. Exactly. Well, before alarm clocks, clocks were expensive and only a few people had them in any town. Yeah. Cuckoo clocks, that's a Swiss thing. And the Swiss have a lot of money. But here's the thing. People still had to get up on time, even though alarm clocks didn't exist. It's not just the Swiss who have to wake up on time. Great point, Jack.

So there was a job back in the day called the knocker upper. Yes, it was a real job in England in the 1800s called. a knocker upper. A knocker upper would go around with a long pull and knock on your door or your window if your bedroom's upstairs at specific standard wake-up time. So like every week, you would pay the knocker-upper and then the knocker-upper would come and knock your door to wake you up every week. They'd knock you up. Yeah. It was a real job, sadly, replaced by the alarm clock 150 years ago. The real question, who woke up the knocker up? I mean, with that kind of a line jack, I just, oh my God.

The answer is the Swiss. Okay. Snackers, if you got a snack fact, if you got a birthday shout out, if you just want to give your buddy a shout out, you should send it our way with the link in this podcast. Yep. Check the episode description. There's a Google Farm, Super Easy. We want you on the pod. Jack, let's do this tomorrow.

I'll be there. Can't wait. And Snackers, before we go, congratulations to J.P. and Haley, who are on their way to their honeymoon, like right now, listening to this pod in North Carolina. And congratulations to Natalie and Alex. who bought a dental practice together in Wisconsin. And Prassoon and BJ Ta, congrats on the third wedding anniversary in Toronto. Happy six years together to Ben and Kara Enos in Nashville tennis.

And happy 35th wedding anniversary to Evelyn and Gifford down in Houston. Congrats to the new job to Amanda Turca in Chicago. And Samantha Beeler. Enjoy the first week on the new job down in Alabama. Congrats to Catherine Herbst for the new job at Verily and for three years snack. And to me and happy. birthday and thanks for all the years snack and over in Jersey City. Happy birthday to Karen Sue in Whittier.

And Andy turning 30 in Madison, Wisconsin. Happy birthday to Renee Gibney in Chicago. And happy birthday to Emily Fritz down the street also in Chicago. Monsieur Audrey, happy birthday. And Holly Cheek, happy birthday. And congrats on the new job in San Francisco. To anybody else celebrating something today. However big.

However small, make it a teaback. Celebrate the win. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock of Pelton. Still. 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 subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy 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. Dude, what are you doing?