The Best One Yet - 🦈 “SharkTank.com” — Amazon’s knock-off pitch show. Olive Garden’s Uber reversal. A human-free social network.

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Amazon just launched a new shopping TV show… and it’s a Shark Tank knockoff.The Olive Garden’s stock surged 10%... because it’s done a 180 on delivery with Uber.And we found a social network that immediately gets you 1 million followers… who are all bots.Plus, the hottest new place to meet singles? The Weekend Run Club is the new Tinder.$UBER $SRI $AMZN—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday and the real Friday. And today's pod is particularly special because it's the best one yet. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I mean, what a T-boy? Stocks apparently keep going up? That's like a thing now?

What's happening to Jack? All-time highs? Markets were very excited about the interest rate cut announced two days ago. In the meantime, Jack and I, we were excited and we channeled it into three fantastic stories. Jack, what's on the pod? What do we got? For our first story. Amazon just announced a new TV show.

It's a total shark take knockoff. Amazon just launched a Mark Cuban dupe. For our second story, it's my alma mater. The Olive Garden. Their stock surged 10% because they've done a 180th on delivery. The Olive Garden changed its mind on Uber Eats. The Olive Garden said, Uber Eats, your family. And our third and final story.

We found a social network with zero humans, but billions of bots. On social AI, you have one million followers. but none of them are real people. It still feels like you're cool about it. And that's okay. That's okay. I got a million followers, Jack. I'm totally down with it.

More on that in a bit. More than a sec, Yiddies. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. No one else is doing the mix. Love the mix today, Jack. There is a hot new club for singles we have to tell you about. There is a sweaty new club that people are meeting up at. This place is steamy.

It's dirty. Everyone's moving their bodies, not just the dancers. It is hot, hot, hot, hot. But everyone is. covered in head to To-Lulu Lemon? Because the hot new club is the run club. Run club, Yeti's every new couple these days is meeting at a run club. Is it just us? For the uninitiated, the rules of run club are simple. If you're single, you wear black. If you're taken, you wear colors. If you're curious, you come naked. But no one really does that. And the Wednesday three-mile route, it always finishes at the bar. According to USA Today, a mix of runners, joggers, and hot girl walkers are who attend all of these urban. Run Club because 10Ks are the new Tinder and half marathons are the new hinge. Nothing builds a relationship like an hour and a half of huffing and puffing. You've met town? Hey, if you can talk, it means that's impressive. It means you're not running hard enough or you're running just the right amount. I can't

remember. But Yeties, this is a fascinating cultural development because these run clubs, they act as a filter. You immediately know the other person likes to stay fit, just like you. And these run clubs act as a first date. You're already spending an hour with that person. And honestly, these run clubs are the opposite of dating apps. Instead of a photoshopped pick of the dude with a puppy, you're seeing them fully gashvitzed and vulnerable.

That is true love. That's intimacy. So, Yetis, if you met your partner at a run club, we want to hear your meet cute on the pod. Drop us a comment or hit us up at T-boy pod. Tell us when you realized they were your PR. Was it mile three or was it mile 14?

Be honest. Jack, Let's sit on three stars. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Amazon is launching a new TV show on Prime that looks exactly like shark. Tank. But with an e-commerce twist, this is a new form of media we call TV commerce. So, Sharks. Jack, is there any greater stress than acting Kevin O'Leary for an $100,000 check in exchange for 5% of a company with no product? You know he's going to say, I want 20%

of the company, and I want 5% of sales, too. I mean, you're lucky if he doesn't come up and spank you, Jack. Yet his Shark Tank is still getting 3 million viewers per episode. It is the number one show on Friday Night TV. But Shark Tank is getting zucked. Because Amazon just launched a new show called Buy It Now. Mark Cuban never saw this coming. And Barbara Corcoran got totally caught off guard. Here's the show on Amazon Prime. Entrepreneurs battle it out to get their product top placement in the world's largest store. Here's the interesting thing. Instead of giving winners a check like Shark Tank does, Amazon's winners on this show will get promoted on Amazon.com. Because Amazon.com is the biggest shopping billboard in the world. And Jack, who are the judges on this new Amazon Shark Tank version?

A bunch of Amazon executives mixed in with celebrity guests like Gwyneth Paltrow. Yeah, it's going to be like Ryan Reynolds and Andy Jassy, and they're going to be the judges. And you, if you're an entrepreneur, you can pitch your new dish scrubber you think is perfect before their studio audience and hope that That thing is Goop approved. And if it is Goop approved by Gwyneth, then everyone who visits Amazon.com will see it as the first thing they see. That's right. There's going to be a new Buy It Now section on Amazon's homepage. This new TV show, it's basically Shark Tank meets QVC with a little sprinkle of...

Billy Mays here. This is why Jack and I found this story fascinating. It's part of a new form of media that we call, not e-commerce, TV commerce. Yes, so we're finishing your sentences. I like this. Yeties, since the launching of Amazon Prime, Amazon has tried to merge two big actions. You're binging with your shopping. Lately, they've focused on QR codes. You've seen a QR code on 100 different Amazon Prime TV shows, plus you've seen it on Thursday night football.

But here's a question, Yetis. On those 100 TV shows with QR codes, has anyone scanned them? I've never scanned a QR code I've seen on TV. I kind of feel like if you went up to the screen with your phone check, people would like laugh at you. Does it work like from 10 feet away? If you're sitting on the couch, like, I'm socially embarrassed to do it. So now Amazon is trying a more blatant approach to this same problem. They're producing a show whose main character is buyable things on Amazon.com. So buy it now. It is a behavioral bet that drama will drive sales. Now that is some TV

commerce. And for that reason, yes, I'm out. Actually, I'm in. What's the takeaway? to Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon's Shark Tank Knockoff? The opposite of a good idea can still be a good idea. Yeties, Amazon built the ultimate platform for frictionless quick shopping. In fact, one click to buy, that is the fastest way available. There's actually a faster way. There's no click shopping because Amazon will send you refills when they know you're out of something. And that's what Amazon mastered, frictionless fast shopping.

This new Amazon Shark Tank Show on Prime, it's the opposite of frictionless, isn't it? It's the opposite because you've got to turn on the TV and then watch a show and then go to a website and then make a purchase. Instead of one second, it could take 30 minutes to complete a purchase. Yes. And yet, we think this will work. We think this will work even though it's slow because this show is good content for Amazon Prime video while also glorifying Amazon.com's e-commerce. The drama, the stakes, the entertainment, their likes. to drive you to buy. And that's why this Shark Tank Amazon is a case study that the opposite of a good idea

can still be a good idea. For our second story, the Olive Garden is finally doing delivery in a huge partnership with Uber. And we've got a half dozen food analogies to explain why. And they are going to change your mind literally. But Jack, you know, my grandma always taught me this. Italian food it travels kind of funny. Oh, she didn't give you like a Tupperware to take it home? No, you had to eat it there. You weren't eating it all. You know, on the one hand, there is no food more deliverable than pizza.

Yeah, 30% of all food delivered in America today is pizza. Pre-smartphones, pre-internet, pre-digital, every pizza joint in America had its own delivery car. Pizza and delivery, they're basically synonyms. But on the other hand, other Italian food delivers poorly like pasta. Spaghetti? it might be served al dente, but after 30 minutes in a bumpy delivery car, it's al-Donte. And that is why the Olive Garden, in its 41-year history, has never done delivery until now. Get this, the Olive Garden just reached an epic deal with Uber for an exclusive delivery partnership.

At the Olive Garden, if you're not here, you can still be family. You can get tortellini without the tortell leaving your home. No, we should point out. The never-ending pasta ball, it's not included in delivery. They're not going to send another car to your house to refill your bowl of rigatoni. Sorry, Kappa Kappa SIG. We can't do the unlimited breadsticks for the whole fraternity again. Get three breadsticks.

Actually, I used to work at the Olive Garden, Nick, I can tell you. You add the number of people at the table plus one. That's how many breadsticks get served. So, Bessie, Jack and I were wondering, what caused the Olive Garden to do a total 180 on their epic 41-year delivery strategy? They need a shot of growth. You know, earlier this week, we covered Chili's. the top casual restaurant stock in the market right now. Chili sales surged by 14% this summer compared to last year.

That's huge. But Chili's is an anomaly because the rest of the restaurant industry saw sales shrinkage this summer compared to last year. Including the Olive Garden, where sales shrank by one and a half percent, squeezing the profit margin like a wet bread stick. So the Olive Garden, they're actually kind of desperate right now. And that's why the Olive Garden is giving delivery a try for the first time ever. At select locations, you can order delivery through the Olive Garden app, and then Uber will deliver it to your door. In case you think that that may not be a huge deal, get this. Stock in the Olive Garden's parent company, Darden restaurants, jumped 10% on the news.

Based on its current valuation, that means investors think this deal is worth $2 billion in value. Wall Street thinks people want lasagna from the Lassofa. So stock in Uber jumped as well. Is wine included in the delivery? If you have to ask, I'm going to need to see some ID. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy is over at the Olive Garden? The best minds in business change their minds. Yeties, when new information presents itself, consider changing your mind.

Guess who did that recently and found huge success? Yeah, why don't you tell them, Jack? Netflix. For 14 years, Netflix refused to do ads. But now Netflix's ad-supported plan is their profit puppy. Since the day that Netflix announced an ad-supported plan two years ago, they've added 57 million subscribers. Oh, and the stock of Netflix has more than tripled over that period in their new ad-tier era. Changing their mind was the best thing Netflix has ever done.

Well, the way we see it, the Olive Gardens management has seen new information. Their sales aren't growing. So they're changing their mind on delivery, trying it out for the first time, and the stock's already up 10%. Because the best minds in business change their. minds. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story before the weekend, we just discovered the wildest social media app we have ever seen. Because on social AI, bots are not banned, but humans are. Yeties, let's start with some context here. Facebook has three billion users. Almost half of the

humans on this planet use Facebook every day. TikTok has one point of billion users and LinkedIn has one billion users. But maybe a tenth of those users that the company's report are actually bots. So basically 10% of the users who like your post aren't a Robert, they're a robot. So we got curious when a new social media app raised $3 million, but 99.9% of their users are bots. Social AI has banned human beings from using their social media app, and yet it's for humans. Because on this social media network, all the accounts are real humans, but all the followers are bots. It's like when you sign up for social AI, you instantly have an audience of 10 million followers, but 0% of them are people. We went through the customer experience. When you

sign up, you choose what type of bot followers you want following your account. Yeah, drama queens, debaters, dreamers, doomers, you can choose nerdy followers, skeptical, funny, sarcastic cheerleaders. You pick like a mix of personalities that you want replying to your posts. And then you start posting your thoughts on social AI about anything, just like you would tweet about anything. But unlike in reality, your post is racking up likes and comments in the hundreds and the thousands immediately. And we're looking at these comments and thereby people with pictures and names that look real commenting on your post. It's a wild experience. Yeah, the comments are like, you're so right, You got an awesome idea right there.

Or like, I can't believe you, Jack. War that shirt. It looks great on you, man. But it's not just all cheerleading posts. Like, some of the comments will be like, interesting thought, Jack. I have a critique for you, though. And if you're looking to, like, have a little spicy time,

you can choose to have trolls and haters in your follow-o mix who will throw a little shade at you. They're like classic jackpost. All cookie. No crisp. So you, the human being, get the experience of being a big influencer personality with all these followers, all these engagements and comments, but all those engagements and comments are the bots.

Interesting use case for this app. If you have an idea for a tweet, but you're not sure about it, you could tweet it on this app, see how the AI bots respond. And if you like the response, tweet it in real life. So social AI has created a social media app for human beings that's 99.9% bots. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at social AI? This is the ultimate social experiment. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and fooled around with this product a bit, and frankly, we got a pretty satisfying feeling. Getting a thousand comments and a million likes on a tweet, it feels powerful. Yeah, it is more viral than any of our posts have ever gone ever in history.

But was that powerful, satisfied feeling kind of hollow, given that all the comments were not real human beings? Or was the satisfaction real? Because on social media, it's about the numbers. is it doesn't matter about the authenticity. The long-term success of social AI will answer that question. Do we use social networks to connect with followers or to count followers? In answering

that question, social AI may be the ultimate social experiment. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? Prime has a new shark tank knockoff called Buy It Now. And it's the slowest way you can buy something on Amazon. But the opposite of a good idea

can still be a good idea. For our second story, in a partnership with Uber, the Olive Garden is trying delivery for the first time in its 41 year history. And their stock jumped 10% because the best minds in business change their minds. And our third and final story is social AI. They let you open a social media account that immediately has a million followers. But all million followers are fake robots. This is the ultimate social experiment. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, YouTube added a new form of an advertisement.

It's called a pause ad. It's basically a static ad that sits on the screen while you are on pause. They're doing it to make more money, but they say that these ads, of all the ads, are the least annoying ad. So, Basties, expect this pause ad to become commonplace. If you pause something, that screen is a billboard. And second, Nike's board of directors just called for a substitution. They swapped out CEOs. With Nike stock down 50% since 2021, CEO John Donahoe is out.

They're bringing back a Nike veteran out of retirement. His name is Elliot Hill, and he's the new CEO. The stock of Nike jumped 10% on the news of the new leadership, which frankly just just seems kind of mean to John Donahoe, but such is life. Hope he doesn't take a personal. But it's quite personal. And finally, big update from the State Department that will save you days, literally days in line. Check your passport.

If it needs a renewal, you can now do so online. The new system for online passports began testing over the summer, and it cuts wait times by 70%. So if you've got a trip coming up and your passport's expired, you actually might make it. Yeah, your odds of making it on that flight to France tomorrow. It basically tripled. Now, time for the best fact yet.

This one's sent in by a bestie whose last name means chopper in German. Octoberfest begins this weekend over in Deutschland. But, Jack, how did October? October Fest really start 204 years ago? There was a big royal wedding, and they invited all the commoners, and they served them all beer. Yeah, it's actually pretty straightforward how October Fest began. And they basically decided to continue the tradition of everyone drinking beer this time of the year. But it turns out the German love of beer began even before that, because the German beer purity law was passed back in 1516.

It is required by law in Germany that if you brew beer, you may only use three ingredients. Barley, hops, and water. Is alcohol not an ingredient? Well, Jack, if you were paying attention to Grandpa Ludwig von Wolfhousen, you'd know that alcohol is a byproduct of those three ingredients. Wow, I didn't know you were a chemist over there. Next drinks on you. Yeties, you looked fantastic all week.

Celebrate the wins this weekend. And if you end up at a run club on Mile 3, turn to your buddy next to you and say, HYH, H-T-B-O-I. Did we just become best friends? Because we listen to the same podcast. And that's how we grow the show and you grow your relationship. Have you had the best one yet?

Next thing you know you're married, Jack, I'll see you Monday. And before we go, a congratulations to Yeti's Jackie Gover and Austin Bridges getting married this weekend in lovely cystic, Connecticut. It's going to be and going to look fantastic. And congratulations to the future Hannah and Max Sanderson in Chester, New Hampshire, who are getting hitched. And Caitlin and David Middleton are getting married, saying I do, into Mexico. California with a beautiful ceremony. Happy one-year anniversary to Safe and Bianca in Northville, Michigan. And Jocelyn Fale in Cincinnati is having a Sin City birthday with everybody.

Happy 24th birthday to Zach Mews in Radcliffe, Kentucky. And Lyndon Tran has got a birthday down in lovely Orange County. And a happy birthday to Samantha Carroll, who's turning 13 in Quantico, Virginia. A new family tradition is the T-boy shout-out for the Carols. And finally, a happy birthday. to the legendary on point, always sounding perfect, Trey Booty, our editor of this podcast. Booty, booty, booty, booty, booty,

rock Trey everywhere. Actually, Trey's got the most popular birthday of the year on Thursday, yesterday, 919. But of all the besties, his was the best one yet. It just sounds fantastic, literally. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the Wids.

This is Jack. I own stock of Disney, Netflix, and Amazon. Amazon, and I used to work at the Olive Garden, where I was the three-time wine salesman of the month. And I own shares of Nike in our son's account. That Jack gave us. I loved your hesitancy on that. See, if you got a trip to Tahini, then your passport's come and do.

You said tahini, like the sauce. You meant Tahiti.