The Best One Yet - 🏡 “She’s Zexting Me” — Zillow’s gossip pop. David’s $725M protein bar. Circle’s stablecoin IPO.

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Zillow stock has surged 70% in the last year… because house gossip is good.David is a very high-protein protein bar… worth $725M. Because every business needs 3 moats.Circle is going public in an IPO… so we’ll tell ya what the heck a stablecoin is.Plus, the greatest internship story ever? Sprite turned an intern project into a real product.$Z $K $CRCLWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Heinz Ketchup 🍅Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, June 2nd. And today's party's the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Well, Jack, you've got the glow of someone who went to a farmer's market over the weekend.

I did. But it was another rainy farmer's market. Oh, I'm so sorry, man. Did I tell you, we've had 11 straight rainy Saturdays. I know. I feel guilty because we went to the beach in San Francisco. I feel guilty. But we do, Jack, have three.

of the best stories we've ever done on this show. So, Jack, what is on today's T-Boy? For our first story, every part of the housing market is ice cold right now, except for one. Zillow.com. Zillow! Their stock is up 70% this year, because when it comes to houses, gossip is good. For our second story, it's David.

David is a very high-protein protein bar, and they're now worth more than the RX bar, a valuation of $725 million. Because a lab, invented a new kind of protein, and this bar bought that lab. And our third and final story, IPOs are back, baby. And the one that you got to know about right now is Circle, the stablecoin company. So Jack and I are exploring what the heck a stable coin actually is. Or as the Germans call it, stable coin. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

Whoa, what a mix of stories to kick off the week. I love the mix, Jack. Welcome to June. It is peak intern season. Intern season, every bar downtown is filled with new suits and pencil skirts. I remember my first suit. Joseph A. Bank lured me in with one of their buy three suits, get one free deal. And I remember your first suit. Not one of them actually fit. I was swimming in that thing. So, to inspire all the interns out there, Jack and I have found the most valuable intern of all time. The MVI, we found the best intern story yet. Get this, Yeties. Sprite's newest soda was invented by interns. That's right. Coke's senior creative director just said so in an interview with Ad Age.

Their interns invented the soda. Here's the context. Last week, Coca-Cola launched Sprite plus T, a soda plus T combo. Which is begging to be spiked with some kind of alcohol, by the way, Jack. It really is. But Sprite actually got the idea six years ago from their summer intern cohort. That's right. Sprite's summer interns at 2019 pitched Sprite Plus T in their final intern presentation. Now, at the time, the executives gave the interns the old slap on the back

and said, nice work, youngsters. Email us the PowerPoint. Have fun in school this fall, kiddos. I love the energy those kids brought to the office. Good kids, good kids, let's not pay it. But Sprite just turned that intern project into a product. Yes, they did. And we know what Sprite should do next, don't we, Jack? Pay those interns. Uh, hey, Coca-Cola, why not send those interns a cut of the Sprite tea sales? Track down that. 2019 internship class on LinkedIn. Send them some checks. A big fat check.

They already go down as intern royalty. True. Send them actual royalty checks. Good luck to all the interns out there. Jack, let's at our three stories. Don't go to Joseph A. Bank. Fifteen 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 a norm. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at. 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. Our first story.

The housing market is down. But one housing business is shockingly up, Zillow. Zillow stock has gone through a full renovation because gossip when it comes to houses is good. Yeties, here's the reality. One industry has been hit harder than any other in the last three years because of high interest rates and who is it, Real estate. That's right. NB. Nobody is buying. In March of this year, the number of homes sold in the United States fell to the lowest level in 17 years. Not since the depths of the 08 financial crisis. Has the housing market been this cold? But there's one exception, Zillow. That's right. Stock in Zillow,

the real estate app, is up 70% in the last 12 months. Zillow stock looks like it just went through an episode of Extreme Homemaker. I mean, we're talking eight straight quarters of revenue growth, baby. And Zillow just announced their first profit since 2022. Yeah, that was back when your buddy Timmy bounced for the suburbs. See you later, Timmy.

Enjoy Westchester. Now, the goal for Zillow is to become the real estate super app that buyers, sellers, and realtors all use. Basically, the McMansion of housing apps, Jack. And it's working. Whether you're buying or renting, you are scrolling Zillow and we got the numbers to

back it up. But here's what Jack and I found shocking about Zillow. Zillow has the key ingredient to actually become a top media app. Because the website visits that Zillow gets is insane. You're going to sit down, stand up, and move out again, baby. Get these numbers from the Washington Post. What do we got, Jack? Zillow gets 10 billion website or app visits every year. Can you sprinkle on some context of that number, please, Jack? 10 billion visits per year is more than the New York Times. The top news agency in the world, I don't know, the country, whatever. Yeah, it is basically in the same ballpark as Instagram or TikTok. Millions of us these days are mindlessly opening up our phones and clicking the Zillow app. It's like a social media app we're just scrolling. Yeah,

that three-story condo is a thirst trap. As a result, the average home listed on Zillow gets 1,000 views. I think we need to make this even more clear, Jack. I mean, Zillow has 227 million monthly active users, can you sprinkle even more context onto this wild story? That's double the number of monthly users as threads, meta's Twitter app. It's almost as many as Netflix subscribers. And it's half as many as Spotify, the biggest music streamer in the world. Now, Basties, we know where this trend began. During the pandemic, you got addicted to Zillow porn. It has a great house. It has radiant heat on the first floor and the basement. And it's on three acres of land. Honey, you got to see this. Oh my God. But unlike that Peloton ride you used to do, Zillow scrolling is a habit that actually

stayed. And it changed how we talk about real estate. Because before real estate listings were on the internet, talking about house prices was a taboo subject. But now, Jack, the most recent selling prices published for all homes, for sale or not, even if you're just visiting your buddy for dinner, you can see what they paid. Yeah, if you want to, like, stock the new friends you're thinking about befriending, you can find the price of their home on Zillow. And when that neighbor's house goes for sale, it becomes like page six. The whole neighborhood is judging that place. The whole neighborhood starts going full Nate Berkus on that house on the corner. That's for sale. Are they asking $1.2 million? That is crazy. And I'm sure, Jack, you go through the same thing as me.

Molly is constantly zexing me about homes. Zexing. Yeah, she zexed me like five times a week. No, Alex does for me too. I'm like, Alex, we're not in the market. She says it's about dreaming and manifesting for the future. I know, I know. Molly will zex me five houses. They're all out of our But hey, I look at that living room layout, and I'm like, that's pretty hot choice of marble, man. Because of Zillow, everyone in town knows what everyone's house is worth, and they know what the inside of the house looks like. But that wasn't a thing 20 years ago. Neither of those were a thing 20 years ago.

Which leads to our takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Zillow? Gordon Gecko once said, greed is good. It turns out gossip is good, too. Yet he's Stanford professor, Michelle Gelf. thinks that zillification of real estate is actually good for society. We dove into her research about gossip, and she says that ultimately, gossip is about information and knowledge.

Interestingly, her research found that the more information a community has about each other, the closer they work together. If you know about how people take care of their homes and what the inside of their home looks like, you know more about that person. It's a transparency thing, actually. Basically, gossip has evolved to help neighbors work together. This is a good dating example here, right, Jack? Well, if you Zillow stock your date's house before you go on that first date with them,

you might be less skeptical of the unknowns of that person and potentially be more relaxed and open during the date. And Jack, who among us has not soft-launched a relationship by sexting him a link to your future starter home? So, Yeties, Zillow changed what we scroll on our phone and how we talk about real estate. And that neighborhood transparency, that gossip about each other's most valuable assets, their homes may be good. For our second story, David, the extremely high protein protein bar. Just hit a wild $725 million valuation. Their secret protein ingredient shows why a business doesn't need one moat. They need three.

Now, yet is Jack and I have noticed that for fellow millennials, the candy aisle has been replaced by the protein bar aisle. I haven't bought a candy bar outside of Halloween in like 10 years. But I have bought some protein bars that are very candy-ish. Yeah, because the protein bars are the new sweet treat. Like kind bars are drizzled in caramel. Go-macro bars are drizzled in chocolate. Go-macro bar is basically just like raw cookie dough in bar four.

It's a post-workout cookie. Like there's one degree of separation away from like a cliff bar and a Snickers bar. So we weren't shocked by David Barr. Their flavors include cookie, cake, and blueberry pot. And they're wrapped in gold foil, kind of like a Charlie and the chocolate. factory candy bar. But this bar is named David after the statue that Michelangelo, what did he whittle it? No, you carve it. We'll work on the verbs later. And the reason that's important is because Michelangelo evokes perfection. David is a protein bar with eight identical

abs. And here's what they're getting at. This protein bar has 28 grams of protein and just 150 calories. That's the best ratio in the business. We'll come back to that in a moment. Remember those numbers. But right now, David Barr is on pace for 100 million bucks in sales in their first year. I mean, Jack, is this the fastest growing food product we've seen? I actually have eaten one, and it's kind of like, it's almost like just protein powder. Did you whittle it or did you eat it, Jack? Well, here's the news. David Barr just raised 75 million bucks at a 725 million valuation. This protein bar is going to eat you, Nick. Interestingly, the founder of David Barr is the same guy who invented RX Bar, which he sold to

Kellogg for 600 million bucks a few years ago. So today, venture capitalists are lining up to give this second-time founder big money. But best is, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. It wasn't the money that they raised. It's what they did with that money. They immediately bought their key supplier. So yet is to understand why we really need to talk about a new nutrition trend we call ratios. Last month on the pod, we did a story about Chloe Kardashian's new popcorn, which is sprinkled with protein dust. Okay, but here's the reality. Anyone can add protein to something.

So the new focus of fitness fanatics and OZEPIC users is the protein to calorie ratios. Which leads to a new thing called EPG. EPG is a newly invented food ingredient. It looks like fat, it acts like fat, but it has 92% fewer calories than fat. And it is this new food technology that allows David Barr to have the top ratio

of protein to calories. right now. And the top maker of EPGs. It's a company called Ipoji. And David Barr just bought them with this fundraise. Now David Barr controls the top supplier of their key ingredient. As their CEO put it, we're taking all the supply. It's like Michelangelo bought the only marble quarry in Italy. That's exactly what it is. And he whittled it all. Let's whittle away the takeaways. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at David Barr? A business business, doesn't need one moat, they need three. As you learn in business school, every CEO wants a moat, a competitive advantage that prevents

rivals from entering the market. Royalty used moats to keep away barbarians from the castle. Businesses used moats to keep away the competition. But David Barr's founder just said this on a podcast. He said, today you need multiple moats, and we have three. They say that their first moat is their brand. Those gold wrappers, they signify perfection, and they differentiate them, from the rest of the bars. Their second moat is distribution. Because of their previous business with Kellogg, they have a distribution network nationwide. And the final moat is that they control the only company making EPG, their super protein ingredient. So Bessie's add it all up, and there's a reason why King Arthur put sharks and alligators in his castle moats. For startups today,

your castle of a business needs more than one moat. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Circle. A 12-year-old stable coin company is going public on the New York Stock Exchange. It's another example of disrupting finance, joining mainstream finance. Yes, it is. But Nick, what the heck is a stable coin? We shall explain. But in order to do that, Jack, let's go back to 2013, when Jeremy Aller, a liberal arts grad,

thought that Bitcoin was a little bit weird. Too bad, because Bitcoin was $100 back then, and it's $100,000 today. But Jeremy loved the blockchain infrastructure that Bitcoin was built on. So he tried to modernize the money. And he did so by founding Circle. 12 years ago, it was to become the leader of stablecoins. All right, so now we should sprinkle on that context, Jack. You know, stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are backed one-to-one by a fiat currency.

So for each stable coin, there's normal government-issued money behind it. Like a dollar, a yen, a euro, whatever. And now, Bessies, you've heard of stable coins, but you may be wondering, what exactly is a stable coin? So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to Circle's S-1 IPO paperwork. First of all, Circle is profitable. They're targeting a $7 billion valuation when they hit the New York Stock Exchange later this month.

That's right. They're about the same size as Lyft. And the goal of Circle is simple. They want to take money and put it on the internet. Or as they put it, they want to create an HTTP for money. Now you might be thinking, isn't money already on the internet? Oh, well, you would be wrong. Because, sure, you can log in and check your bank account online, but the money in your bank account is not digital at all.

Have you noticed the two-day delays for a check to be cashed? Or the two-day delay you get for purchasing a stock and waiting for it to be settled? Or after brunch, when you try to transfer your Venmo balance to your bank account? Yeah. That takes five business days. And it's because our dollars are slow by design, right, Jack? The government must have the ability to sanction bad guys and freeze their money. The result is that if the pipes our money flows through were created back in the 70s and the 1980s.

That's why you're still waiting for your paycheck to clear, even though you know it should be in your account already. Yeah, like, where is the monies? Yeah, where's my money? So the point of a stable coin is to honor the regulatory and compliance rules of money, but also to speed up money for the consumer. And theoretically, if they achieve that, there could be big macroeconomic benefits. Right, because faster money means more spending and more spending is good for the economy. Well, back to Circle's business model. Yes, Jack.

You're not the client of Circle. The financial institutions are. Exactly. What Circle really does is sell a bank a digital layer on top of their existing system in order to let the money move faster. And how would they do it? They do it with blockchain, a Bitcoin invention. Hey, get this. We noticed that Circle mentioned the term Bitcoin just nine times in their IPO paperwork. But they mentioned blockchain 316 times.

I mean, as we're saying this, Jack, I think this is the analogy. With stable coins, it's like Netflix. Fiat money is the DVDs Netflix used to send. But a stable coin is the streaming that Netflix now instantaneously does. So the DVD is like the physical $100 bill. Yes, Jack. But the movie's availability on Netflix.com is the stable coin. Exactly.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Circle? The crypto that could finally be a currency isn't Bitcoin. It's ironically the U.S. dollar. Yeties, the reality is that cryptocurrencies are currencies. They're speculative assets like gold or stock. The reason I bought Bitcoin, I hope the price would go up so I could sell it for more someday. Well, that's not a currency. You know, that's an asset. But Circle's flagship cryptocurrency, their stable coin, is the USDC, the U.S. dollar coin.

Because everything Circle offers is one-to-one backed by fiat currency, aka paper money issued by the government. Circle simply creates one token for each dollar and then lets it move as quickly on the internet as a text message. Now Circle is openly lobbying for U.S. Stablecoin legislation to go through Congress. That's crucial for them. But Circle shows us how the crypto that could actually function like a currency isn't Bitcoin.

It's the U.S. dollar. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Zillow stock is up 70% this year. It's profitable despite the housing market being, ice cold. Why? Because we're all using Zillow like a social media app. We're zexing each other. And house gossip is actually good. For our second story, David Barr is the hottest product, not an AI chat box. It's the protein bar worth $725 million. Because like King Arthur taught us, a business doesn't need one moat these days. You need three. And our third and final story is Circle. They filed for IPO.

They're trying to digitize our existing U.S. dollars with stable coins. Because the crypto that could actually be currency is ironically, the U.S. dollar coin. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, legendary Yeti Taylor Swift finally owns her music again, thanks to the Erez tour. Remember Taylor got in a fight with the media executive who owned the rights to her music? And then, Jack, didn't she start republishing albums? That was the Taylor's version to take back control.

She's done like 10 of them. But now, she doesn't need to do her final couple of albums because she owns all of her music again. Congratulations, Taylor. And second, trade war update. Keeping up with the tariff dashions. Because China won't send us rare earth metals. We won't let them attend our universities. That's according to Axios reporting. And that's key, by the way, because Chinese students typically pay full freight to attend our universities. And here's another update. Trump jacked up tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to 50% on Friday. So court rulings aside, the trade war definitely escalated last week. And finally, Haribaut just recalled their European gummies because they accidentally sprinkled some cannabis in there. Yeah, Haribos gummy bears. Parents and kids in the Netherlands felt queasy after eating some of their soda-flavored fizz gummies.

Apropos that happened in the Netherlands, by the way. Yeah, well, they tested the gummy bears, and it turns out somehow like cannabis got in the bunnies. Ralph, we told you to be careful. Everyone is okay, by the way, although these horrible gummies did accidentally become edibles. Now, time for the best. fact yet, which because it's Monday, means T-Boy trivia. What do we got, Jack? Which of the following fashion brands is not named after a real person? Okay, which of the following brands in fashion is not a real person? Who we got? First is Ralph Lauren. Second is Liz Claiborne. Third, Kenneth

Cole. And fourth, Tommy Bahama. Okay, yet he's drop your answer in the comments. Which was not a real person? Which fashion brand? Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Kenneth Cole, Tommy Bahama. Three of those are real people, one of them is completely made up. And we'll tell you the answer on tomorrow's pod. Yeties, you'll look fantastic out there. Jack, you whittled so many good takeaways today. Just really just impressive stuff. Besties, if you're intern in this summer, tell a buddy in your internship class to HYH, TBOI. Have you had the best one yet? That's how we grow the show, and then drop down to give us five stars in a rating. We love reading your reviews. Nick and I, we'll see it tomorrow. Remember Sprite.

Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy 12th birthday to Legendary Yeti, Phoebe Moritz in Wilmington, Delaware, who's been promoting T-Boy to all our friends and cousins. Thank you, Phoebe. And a big shout-out to Mary Catherine Hillb and Jordan for getting engaged in Richmond, Virginia. And a shout-out to Sam, a legendary Yetty I ran into in the Presidio yesterday. Jack, he lives in Pacific Heights. Fantastic Bestie.

Congratulations to Savannah Westwood for running a business for 10 years down in Orlando, Florida. And Leslie Dutt from Port Republic, Virginia. has got a new job doing logistics. Congrats to Ratchina Panda in Dallas, Texas, who got a new job, get this, making AI. And a congratulations to Lola Ray for the high school graduation in New York City, future biz major, over at George Washington University.

And if anyone else wants a shout-out, we've got a form in this episode description. Just fill it out, and Jack and I will get you on the bottom. This is Jack. I own stock of Lyft. Nick and I both own stock of Zillow, Spotify, and Apple, and we both own a Bitcoin. A Bitcoin named Ben.