The Best One Yet - 🥤 “Status Mug” — Stanley’s Starbucks surge. Qualcomm’s patent party. Instagram’s kids table.

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Stanley’s Starbucks collab at Target caused a riot, selling out instantly — And inside that 40-ounce metal mug is a lesson on how status symbols: Exclusivity beats price.The most inventive company in America? It’s… Qualcomm — This $150B company whipped up 3,854 patents last year, and we’ll tell you why. And Instagram just made its most parent-friendly move ever: A kids table — Zuck did the right thing… but because he was forced to.$SBUX $QCOM $METASubscribe 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 Wednesday, SaViche Wednesday, January 10th. And today's pod is the best one yet, Jack. This is the T-boy man. Nick and I are serving up the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But apparently you're not serving up sleeves today, Jack. I'm intentionally wearing a Mays sweatshirt and a blue vest to celebrate Michigan's victory.

I appreciate the vest move. It's the perfect outfit when there's a column of cold air that comes right at your tour. So the best. It's perfect for that really specific win. First story for today's show. What do we got, Jack? For our first story, Stanley and Starbucks already created the product of the year. A huge $45 pink water tumbler. Because Yeti's status symbols, they aren't price tags. For our second story, it's Instagram. They just made their biggest change yet for teens. Parents are going to love the new Instagram. Jack and I call it the Kids Table. And our third and final story. The company with more patents than any other in America?

It's Qualcomm, Jack. Qualcomm is the newest patent princess. And you don't mess with the patent princess. But besties, if you do, my lawyer will be contacting you. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Seasons desist, wonderful

mix of stories for today's show, Jack. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year for the last time ever. Because according to our buddy Larry David, today was the last socially acceptable day to say Happy New Year.

But that's your last Happy New Year, Jack. One week and change. That's the cutoff for New Year's pleasantries. And that's the statute of limitations on Happy New Year, according to Larry David. So Happy New Year's dead. But here's the problem. You know what comes after Happy New Year's greetings? Jack, what comes after the Happy New Year's greetings out there?

Circle back season. Oh, Circle back season. Yet he's circle back season when everyone who emailed you in December circles back in January. And right now is peak circleback season. Jack, we're at the height of circle back season. Everyone, you told to circle back before the holidays. It is now circling back after the holidays.

Hey, I hope you had a fantastic vacation. Hey, I hope you're off to a great start this year. Just wanted to follow up about that thing. Just wanted to check in a matter of conversation. Just bumping this to the top of your inbox to start the year. Circling back. That is, we can't say happy New Year until next year. But we can circle back.

Happy circle back season, everybody. Let's find some time in the new year and hit our three stories. 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. Jack, 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. Start the show. For our first story, the Pink Stanley and Starbucks, water mug almost caused a riot. Cup Girlies wanted it that badly. Stanley's quenters have gone viral, and it's all thanks to Crocs. Yeties, you know what Jack and I like to say. If you want to know how old the tree is, you cut it open and count the rings. If you want to know how old a human is,

open their cupboard and look at their water bottles. Yeah, for instance, in college, you were carrying analogy. Senior year, you were carrying a clean canteen. After college, you upgraded to a swell. And what are you wearing right now, Jack? What are you bringing with you these days? Stanley. I have a teal-fork 40-ounce Stanley Tumblr, I can't be separated from it. The Yeti's last year, Jack and I told you about the business of Stanley water bottles. Stanley makes the 40-ounce cylindrical and burly-handled water cup that you keep seeing everywhere. Yeah, it's got a built-in straw and it comes with built-in confidence. Here's the shocker. Stanley was founded 110 years ago as a steel company,

and yet Stanley is having a moment today on TikTok. It was a steel company, and now it's like the Bieber of water bottles, Jack. Sales of these huge quenchers rose 275% in 2021 and reached $750 million of sales last year. But there is one reason driving it to become the number one it water bottle. And what is that, Jack? TikTok. Videos with the hashtag Stanley Tumblr have been viewed two billion times on TikTok. All right.

Now, Jack, let's jump in further T-boy style. What is the one reason why the Stanley Tumblr has gone viral on TikTok? Pastels. It's a pastel situation yet. Stanley transformed from an unknown bottle company to a TikTok sensation simply by adding new colors. Get this. For 110 years, Stanley only came in four different colors. That's it. Black, white, stainless steel, and hunter green. It's the blue collar worker palette. But jagged that in 2020, Stanley did something unprecedented.

They added orchid, rose quartz, lavender, and tiger lily. Like we told you last year, it was Minivations, a mini-innovation in color. caused the surge in the Stanley Tumblr. Simply changing the color transformed to the company and its target customer, from working man to workout woman. Yes, it did. But Yeti, sit down, stand up, and take a sip again. Here's the news.

Two different Stanley limited drops sold out instantly last week and caused, and I quote, overnight mayhem. Okay, yeties, we're going to break it down for you here. Stanley, the water company, partnered with Starbucks and Target to launch limited edition pink and red tumblers. Both of them were pink and red and they both had Valentine's Day themes, and they both cost a pricey $45. I'm sorry, Jack. Did you just say Stanley and Starbucks and Target?

That is the holy trinity of millennial brands, man. Yes, it is. Adam, can you add like some kind of a holy angel unveiling noise there? No, Adam, can you just leave what Nick said? I think the audience gets the effect. But Yeties, these Starbucks Stanley Tumblr's over a target, they sold out so fast, there were physical riots over an IL-6. They're so sought after. We found one on eBay selling for $34,000. Okay, we repeat, a $34,000 Stanley Tumblr is being resold on eBay, right?

That is the most expensive tumbler in the history of Water Jack. It's literally the Holy Grail. Well, not literally, but... I mean, 34 grand. You could just hire your own barista at that price, Jack. extravaganza is even catching the attention of the stock market. Oh, this is wild Yetty's. Because you know Yeti, like the fancy cooler company Yeti? They're a competitor to Stanley, right, Jack? And their stock just got downgraded on news that Stanley is way cooler now. And Hydroflask, it's just awkward. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Stanley Water Tumblr? Status symbols don't have to be expensive. They do have to be exclusive.

Okay, Yeti's funny thing, Jack and I noticed. You know who the president of Stanley is who's been leading this entire resurgence? It's the former chief marketing officer of Crocs, a man named Terrence Riley. The CMO of Crocs. Yeah, he turned Crocs from a boring clog into a trendy shoe, and the stock rose a thousand percent under his reign. And here's the insight from the Crocs playbook that he brought over to Stanley a few years ago. Okay, here it is. Consumers care more about exclusivity than about luxury.

They'd rather own a product that's hard to get than a product that's expensive to get. That's why a $40 pair of Justin Bieber Crocs and a $45 pair of Starbucks Stanley Cups sell out instantly. They're affordable but limited edition status symbols. The Stanley Starbucks insanity shows that status symbols don't have to be expensive. They just have to be exclusive. For our second story, Instagram just announced their first major effort to actually protect teens online. Instagram just launched an Instagram kids table. Jack, can I ask you a question about the pod son?

My pod son. Your son. What are you going to give him a phone? What's the timing? Whenever I try to call him, I have to call you and you have to hand it off to him. No, Nick, rule number one of modern parenting, wait as long as possible to give your kid a phone and let your kid use social media. Yeah, good luck on that, by the way.

Yeah. Little Tommy, the middle schooler, he probably has a burner phone. Sorry, parents. Kids these days are better with phones than the CIA. Yeti's meta just announced something that parents are going to be very, very thankful for. Meta just announced the digital equivalent of a kids table. Starting now, teens under 18 years old using Facebook and Instagram will automatically be put at this digital kids table.

What do we mean by kids table? We mean an Instagram that is free of harmful content. Teens under 18 will not see posts about self-harm or graphic violence or about eating disorders. And teens under 16 won't be shown any posts that show. sexually explicit content. Even if those posts are made by people who they follow. It's a kids table. No bad content allowed over here. But yet these funny thing, Jack and I notice about this huge Instagram announcement. These content restrictions we just told you about, they've already existed at Instagram for

years, but they've been optional. Like teens, they could just go to the settings, turn off the restrictions and boom, then they're going crazy on Instagram. Yeah, 14-year-old Tina can scroll through anything just like a 40-year-old Tina would. Once you turn off the restrictions, you can watch, you can search, you can click into anything on Instagram. The reason this news from yesterday is big news is that those restrictions are now mandatory for all teens and you can't turn them off. You can't see harmful content until you turn 18. Like, Jack, once you turn 18, yeah, have as much harmful content as you want. So there's basically two versions of Instagram now.

There's a kid gram that only teenagers can view. And then once you turn 18, your account will revert to adults. And then you can watch those conspiracy theory videos about how Walt Disney staged the moon landing in order to take over Antarctica. Hashtag birds aren't real. Now, Yaddy's Instagram is sending a pretty big message to parents here, aren't they, Jack? Yeah, even if your kids get addicted to Instagram, like we all are. They won't see as much violence or other material that harms their mental health. So this is great news.

But Nick, it's great news delayed. Ah, it feels like you're getting to our takeaway, Jack. which is not restricted. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Instagram? Zuck is doing the right thing here because he was forced to. Thanks to leaked documents, we know that Facebook's known about harmful content and their impact on teens since at least like 2021.

Yeah. So why did it take Instagram and Facebook so long to finally do something about it? The business incentives. That harmful content, it also boosts engagement. And Facebook didn't want teens ditching Facebook and Instagram for TikTok and Snapchat. So it looks like what did drive this change was probably the lawsuits. Yeah. Last October, Facebook got sued by 40 states plus DC for their negative impact on the mental health of teens.

So had it all up, Yaddies. And this news, it is good for teens and it is great for parents. But it wasn't thanks to morals. It was thanks to lawsuits. For our third and final story. The most inventive company in America, guess what? It's Qualcomm. Qualcomm was granted nearly full.

4,000 patents in 2023. Qualcomm is the patent princess of America. What's a proof fest is? Well, here you go. One of the most important components of the iPhone you're holding in your hand right now, it's not made by Apple. Jack, I'm looking at my iPhone. What is the most important piece of this iPhone, Jeff? It's a chip made by Qualcomm. And he's without Qualcomm's modem, your phone, it wouldn't have any bars.

Yeah, you connect your 5G network with Qualcomm's Snapdragon modem. One sec. Jack, can you hear me now? it's because of Qualcomm. Apple's even tried to make their own modem because they don't want to be dependent on this one tech company, but they can't. No, Apple, like, depends on Qualcomm. Only Qualcomm has the secret recipe for this modem

that makes iPhones work. And that is why Qualcomm is worth $150 billion. That's 50 lifts. It's the most valuable company in San Diego outside of the U.S. Navy. Honestly, Jack, I did not have Qualcomm on our 2024 T-Boy Bingo card, man. And Qualcomm is loving this moment right now. They just got a commitment from Apple to

continue using their chips and their iPhones through 2026. But funny thing Jack and I should point out yet is um, 2026 man, that's coming up real quick, Jack. And we all know Apple is trying to make their own chips and remove Qualcomm from the equation. Qualcomm, it can't depend on Apple and other partners forever. So Jack, I got to ask, what's the real business of Qualcomm? The true business of This computer chip semi-conductor software hardware company, Nick? That's a mouthful. The true business of Qualcomm is patents. It's patents.

And here's the news. Last year, Qualcomm was awarded 3,854 patents. Their all-time most ever. Yet is Qualcomm leapfrog to IBM to become the most inventive company in these United States of America? Only one company in the world got more patents than Qualcomm, and that was Samsung over in Korea. 3,854 patents in one year, Jack, can you whip out the abacus and do a little math for us over there? There's more than 10 patents every day, including weekends, for the whole year. These guys are the Michael Phelps of the U.S. patent and trademark office, Jack.

Nick and I jumped into the U.S.PTO website, and we found the most recent patent that Qualcomm was awarded. It was granted yesterday. Get this yesterday. They got a new patent. Jack, can you describe the new Qualcomm patent for us? Qualcomm invented the time domain synchronization signal block and control resource set multiplexing. And what does that mean exactly? No idea. But that invention might enable the next tech breakthrough that we all get next year. And there are 3,853 more of them coming down the line.

Oh, and if your time domain synchronization signal block and control resource set multiplexing breaks, just unplug it and plug it back in. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Qualcomm? One thing that's never changed, patents are at the first. foundation of our economy. Okay, Yetis, let's jump into the history books. During the war of 1812, we were at war with the British. Again, England invaded the United States in 1812, and they burned down Washington, D.C. But there's one building that the Brits did not burn down in Washington, D.C. And that was the patent office. They didn't burn down the patent office, because Yeti's

200 years ago, those attackers knew what we still know today. Without patents, an economy has no innovation. Yetis, the reason Qualcomm invests so much in research and development, it's because patents protect their inventions. If anyone could steal Qualcomm's modem design, then Qualcomm wouldn't have bothered inventing it in the first place. They stole our recipe. It's thanks to our laws that protect inventions for the inventors that innovation happens. So Yetis, from 1812 to today, a lot has changed in business, but one thing hasn't. Patins are still at the foundation of our economy. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche? Wednesday. Stanley's limited edition Starbucks Tumblr didn't just sell out. It caused riots at

targets. The lesson here yet is status symbols. They don't have to be expensive. Status symbols just have to be exclusive. For our second story, it's Instagram. They're finally going to block people under 18 from seeing harmful adult content with a kids table. Zuck is doing the right thing because of lawsuits. And our third and final story, it's Qualcomm. They just took the crown for most inventive company in America. Paddance, they are still at the foundation of our economy. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.

First, we got a follow-up from the scary Boeing 737 Max episode that we covered this week. United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have both inspected their Boeing 737 Max 9 planes, and they found loose parts around the emergency door. This is pretty damning for Boeing, Jack. It's a sign of sloppiness and lack of attention to detail for the airplanes. they make. And second, the SEC tweeted yesterday that they approved the first ever Bitcoin ETF. The price of Bitcoin soared until we all realized the tweet was fake. The SEC's Twitter account got hacked. Although the SEC is expected to approve the first Bitcoin ETF tomorrow. And finally,

congratulations to Buffalo, New York. It's officially the hottest housing market in America. Yeah, Zillow compared the number of new jobs and the number of new houses and predicts that apparently we are all moving to Buffalo, Jack. Buffalo. It's a place to be. Bill's Nation, or you can't sit here. Bill's Mafia. They're going to beat you up for messing that up, actually. It was a trick question. Now I know you're in, Jack. You're one of us.

Now, time for the best fact. Yeah, this one whipped up by Jack and me from our holiday reading. Perfect timing. What do we got, Jack? This one is about Albert Einstein, one of the brightest minds in human history. It was pretty good. It was pretty good, Jack. He won the Nobel Prize, and he completely disrupted how he imagined the world works. He won a Nobel Prize. I think we know who Einstein is.

You want to get to the fact over that? I read a book about this guy, okay? No, no, I love this fact. Share the fact of the Yetis. This is so good. This is so good. Before writing his first breakthrough paper that changed physics, guess where Albert Einstein was working as a lowly clerk?

Where was Einstein working, Jack? He didn't get any jobs as a professor, so he worked as a clerk at the size. Swiss patent office. Einstein was like interning at the patent office before he became Einstein. He was reviewing so many documents with inventions on them that they stimulated his own inventions in his mind. Yeties, it's like we told you. Patents, they're still at the foundation of our economy.

And of our Nobel Prize winners' brains. Yeties, you look fantastic today. And Jack, I think we should circle back from a question we had earlier in the pod, man. Yeah, let me just bring this back to the top of your inbox. That discussion we had last year? We could just check back in. If that's okay, get something on the schedule over there. Balls in your court.

Just a quick reminder. Friendly reminder. He's had a 6 a.m. tomorrow morning work for you for a podcast. Let's sync async on this. If you know, you know, chat tomorrow. If you can just confirm receiving the seat now, that'd be great. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Duran Hastings, who's celebrated with a dirty martini and a burrito on the Upper East Side.

Oh, that sounds fantastic. I want in on that. We're in. And happy birthday to Nora Kiho, who's turning eight years. old and beautiful Wyndham Vermont. Lovely town, kind of far from Boston. Nora, I grew up in Wyndham County. Beautiful town of Brattleboro

were basically kin. Nora, enjoy that maple syrup this winter. And a happy birthday to Jesse celebrating in his Toyota right now, driving around San Francisco. And congratulations to Noah Keyless, who just got promoted to team lead and is celebrating that fantastic

new position at a Celtics game. Just inside Boston. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple, and we both own a Bitcoin, and I own some stock and crocks.

All right. This fact is about Albert Einstein. Possibly the most brilliant theoretical physicist of all time. Okay. I'm going to actually ask you a question here. Who's smarter? Than Albert Einstein? Sorry, no, it's dumb.

It's dumb. They're funny because you hedged it. He kept giving this hilarious background. You're like, Albert A. Einstein. Known for being smart. I was just trying to show off that I read the book. He's pretty good, by the way.