The Best One Yet - 🦄 “The 2nd Coming of Adam” — WeWork’s unicorn surprise. SoulCycle vs Peloton. Clear’s airport penguin.

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

WeWork co-founder Adam Neuman is back and riding a brand new unicorn… His startup Flow is already worth $1B (and it’s just a website). SoulCycle is pulling a move out of Mean Girls to troll Peloton, but they’re both suffering from the dreaded “F’s.” And the worse your airport travel, the better it’s been for Clear’s stock — because Clear solved The Penguin Problem of Platforms.$YOU $WE $PTONFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn 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. It's Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, August 16th, and today's pod is the best one yet. T-B-O-Y, and it's the last T-boy Tuesday before our two-week vacay. And Jack, uh, stocks apparently are rising faster than airline prices. Not too bad. What's the first story for our T-boy, Jack? You have all heard the wild story of WeWorks Rise and Fall with that crazy founder, Adam Newman. Well, Adam Newman is back like a Phoenix, and he's riding a brand new unicorn. A billion.

Unicorn. It's a beautiful thing. For our second story, Soul Cycle has a new plan to get you spinning again. Here it is, here it is. Troll Peloton like a mean girl. And our third and final story.

Everyone's talking about how tough it's been to travel this summer. Yeah, but the worst your flight, the better it is for one stock, clear. Clear, secure. Clear, secure. But Yeties, before we get that wonderful mix.

Just a fantastic mix for a T-Boy Tuesday. Honestly, I love this mix. Do you smell that? Yeah, I smell that. Jack, is that a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and some kind of, I don't know, root vegetable? That's not a smell. No. That's a lifestyle.

Oh, Jack, that's not a scent. That's pumpkin spice, baby. Pumpkin spice season isn't just here? It showed up earlier than ever before. Yeties, you just panic bought another box fan for your window, yet coffee shops have declared it autumn. And get this, Duncan. Duncan kicked off pumpkin spice season historically early. All right, Jack and I check the.

The calendar's, Duncan's kicking off the season on August 17th. That's tomorrow, Jack. Pumpkin spice season starts tomorrow at Dunk. Tomorrow. Must be the first one, right, Jack? Duncan Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew drops one day earlier than it dropped last year. Oh, hey, Darlene, large regular, two pumps of extra pumpkin, please. But Krispy Cream just said, you know what?

Hold my latte. Get this. Crispy Cream apparently jumped a pumpkin spice donut last week beating Duncan. But it turns out even Krispy Cream wasn't the first. to declare this early fall christening. But this year's holiday Cheermeister award goes to Bath and Body Works. That's right. Bath and Body Works sold its first fall-scented pumpkin spice candle in July.

Oh, it's 100 degrees outside and 3,000% humidity. Pumpkins can't even survive in this weather, man. Have you ever seen a pumpkin in a midsummer beach bikini neck? Oh, no, there's a reason. But here's the best part, besties. It was Starbucks. invented pumpkin spice flavor in the first place back in 2003. Yet Starbucks isn't selling pumpkin spice lattes for another three weeks.

A fake holiday season about a fake flavor was almost forgotten by its founder. If so facto, anyone can declare that pumpkin spice latte season half begun. Like Santa Claus, if you believe it's PSL season, then it's real. And a merry pumpkin spice season to you. Let's hit our three stories. 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.

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, Adam Neumann.

It's famous for Jamie Diamond. No, for almost destroying WeWork along with Miguel. Miguel. But Adam Newman just launched a new startup. And guess what? It's already worth a billion dollars. All right, can we just put this out there yetis? If Hulu doesn't make a six-part series about your company's downfall,

then what is your company even doing these days? The top of the list of six-part series about company downfalls is We crashed. Which is really the story of We-WRour. Yeah, it's really the story of Adam Newman. Tequila and Term Sheets. That's what Adam does. Top-shelf tequila, bottom-shelf term sheets. Yeah, when he was running, We-Work, Adam famously raised a whopping $5 billion from venture capital firms.

He got WeWork, the co-working company, to a shocking $47 billion peak valuation. It's like seven lifts, $47 billion. But Adam's ego and his crazy antics ended up kind of destroying the company right before the IPO. So Adam conveniently got paid $1 billion to leave WeWork because he was holding the company back from its IPO. It was basically hush money, basically a golden parish. That was 2019. WeWork survived. It eventually went public.

It's doing fine now. It is doing fine. It's a good company, but it's worth one-tenth of that peak $47 billion value. But funny thing, besties, for the last three years, Adam Newman has been meditating. He's been juice cleansing. He's been manifesting in his lovely Manhattan condo. And quietly acquiring 3,000 rental apartments. Because remember, just because someone's been quiet doesn't mean they've been inactive. Surprise. Adam announced yesterday that he spent some of that billion dollars of WeWork hush money. He did. On real estate, he's been snatching up entire apartment buildings across the southeast. Yeah, he's, if you live in Nashville, Miami, or Atlanta, and you're living the millennial lifestyle, Adam Newman may be your landlord. And on Monday, he announced why. His new real estate startup,

and it's called Flow. Flow, not like his hair, but kind of like his hair. It's just a website right now, we should point out. It's just a landing page. There's like no details on the website. But the business itself, it's apartment living that's supposed to feel like. a commune. You pay one rent and you get a whole bunch of services. But this isn't your conventional apartment deal. No. This is more like a millennial summer camp you'll be bought. This rent is going to come with a dog valet and a party room and a saltwater pool because the chlorine messes with my glom. And we all know hair looks fantastic after being drenched in saltwater. Exactly. But Jack and I were thinking about this and you know what? We've seen this before. We have seen flow before.

Yes, apartment living that feels like a commune. That was the original idea of We Live, which was part of the original idea for WeWork. You're not renting four walls in a roof. You're investing in yourself and a way of life. That's Adam's pitch to prospective renters at his new business. But here's the wildest part about flow. It's not that flow is just a website right now or that. It's just an idea.

It's that it's already worth a billion dollars. Get this. The famous venture capital firm Andresen Horwitz just wrote their big. check ever to this company. The most famous VC firm in the world, Andriesen Horowitz, has never been more invested in a company than Adam Newman's new company. They just dropped $350 million into Adam Newman's pocket. We're talking Adam Newman, a guy famous for selling ideas, not historically worth all the billions they said they were. Andriesen Horowitz could become the new Massa. Massa. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Flow?

got this check because he's a refounder now. He's a second time entrepreneur. Yet he's we work redefined the workplace. It changed an industry, but it wasn't worth $47 billion. Now we're seeing that a key unspoken value of the WeWork debacle

was the education of Adam. Yeah, the WeWork debacle was his $12 billion MBA program. That's why Andrewson Horowitz said in a blog post they're investing in flow for the lessons Adam learned. Adam's not a founder. Now he's a re-founder.

And with Flo, he gets the chance to improve on his original idea and his original antics. And second-time founders are more successful than first-time founders. Yeah, according to a Harvard Business School study, entrepreneurs are 50% more successful with their second venture because of what they learned from the first venture. Look at Bill Gates. Look at Steve Jobs.

Look at Walt Disney. They all started companies that failed and then launched a related second company that went on to change the world. Adam got this check because he's a refounder. He's a second time entrepreneur. For our second story, Peloton and SoulCycle are fighting each other about who gets your butt. Based on what we heard last week,

neither is getting your butt. Yeah, it is. Except you, Nick. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, my God. I should totally, I don't have a Peloton yet, but when I was visiting Jack, we have one in our basement.

And so at 6 a.m. I'm like, I'm going to sneak in a little Peloton around. I'm going to squeeze into Jack's little shoes. finishes a 20-minute workout. It was 30 minutes. And 10 minutes later, I get an email from Peloton. Yeah. What you get? Congratulations on your 100th workout. Yeah, I did Jack's 100th Peloton ride. I'm not getting any credit on this thing.

You don't deserve any credit. You deserve my scorn. I want to shout out. Mr. Toussaintian's structure. I want a shout out on the Peloton. Jack, I don't know what happened, but you performed 50% better than your previous 99 workouts. Congratulations on your 100th ride. Oh, don't mind if I do, Jack. Don't mind if I do. Yeties, two weeks ago, there was some drama in the stationary bike workout wars. Yeah, like Cardi B and

Nikki Minaj. Get this, SoulCycle, the OG of the spin world, announced a brand new marketing plan, and here it is, Troll Peloton. SoulCycle offered to credit your account with 47 free spin classes on one condition. And here's that condition. You must hand over your Peloton bike, give it to us, and you'll never see it again. Yeah, this is wild. This is wild. The first 100 humans to trade in their Peloton bikes get the equivalent in in-person SoulCycle classes. Okay. Has anyone ever even done 47th pink glasses in SoulCycle? That's a Regina George move.

I mean, the only other group that would do this is the plastics. And yet a corporation just pulled this move. Now, Peloton is already known, unfortunately, for squandering an incredible pandemic business opportunity. And then they killed an HBO legend, Mr. Pick. And now SoulCycle is kicking Peloton while Peloton is. down after they killed Mr. Big. But Yeties, here's what Jack and I found to be the awkwardest thing

about this entire situation. SoulCycles down too. Yeah, SoulCycle, have you looked in the mirror lately? Both SoulCycle and Peloton announce some news on Friday afternoon. Oh, that's when Jetty's, when Jack and I see a Friday afternoon announcement, that's like, that's not a good thing. It means it's not good news. Peloton announced they're cutting about

800 jobs. They're raising the price of the key bike that they sell and they're switching to do-it-yourself assembly of that bike. No more white glove service to set up that Peloton bike. This is the opposite. That's right. When your Peloton finally arrives, you need to assemble it yourself. It's going to come with an Allen ranch. Brutal. Oh, and the CEO said that cash is oxygen and oxygen is life and they need cash. Yeah, so they're not going to set up your bike anymore. Do yourself. So then SoulCycle, one hour later,

made their very own announcement too. I'll have what she's at. That's basically what SoulCycle said. SoulCycle is closing 25 studios. Okay, they're closing six studios just in New York City. They're letting go of 5% of employees, too. It's a sad situation at both companies. And it's strange, Nick, because together, Peloton and SoulCycle dominate the spin industry. They got all the market share. They're basically a monopoly-ish.

Between these two companies, that is the two ways you can spend. Either do it in studio or at home, Peloton or SoulCycle. And yet, both are struggling mightily. That's strange. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Pelot. and Soul Cycle. Spinning is either a fad or a feature, and either one can lead to failure. Yeties, these two news headlines reveal that both studio spinning and at home spinning are struggling, both of them. But we know you're working out. Just look at Planet Fitness. We covered them last

week. They're doing better than ever. Yeah. So if neither side of spinning is winning, then it could be a sad sign of the two Fs. It means spinning could be a fad. Maybe indoor cycling, it's run out of steam. Or it means it could be a feature. Spinning is just one small part of your broader workout routine. Either way, these two competing opposing brands massively overbuilt their businesses. Either one can lead to failure. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. You know, honestly, your salad, it says so much about you. Nick, you like to blaze your own trail at the salad bar. I'm ordering a salad. I go off menu, man. Like a combo of kale and croutons that has never been made before. Me? I'm not reinventing the wheel. I like to go

classic. Sweet green thinks it's a good combo. Jack's not going to change that. Kind of like investing strategies. Someone to build a custom portfolio of stocks, crypto, and options. Others don't want to reinvent. Just give me the most standard ETF. Whether you're tweaking your one-of-a-kind portfolio every day or prefer a more hands-off approach, Robin Hood has the tools. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinhood.com

slash T-Boy to choose your free stock. That's robinid.com slash T-B-O-I. Limitations apply. Stocks offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood Crypto. All investments, involve. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, Clear Secure, they've quietly built a 13 million person squad of frequent flyers.

Clear Secure solved the penguin problem by paying the sharks. Yet he's Clear Secure. We actually covered their IPO about a year ago in June of last year. We did, but you know Clear Secure because of FOMA. Yeah, because you've traveled with someone who has. clear and they beat you through TSA by a whopping three minutes. Yeah, it is clear is a biometrics company. They're very into your unique biography.

Right, because when you set up a clear account, they get, they get intimate with you, you could say, yeah. They do. They scan your face, your eyes, and like all the details. They get the dimples. They might even have your unibrow in their system. Well, then you end up going at Terminal 4 for that flight. And instead of waiting in a TSA line to show your face and ID for the eighth time

that day while you're trying to take off your shoes. Excuse me, sir, could you pull down your mask so I can compare it to your passport? I already pulled it down. Wait, it's still pulled down. Okay, I'll pull it off again. Instead, you can use a clear machine. It'll scan your face and you'll get to breathe through in two seconds. You're popping through TSA like a B-List celebrity.

It's the affordable VIP feeling. That's what Clear is. Thanks for being a Clear member. But Yeties, here's what surprised Nick and me. It has been a summer of air travel horror stories. Everyone's got one. But Clear, just announced yesterday, First Class Class. numbers. Clear's revenues jumped a whopping 86%. And that's because enrollment at Clear

more than doubled to 13 million people. Bastie, sit down, stand up and sit back down again. 13 million people are paying $189 a year to get to Gate 6D three minutes faster at 45 airports by using Clear. Yeah, kind of ironic. But the worse that air travel gets, the more frustrated you are, the better Clear looks to you as a potential customer. The more annoyed you get waiting at LAX for another hour, the more valuable Clears proposition. And we can see that in their churn rate. We do. This past spring, a shocking 94% of members decided, yes, I want to extend for another year. Yeah, 94% of Clear members said, yeah, I'll spend another $189 to travel and feel borderline VIP. That's a fantastically high retention rate. Well, now Clear is trying to expand to other

security checkpoint moments where you're probably waiting in line. Like in a stadium, or music concert or event venue. But if they're going to do that, Jack, they're going to have to solve the penguin problem. Yeah, they are. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Clear Secure? Clear solves the penguin problem.

Yetis, the penguin problem. Penguins, they have to jump into the water to eat, but they're afraid about jumping in because of the sharks in the water. Sorry to go all zoo bucks on you, but all the penguins stand on the edge of like the iceberg waiting. No one's jumping in the water until finally someone does and then they all do.

Well, platforms like Clear, they face that penguin problem too. Why would Flyers sign up for Clear if there's no airports using it? Why would airports sign up for Clear if no flyers are going to use it? So what happens is all the penguins are just waiting. Waiting. They're waiting until Clear solved the problem. Well, back in 2016, Clear got an investment from Delta Airlines, and they offered Clear free to their frequent flyers.

And then since Delta had skin in the game, Delta wanted Clear to succeed. So they set it up at all their Delta terminal. And every major Delta airport had Clear, so millions of flyers had a reason to sign up for Clear. Finally, the penguins knew there was no shark in the water. Exactly. 13 million penguins have jumped in to use Clear. Clear solved the penguin problem of platforms. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?

Adam Newman just went public about his new, real estate company, which is already worth a billion. Because he's a re-founder. He's a second-time entrepreneur. By the way, we're not counting his baby kneepad failure. I think he doesn't want to count that either, Jack. Four second story, soul cycle, trolled Peloton, but honestly, both are struggling. Yeah, whether spinning's a fad or a feature, both can lead to failure. Our third and final story, in the summer of air travel delays in cancellation, clear secures and drawing huge numbers. Because their deal with Delta solved the penguin problem. Now, time for the best fact yet, This one sent in by Samarth Chala from New Delhi.

Yesterday, Monday, August 15th was Indian Independence Day. We wished our Indian Yetis a happy Independence Day just yesterday's pod. In fact, it was the 75th year anniversary of independence from the British. So is a big one. Yeah. And India, it's actually number two in the world by population, but also the world's number one largest democracy. Therefore, the largest election on planet Earth takes place in India. Okay, Yetis, get this.

An eighth of the world's entire population has the right to vote in this Indian election. That is 900 million people. And their voter turnout rate is 67%, which is pretty done good. Sit down, stand up, and sit back down again. And apparently vote. Sit down, stand up. Vote and sit back down. Yeties, you look fantastic today.

And if you see Darlene at Duncan or if you just see a pumpkin spice, I don't know, like an oatmeal, a rib-roast, a pumpkin spice deodorant, send it Jackson, my way. Remember, if you believe it's pumpkin spice latte season, then it is. Then it's real. We wish you a merry spices. Jack and I will smell you tomorrow. And a happy brew year. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti Michael Hershey, who spent a year learning how to make wine and is now going back to school. I'm not sure if that's congrats or condolences. Me neither, Jack. And congrats to Akash Gupta who just had a birthday and a wedding to Anjori, wife in Oakland, California. And congrats to Cojo, who started anesthesiology school in Georgia. And

Megan Collins is back to school as a teacher in Cincinnati. Congrats and good luck to Tilly Gillard, who's heading to Shepard's College. And Ethan S. just got his first promotion over in South Dakota. And happy 50th birthday to Amherjee, who's running a triathlon over in Osceola, Wisconsin. And a happy 45th birthday to Chad Burrilski. Happy 27th to Matt Lowen in San Diego. San Diego. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Block. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Clear Secura, and Nick and I both own stock of Peloton and Robin Hood.

Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I both worked in finance for a while. And we know the six-monitor Bloomberg jockey, with charts, numbers, balances, and more charts. They got coffees in both hands while they're executing some complex trade on a soybean future. Well, we're not trying to impress with our Mission Control Trading Center. Just give us an app, please. Robin Hood, with its mobile first and intuitive design, it lets you trade with just a few quick taps on their app.

And even if things still don't seem easy, Robin Hood has your back 24-7 with its live and robust customer support. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's robin hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved for us. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood,

and we are not employees of Robin Hood.