The Best One Yet - 🔥 “The Biggest Firing Since Steve Jobs” — Sam Altman’s shock firing. Red Bull’s F1 win. Old Navy’s resurrection.

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

OpenAI shockingly fired the man responsible for its $90B valuation: Sam Altman — But 48 hours later, it’s scrambling to rehire him, because AI requires real intelligence.The winner of the big Formula 1 race in Las Vegas wasn’t a car, it was a drink — Red Bull’s racing team turned a cost center into a profit center.And The Gap’s stock just had its best day in its entire history, jumping 30% on Friday — And it’s all thanks to Old Navy (and their new Barbie CEO).$MSFT $MNST $GPS $NFLXSubscribe 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, November 20th. And today's pod in the holiday week is the best one yet. It's a T-boy, Jack. You know what I say going into every Thanksgiving, Nick? Oh, I know you say it every year.

You want to say it again for the show, man? The turkey. It should be our nation's national animal. We've been saying it for years. Base that thing, respect that thing, and then eat that national animal, Jack. Every country has a bald eagle. Let's go with a turkey. So what if it doesn't fly?

Honestly, we like that it's not. doing the trend. It's a peaceful animal. Gobble, gobble, it's doing its own thing. So, Jack, first story for today's show, what do we got, man? For our first story, in the most shocking tech story of the year, Sam Altman has been fired by Open AI. But here's the even more shocking part. He may be unfired this week. For our second story, Formula One's Grand Prix was in Las Vegas yesterday. And the winner wasn't a car or a driver. The winner was a drink. Yet he's Red Bull isn't a sports drink. Red Bull is now a sports team. And our third and final story is the Gap. The Gap stock just had its best day ever surging 30% on Friday. Because Old Navy is now new Navy.

But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of gravy covered stories. Perfect mix for the week, Jack. Horters Almanac, week 192. Things were running out in this economy, Jack and I been keeping track for you. This week, we are running out of Oreos. Specifically, we are running out of Oreo cream. Yeties, we're not running out of Oreo cookies or Oreo chocolate. What we are running out of is the cream in between the Oreo cookies and the Oreo chocolate. And the cream is really the best part. I mean, frankly, we only eat the cream, right, Jack?

Get this, Yeties. A New York City high school math teacher didn't experiment with his whole class. Here was the question. Do double-stuffed Oreos really have double the cream? That's an important question because as Nick mentioned earlier, the cream is the best part. Well, they did the experiment on the double-stuffed Oreos. And Jack, what was the answer, my friend? No, they don't.

Double-stuffed Oreos are not double-stuffed. Yeah, here are the numbers yet. These double-stuffed Oreos only have 1.86 times the amount of cream than a regular Oreo. They don't have double the amount of cream. Than a regular Oreo. That's 7% less cream than it could be. That is 7% less delicious. than it should be.

Yeties, this cream complaint could be the biggest food fraud since the subway fake tuna. I mean, honestly, Jack and I haven't been this sad about an Oreo since we lost one in a glass of milk six years ago. Never forget. Never forget. Now, Oreo defends themselves. They say they haven't touched the cream to cookie ratio. They say they haven't touched the cream to cookie ratio, but honestly, that sounds like a non-denial

denial, Jack. Not touching the ratio doesn't mean they're actually double-stuffed. It just means maybe they've been understuffed the entire. entire time. Hey, Mondaliz, are they double-stuffed Oreos or are they understuffed Oreos? One heroic high school math teacher in Manhattan wants to know the truth. And the happiness of those high school math students hangs in the balance. So, Yetis, if you pop open an Oreo right now. Besties, if you're dipping that cookie in a tall glass of milky goodness. Then check that cream to cookie ratio. The C-to-C ratio. It's the icing on the cake. Literally. Literally.

Jack, let's in 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 this. 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 biggest tech story of the whole year just played out over the weekend. It's Sam Altman and OpenAI. The most successful CEO in 10 years was just fired for no apparent reason. By the way, if you're watching this show right now on like Spotify or YouTube, if you notice Jack and I were wearing kind of different clothes, right? Like I shaved compared to the intro of this show.

I'm wearing a base layer because I was skiing. I'm wearing a hat because I have hat head right now. Edie's this is the reason why. This story developed so much over the weekend. Jack and I recorded it like late Sunday night after we did the rest of the show. We had to be up to date as possible on this. Here's the best text I got from Nick over the weekend about this story. The first big job taken by artificial intelligence was the biggest job in artificial intelligence.

The CEO of ChatGBTGBT. On Friday afternoon at 5 o'clock Eastern Time, the stock markets were closed and Nick and I read this shocking headline. Sam Altman fired by OpenAI. Sam Altman. He's the co-founder of Open AI, which is the creator of ChatGPT. Honestly, if artificial intelligence had a $100 bill, this guy would be the face of it. Because AI is the most powerful innovation of the 21st century. And Sam Altman is the leader of it.

Under Sam Altman, ChatGPT became the fastest growing app in human history. Under Sam Altman's leadership, the valuation of OpenAI 6xed. It is now worth $90 billion over just a couple years. And now, Jack, we should sprinkle on a lot. a little more context here, shouldn't we, man? Firing a CEO who has been that successful, while the CEO is at his peak, is unheard of. Yet is, this is the biggest firing of a CEO

since Apple fired Steve Jobs back in 1985 and severely regretted it. Except this time, it's like if Apple fired Steve Jobs, after he'd already launched the iPhone. The only thing bigger than this would be if Tesla fired Elon over Thanksgiving. That would be a bigger tech firing of a CEO. I agree with you. And we would maybe have to do an emergency podcast for that one.

But yet is the even bigger reason why Sam Altman's firing is so shocking is because there's no apparent reason. Yeah, that's right. On Friday, we all got a reminder that the CEO isn't in charge of the company. The board is in charge. And nationwide entrepreneurs, they started checking their cat tables and reminding themselves who's actually on the board right now. Because the board of OpenAI is who fired the CEO, Sam Al. And Jack, how did they describe it exactly when they said why they fired him on Friday? The press release on Friday said Sam Altman had not been consistently candid in his communications with the board.

Again, yeties, this is shocking because one day earlier, Sam Altman had been giving a major speech on AI in San Francisco. And then boom, zero warning. He suddenly fired for like what reason exactly? For not being consistently candid. What a vague reason to fire someone. Now, weekend reports suggest that the board was uncomfortable with the speed that Sam Altman was rolling out AI. But that just doesn't feel like the real reason. It's so bizarre that the board didn't concretely explain why they're firing this AI wonder kid.

And now, Yetis, all of that was shocking. All of those were shockers. But that shocker then led to this shocker over the weekend. The most important investor at OpenAI had no idea they were about to fire the CEO. Because Yety's Microsoft. is the sugar daddy of OpenAI. They're paying for the whole thing, basically. Microsoft owns 50% of the company

because they've invested $13 billion to grow Open AI. And yet Microsoft CEO, Sotcha Nadella, found out about Sam Altman's firing only minutes before all of us found out about the firing. Apparently Microsoft doesn't have a seat on the board of Open AI despite owning 50% of the company, which is another bizarre detail. Now, yeties, let's whip out the calendars here.

year. All of that, that's what happened on Friday afternoon. Over the weekend, every person in tech tweeted their hot take based on no information. And then on Saturday, it seemed to Open AIs board that maybe, just maybe, they'd made a huge mistake. Because on Sunday, according to lots of reporting, Open AIs board called Sam Altman back, admitted they screwed up, and asked him to be CEO again. Yeah. And then he said, One second. Mom, you're not going to believe he's firing me.

Sam Altman reportedly said maybe, but only if you restructure the board and replace everyone on the board. Which has Jack and I wondering, did Kendall Roy orchestrate this coup? Or did Shiven Roman get involved? This has Logan's fingerprints all over it. Yeties, that's where we are as of Sunday night. Sam Altman might become CEO again. He might get rehired. And Jack and I are up way past our bedtime.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for us? Our buddy, Sam Altman. Artificial intelligence is powered by real intelligence. Open AI just found that out. Yeties, after getting fired, guess what Sam Altman said he wants to do over the weekend. He said he wants to launch his own company now. He wants to relaunch an AI company.

We're calling it SAAI, like Sam Allman, artificial intelligence. It rolls off the tongue. And guess who would join him? His right-hand man and the top engineers and researchers at OpenAI who quit in solidarity with him. Because Sam Altman was. He's the top brain at OpenAI, and his firing led to a rapid brain drain in just like a day after. And right now, he is the most eligible tech bachelor.

Every venture capitalist is calling him over the weekend, saying, I want to be first to fund your next venture. Just take my money. Yeties, that is why Open AI is reportedly scrambling to rehire Sam less than 48 hours after firing him. Because by firing this one person, Open AI's board just created their worst competitive. S-A-I. Sam Altman, artificial intelligence. Because artificial intelligence is powered by real intelligence. An open AI might have just found that out. For our second story, Formula One, it just held its first race in Las Vegas, but the real winner was Red Bull. The Red Bull Racing team may be one of the best returns on investment of all time. Yet is Formula One. The Internet.

National Open-wheeled, high-speed car racing, racing, race and race tournaments, Jack. It's less Talladega nights. It's more Monaco Morning. Hey, is that really Formula One? It's Formula A. Right, Jack? Formula Uh. Hey, you're not getting a hot dog at this thing.

You're getting a crape and you're topping it off with a little bit of Nutella. Yeah, it is, despite the aggressive Europeanness of F1 racing, it has boomed in popularity in the United States recently. Let's credit Netflix. They had a reality show about Formula One racing called The Drive to Survive. and that was really helpful. And now, F1 is owned by the American publicly traded Liberty Media Company, and they're capitalizing on the U.S. popularity. Formula One, they had a race in Austin, Texas a few years ago,

then a race in Miami, and this past weekend they did their first ever F1 race in Las Vegas. On the Las Vegas strip next to the sphere. And Jack, who happens to be the number one racing team by far in Formula One? Straight out of Austria, it's Team Red Bull. racing team has been owned by the energy drink Red Bull for 19 straight years. And recently, they have dominated, like only the New York Yankees have in the 1950s. Jack, can you whip out the scoreboard on Formula One racing please for us?

The Red Bull team has won 19 of the past 20 racing circuits. They just clinched their third ever world championship. And the man behind the wheel is Max Verstopping. Yeah, he's the driver, the top Red Bull driver. He can't be versedpped. But the real winner here, Yetis, it isn't Max for Stop and it's not Formula One and it's not the cars. It's a can of Red Bull. Because Red Bull's winning streak on the track is winning drinkers at the store.

Okay, Yetis, Jack and I have to talk to you about like one of our favorite marketing sayings. Jack, can we share this marketing saying, please? Win on Sundays, sell on Mondays. We repeat, win on Sundays, sell on Mondays. What does that mean exactly? Because if you're sponsoring the winning team that everyone sees on TV, sales will follow. And Red Bull just confirmed it. Red Bull CEO just announced we're experiencing, and I quote, incredible consumption of Red Bull

thanks to our F1 victories. Now, Red Bull wouldn't give us the exact numbers. But apparently, wherever there is a Formula One Grand Prix happening, Red Bull sales are following. Red Bull sales get their wings. We're talking from Miami to Dubai, to Singapore, to Singapore, to... South Paulo, Brazil, where there is an F1 race, Red Bull sales happened to be surging. Today, someone is pounding a can of Red Bull because they saw a car drive 220 miles per hour with a Red Bull logo on the Las Vegas trip yesterday.

They got out of the race that walked over to the bar. Making a Red Bull vodka, I don't care if that was cool 20 years ago. But Yeties, here's the wildest part about the Red Bull race team. Red Bull bought the racing team that they're winning on right now. back in 2004 for just $1.00. And for 19 years, the fastest car in the world has had a red bull on it. Yeti's sit down, stand up, and strap in your seatbelt. It cost this energy drink company $1 for that dream come true marketing opportunity. It cost this energy drink company less than one can of their energy drink. Chassies, apparently they give you wings. So, Jack, if you ain't first, your last,

what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Red Bull? Red Bull turned a cost center into a profit center. We've seen Red Bull marketing stunts before. Like Red Bull will, like, put their logo on some dude, and then he'll, like, jump off the Hoover Dam. But this Red Bull racing deal is unique. Because by owning the team, the cars have become Red Bull ads. And the cars are also.

selling ads. Because each Red Bull race car has a huge Red Bull logo on it, but also the logos of Citrix, Oracle, AT&T, and a bunch of other brands. So besties, each Red Bull racing car is an ad for Red Bull that also sells ads on behalf of Red Bull. So the initial $1 investment was an expense, but it's driving new marketing revenues too. Red Bull could have just paid another racing team and put their Red Bull logo on it. That would have been a marketing expense. Instead, they invested just $1 to buy a racing team, which is now literally driving advertising sales for the company. Because Red Bull cleverly turned an expense into a revenue stream. A cost center into a profit center.

I was hoping you were going to say that. You knew I was going to do that. I hope he says that. That was great. Great, great job. For our third and final story, it's The Gap. The Gap just had its best day on Wall Street ever. and it's all thanks to Old Navy.

The guy who resurrected Barbie has turned his attention to Old Navy. But Jack, if you didn't have a Gap sweatshirt and size Husky growing up, did you even have a childhood, man? Trivia. What's the biggest sized jeans that Gap Kids sold? What is it, Jack? 16 Husky.

I could tell you from experience. Jack, I once had a temper tantrum at the Gap on 86 in Madison in 1996 that I feel like I should apologize for today. One time I got stuck in an elevator at a two-story gap. Oh, you don't want to think about that. I didn't know how to get out because like GF meant ground floor and like UL was upper level. We're one and two. I was a little kid.

Hey, Gap's legal team. We're waiting to hear from you. But yet is the Gap stock. It has basically struggled since Y2K and when Jack was stuck in that elevator. Seriously. Gap's all-time high as a stock was in 1999. But yet is the gap? It just had its best day in the stock market since it began.

and trading in the stock market. The stock jumped 30% on Friday, which makes Gap up 55% so far this year. This sweatpants company is trading like a software company. Because the Gap announced a $200 million quarterly profit, which was three times more than Wall Street expected. But yet, he's Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style, and we noticed what saved the Gap last quarter wasn't the Gap.

It was Old Navy. Old Navy is now the new Navy. Because Yeties, the Gap was founded in 1969 in the same city as Levi's, San Francisco. And the Gap, today, it owns a bunch of brands. It owns Banana Republic and Athleta and Old Navy and intermix. And of course, it owns the Gap. But only one brand actually grew last quarter for the Gap. It wasn't the Gap.

It was Old Navy. Yeah, after eight straight quarters, the sales shrinking. Old Navy actually saw sales grow. Yeties, Old Navy is actually the number two largest apparel. company in the United States. Like we were saying, Old Navy is the new Navy. And the reason their sales growth was so shocking last quarter? Yes, Jack.

It stopped discounting last quarter. Basically, Old Navy threw out the sales rack. Like, they stopped the discounting death spiral of death. Sales growth, when things aren't on sale, is impressive. And why is that a huge deal, Jack? Because Old Navy now makes up a majority of the Gap Corporation sales. Yeah, he's Old Navy is 55%. of the Gap Corporation sales.

What we're trying to tell you is that out of nowhere, Old Navy's sales stopped shrinking, they stopped discounting, and they drove a quarterly profit that was three times higher than expected. You've got to go into a Gap store, stand up on the pile of jeans and just yell out, Old Navy, it's now the new Navy. Or how did the village people put it, Nick?

Adam, what's that song? So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies in the Navy? The Gap's new CEO is a, resurrectionist. He resurrects dying brands. Yeties, guess who's the new CEO of The Gap? Richard Dixon of Mattel, the toy company. Well, before he was at The Gap, Dixon resurrected three toy brands at Mattel as the C-O-O. When he first arrived at Mattel, he saw Barbie, whose sales had been slipping for years. This guy led the revival of Barbie that culminated in the Barbie movie. Barbie had universal brand awareness, but it had lost its appeal.

So this man helped resurrect it. Well, Old Navy is frankly a similar story. This is the second largest apparel brand in the United States, but it's been shrinking for two years. And the Gap's new CEO, he specializes in brand resurrection. First, he resurrected Barbie. And now he's resurrecting the Gap. Jack, can you put away the traumatic Gap elevator experience for a second? And tell us the takeaways to kick off.

the week. By the way, my brother eventually pushed the button because he was just bored, and he saw me, like, afraid in there. And I was so thankful the doors open. Tuck, thank you for what you think. It was actually Nick, my older brother, Nick. Nick, thank you for your sacrifice. Yeah, he's. Sam Altman was fired in a shocking move on Friday by the board of Open AI. But he might get rehired today because artificial intelligence requires human intelligence. For our second story, Las Vegas hosted a Formula One race yesterday, and it's going to boost sales of Red Bull drinks. Red Bull racing. It turned a cost center into a profit center.

And our third and final story is The Gap. The stock blew up 30% Friday, thanks to signs of life from Old Navy. Because the new Gap CO is a resurrectionist. First with Barbie and now with Old Navy. But yeties, this pod's not over. Yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, advertisers, including Apple, IBM, and Disney, they are abandoning Elon Musk's X.

Elon's support of anti-Semitic theories last week was the last straw. And second, SpaceX had a second successful lift-off of their huge starship, which could someday put a man or woman on Mars. That starship is huge. It flew for eight minutes, very high, and then exploded. That's twice as long as it's gotten before. Not too shabby. We'll take it.

It was a successful. No one was on board, by the way. We should clarify. And finally, Jack and I will not be hosting next year's Oscar Awards. The Academy has chosen Jimmy Kimmel again to host the Oscars. Apparently, they don't even think they have to respond to us. Our DMs were sent. Yes.

They were not read. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Jason Geiger from lovely Buffalo, New York, and it's all about pizza. Pushing play. Guy from Buffalo here with the best food fact yet. Pizza. America's number three most delivered food. 78,000 plus pizza joints make up a $46 billion industry.

Who's the best? Well, the answer all depends on the way you. Slice it. Unsurprisingly, Americas give the crust crown to Big Apple, with L.A. number two and Chicago number three. However, the town with most pizza places per person is Buffalo. One pizza place for every 430 people. America's love for pizza is literally a moray.

Buffalo, New York. the most pizza places per person. Who would have thought that? Buffalo! I mean, Jack, what happens if you get the Buffalo wings on the pizza in Buffalo, New York? That's like the ultimate double-double, right? I hope those are boneless wings. Let's put it that way.

Otherwise, someone's incisors are going to be unhappy. Yeties, you look fantastic to kick off the week. And remember, wherever you are, whatever dessert you are eating, remember to check that cream to cookie ratio. And I have no issue with the ball. Eagle. No. I just think our love of turkeys is unique and we should embrace that. Ben Franklin would agree with you. Yes, he would. Yetis, check that frosting and tell your friends, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? That's how we grow the show. If you know, you know. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, congratulations to Liz and Tyler Gregoire. A couple of

Yetis who just gave birth two triplets, three boys in New York. Congratulations to that whole family. And congratulations to Luis and Zuyari, who just got engaged with a fantastic diamond ring down in San Diego. And Nick, Kate, Rochelle, and Vanessa are on their way to Cancun with a fat bonus check burning in their pockets because they reached their sales goals and they're celebrating that win. Enjoy Cancun and Laura Roos and Rachel Dillian just launched a microdose, edible startup over in Minneapolis.

Congratulations. And a big shout out to Brandon Davis, who just recorded episode 100 of the Get Over Yourself podcast. And Keith Knox and Kate Maynard are moving back to California for a new job. Enjoy the time with your families. Congratulations to Kate, who just got promoted to manager over at Accenture. And Jack, let's head across the Atlantic Ocean because Alan in Croatia is celebrating a birthday.

Happy birthday to Nicole Tamasi, who's taken a day. nap because that's how she's celebrating her birthday in St. Charles, Illinois. And a happy birthday to Bruno Godineo in a Vora Portugal celebrate that win. Happy birthday to Austin Pinson in Greensboro, Georgia. And Anders McCoy is officially a teenager turning 13 years old in Apex North Carolina. Happy 41st birthday to Mike Artman in Washington, D.C. And Wells Johnstone, the Sean Kingston enthusiast over in Jackson, Tennessee, is enjoying a birthday, check your DMs.

And happy birthday to Lauren Wong, who's celebrating with a trip to Bangkok, Thailand. Happy birthday. Jack, Lauren is on the flight right now. Lauren, we hope you get that upgrade. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-Boer.

Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Disney, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple and ETFs of the S&P 500. Dude, I know Orioles is double stuff in those cookies. I mean, it's pretty funny because they're so close

to making it actually double. I know. Like that's funny they would actually like go that close. At that point it's like do it. Yeah, because clearly at one point in the in the research they did make them double stuffed and then they scaled it back. Oh, is that what the research said? I mean, I just assume at one, they tested that and we're like probably like, can people tell the difference? Maybe double stuffing it disrupted the structural integrity of the cookie. That's true. Who's working for Mondalese over here?