The Best One Yet - 🦇 “The hero Gotham deserves” — DC Comics storytelling. Peloton’s math flex. Zuck’s schmoozer-in-chief.

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

Warner Bros Discovery just unveiled its new strategy for DC Comics — because Batman’s jealous of Spiderman’s money. Peloton stock surged nearly 30% yesterday because it’s no longer a fitness company, it’s a math company. And Meta stock had its best day in a year after Zuck adopted a new role: Schmoozer-In-Chief. $PTON $WBD $METAFollow 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 Thursday, the new Friday, February 2nd. And today's pod is just the best one yet. It's the best pod we've ever done. Stocks jumped yesterday, keeping the 2023 stock market rally going strong. February, you look fantastic. Markets popped because the Fed only raised interest rates by a quarter of a percent at yesterday's big meeting. Jack, does this mean interest rate hikes are slowing down a bit? A little bit softer now. A little bit softer now. A little bit softer now. So, Jack, what's the first story for today's pie? Peloton stock jumped by 27% yesterday for its best day in years. Yet his Peloton isn't a fitness company anymore. It's a math company. For our second story, DC Comics, just announced the future of Batman. The hero Gotham needs is a licensing strategy. And our third and final story, we're looking at meta.

Facebook is the first big tech icon to announce earnings this week. And here's what Zuck did. Zuck Shmoos. I lose Wall Street really hard. Full court schmooze by Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, we got a new title for Mr. Zuck. But yet is, before we hit that fantastic mix of stories. A perfect mix of stories, man.

I love this mix. Tomorrow is Friday. The real Friday. And so Jack and I, we're going to mix things up for you on tomorrow's pod. Instead of dropping a typical T-boy episode, which would have been our best one yet, we're going to drop a bonus T-boy episode, which is still going to be the best one yet.

Because Nick and I interviewed the founder of a company that grew 13,000% in three years. Bessies, Jack and I just had lunch with a guy who's raised $175 million. The founder and CEO that Nick and I just spoke with, he dreamed of being the Duff beer guy when he was a kid. But it turns out he's actually buff, not Duff. This guy's an ultra-marathoner. He's buff, not Duff. Key words there. So you want to know who it is, we interview.

Edis, we know what you're curious about who it is that we're speaking with tomorrow? Here's a hint. We recorded this episode over Dry January. Here's another hint. It's a performance enhancing liquid. Here's a final hint. The company is big, but it's also craft. And one finaler hint.

Yetis, hope you enjoyed tomorrow's bonus pot. Cheers to you, Yetis. Cheers to you, Nick. Here we go. We'll see it tomorrow on the bonus episode. So enjoy today's pod and enjoy tomorrow's bonus pot. Let's hit our three stars. Fifteen years before this song,

two boys from the northeast, 50%. That's a sweet read to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. For our first story, Peloton stock just searched 27% for its best day in a long time, man. We still own the stock yet. We still own the stock. Because in the last year, Peloton stopped focusing on muscles and started focusing on math. They did.

And they didn't even take our idea. Remember that idea we had that we never shared with them, the turnaround plan, Jack? the one where you and I co-host a ride on Peloton and do the podcast as a 20-minute Peloton ride. Remember that one? When you whip up the takeaways, we like all get into thirds, you know? Well, Yeti's one year ago, Peloton stock had a busted glute, a pulled hammy, and was lying down on the floor just needing a little tender love and care. One year ago, word was out on Wall Street that Peloton had overhired, overspent, over-invested, and under-delivered during the pandemic. So Peloton made move number one.

They replaced their founder and CEO with a new guy named Barry McCarthy. Well, Peloton's earnings yesterday revealed how Barry's work has been in the past year. And Jack, what's the theme of what Barry's been working on over at Peloton? Barry has melted away as much corporate fat as he possibly could. Yeties, the number of employees at Peloton is less than half of what it was a year ago. Peloton has outsourced everything in Barry McCarthy's tenure. Everything. They outsourced bike manufacturing.

They outsourced bike delivery. Oh, and they even cut down on content. Like, no more of those fancy scenic guided rides that were so charming to do on a Saturday morning. I love those guided scenic rides. I've done the Savannah, Georgia ride with Adrian Williams four times already. Four times. There's only so many times I can ride around Savannah with Adrian Williams. Another peach.

Another peach. Another peach. Like, I know why they call it the peach stand, Adrian. You told me that three times already. But Yeties, there is one. problem still facing Peloton. And that problem is that it's still losing money. In fact, every time Peloton sells a bike, it is an immediate loss for the company. Okay, Yettees, get this. The profit margin on Peloton's connected equipment. Which are the bikes, the treadmills, and the rowers that Peloton

sells. It was a negative 11% last quarter. Negative. So Peloton is charging $1,500 for their standard bike. Okay. The problem, that bike costs 1665 to produce. Jack, you don't have to be a mathematician to know. It's not good when you sell your product for an immediate $165 loss. But yesterday we saw some hope because Barry McCarthy said he saw, and I quote, A path to the promised land. A path to the promise land. And Jack, what is that potential path to the promise land?

It's the Peloton app. That's the promise land. Yeti's Peloton's app is why the stock just searched 27% yesterday. Not the bikes. Yeah. The app. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are very relieved over at Peloton? Peloton isn't a fitness company anymore. It's a math company. Yeah, it is not good that Peloton loses 165 bucks on every single

bike that it sells. But you know what it is good? The $44 a month subscription that customers pay after buying a bike. Because, besties, every one of those $44 subscription payments for the app is $29 in pure profit for Peloton. We crunched the pretty simple math, and we calculated the payback period on a Peloton bike. After just six months, a bike sale is profitable for Peloton. If so facto, Peloton loses money when you buy a bike, but it makes money if you keep their app for six months.

And the churn at Peloton is so low that after six months, there's only a 1% probability that a customer ends their subscription. So the way Jack and I see it, Peloton isn't a fitness company. Peloton is a math company. And the CEO in the past year has made the math work. For our second story, Warner Brothers Discovery just announced a new strategy for Batman. Because just like us humans, superheroes can get jealous too. Yeah, yet he's...

Funny thing Jack and I have noticed about Batman, Batman serves Gotham, but he also serves shareholders. Yes, you can own shares of Batman, believe it or not. Because DC Comics, which makes Batman, is owned by Warner Bros. Warner Brothers Discovery, a $40 billion publicly traded content factory. And Warner Brothers finally revealed this week a plan to reinvigorate the DC comic superhero movie slate. For the first time since POW, they're unveiling 10 new movies, TV shows, and schmovies around the whole Batman universe. In 2025, Superman and Supergirl are getting movies. Yeah, Wonder Woman is getting a Game of Thrones-style prequel. Swamp Thing. Don't even know what that is. And Green Lantern, they're both getting shows.

Even Robin, you've been upgraded. You are getting a movie, Robin. Mine is the green undies, but you're getting to movie. Now, here's why DC is doing this. Batman is jealous of Spider-Man. Batman is like, are you kidding me? Do you see what Spider-Man's doing? I got to get some of that, man.

Alfred, what's going on? Yeties, this isn't just 10 new movies. It is DC Comics' grand plan to suck the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They are trying to make the world burn. Here's why. The Marvel superheroes are the most lucrative character franchise in the history of Hollywood. 13 years ago, Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion.

They did. Since then, they've put out 40 Marvel movies. We're talking Iron Man, Black Panther, the Hulk, Dr. Strange, Captain America. So many superheroes, you wonder why any bad guys even try to take over planet Earth. And the $4 billion they invested has already turned into $20 billion at the box office. Disney's acquisition of Marvel is one of the greatest investments and acquisitions of all time. All right, now let's turn to DC Comics. They've been disorganized in comparison.

Batman needs Alfred to start running his business plan. Warner Brothers Discovery admitted this week that they messed up with DC Comics. They weren't strategic with the Batman IP. They said they gave it away like it was a party fame. These movies have had different actors, different directors, different films, different strategies. They even canceled the Batgirl movie last year before a premiere. Which was a whole awkward situation for everyone in Goth. That's why the 10 new movies, Nick and I,

mentioned at the beginning of the story will be overseen by two creative directors, James Gunn and Peter Saffrey. So Robin, he's not going to punch anything. Wonder Woman, she's not going to fly anywhere. Unless those two guys approve it first. So Jack, is there a takeaway that it's not who you are, but what you do that defines you? No, no, it's not. Okay, so then what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Batman? There's storytelling, and then they're storytelling at scale. Yeties, What made Batman great in the 20th century was the storytelling. But what makes Marvel great in the 21st century is storytelling at scale. Because Marvel overlaps its franchises.

It doesn't just keep Spider-Man and Iron Man separate and like never interacting. In fact, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man while interning at Stark Industries in the latest movies. And it's exactly those overlapping stories that are part of a larger Marvel plan that has had a massive payoff. That last Avengers movie brought all the characters. together to bring in 2.8 billion at the box office. That's a record. But on the other hand, Warner Brothers did the opposite with the DC Comics. Like the Joker movie, it's just the Joker. Like that's it. It's just Joker. Yetis, there has been no master plan for DC Comics movies until now. Now Batman may finally have a plan for storytelling at scale.

Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of Yetis don't realize how much prep work goes into this pot. We spend hours every morning jumping in T-boy style to earnings reports, CEO tweets, breaking news headbikes. Yeah, Jack and I are toggling tabs like you toggled IM Convo's in 2004. Having eight tabs open can be stressful. You don't need that, especially when invest. Robin Hood offers it all in one app. Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stocks through Robin Hood Financial, or you want to buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto.

You can do it all on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and choose your free stock. Robinood.com slash TBOY. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved with us. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood. We are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, we are about to get a whole bunch of big tech earnings

and meta just kick things off in like a really big way. After yesterday's meta earnings, we're giving Zuck a new title. Schmooser in chief. Okay, Yeties, fun fact for this weekend about Facebook. What is it, Jack? Trivier. Before last year, revenues had never fallen ever at Facebook. Going all the way back from when they expanded to like from Harvard to Rice University. They had never seen revenues drop. But with yesterday's earnings, we just saw revenues drop for a third consecutive quarter.

Oh, and Zuck's Metaverse? It turns out he spent how much money on it now, Jack? He spent $14 billion on a Metaverse that doesn't exist. The Metaverse doesn't even exist in the Metaverse yet. But Zuck still had. a powerful pack of profitable apps. He's got Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. That is $5 billion in pure profit puppy. So meta stock surged 19% after yesterday's earnings report, the biggest day for the stock in years.

Now, yet he's jack-inly almost didn't cover this story. We were wondering, should we cover these big meta earnings? What's gonna be in these things? Oh, we found something in these things. We did. We found one word in these things. And that one word is the same word that every tech CEO is saying, right?

now. That word is efficiency. Efficiency. Efficiency. Efficiency is corporate speak. Yeah, Jack, can you translate that one for us? How do you translate efficiency from corporate speak? Efficiency is how a CEO describes layoffs to Wall Street, but without saying layoffs. Yeah, for example, Zuck said that our management theme for 2023 is the year of efficiency, as if we're like the year of the rabbit kind of a thing. One day before that, Spotify executive said the same thing. They said efficiency 12 times in their earnings, and they also had been announcing layoffs. It is, if you work at Meta and you've got all hands this week, ask a question about, what does efficiency mean? Can we jump into that one a little bit further?

Well, to be efficient, Facebook has let go of 11,000 people since starting the year. And to be efficient, Facebook has canceled its new office building in New York City. And to be efficient, they have canceled new data centers they were planning to open around the world. And Jack, what is doing all that efficiency done for the bottom line? It's freed up some cash. It has freed up some cash, like a lot of cash. 11,000 fewer workers means a lot more cash for Facebook. Which is why Zuck also just announced yesterday that he is buying back $40 billion of his own meta stock.

And guess what? Wall Street loved that efficient plan. Shares of meta surge 19% in the biggest gain we've seen since the poke. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at meta? Zuck's best skill. He is the schmoozer in chief. Yet he's come on a little story ride with us here. Early on, Zuck was trying to impress college students.

So he wore a hoodie, he moved fast, and he broke things. Then Zuck needed to impress advertisers. So he hired Cheryl Sandberg, a competent COO who built an incredible mobile ad system. Then he needed to pacify angry politicians. So he put on a suit and tie and hired one of the biggest lobbying teams in corporate history. And now he has to win back Wall Street, which literally. lost faith in him last year for the first time ever. So he branded 2023 the year of efficiency and now is buying back a ton of his own stock. Yet he's whatever challenge Facebook has faced,

Zuck has found the right person to schmooze. The real reason meta stock is up 19% right now? It's because Zuck's best skill is schmoozer in chief. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Peloton had its best stock day in years as losses shrink. Yeah, because Peloton transformed from a fitness company to a math company. For our second story, DC Comics just unveiled 10 new movies and two new creative directors to oversee them. Because there's storytelling and then there's storytelling at scale. And our third and final story, meta just won back Wall Street love, with efficiency and a stock buyback. And Zuck got to show off his very best skill, schmoozer in chief.

Now time for the best fact yet, this one sent in by Terris Mellenchenko from lovely Austin, Texas. Terris heard us talking yesterday about velociraptors in the pod. Remember, Nick? Velociraptors. Exactly, Jack. Velociraptors. How can I forget the Velocerap? It's spelled just like it sounds. Velocerator. But this got Terris thinking about the word dinosaur, which was actually invented way back in 1841. Right. Which actually isn't that far back if you think about what the word dinosaur means. We named the dinosaurs a lot long after we discovered the dinosaurs. It was so really. Richard Owen, who invented the word, by combining two Greek words. The two Greek words he combined were Dinos, which is terrible, and Soros.

Which is lizard. So you put Dinos and Soros together, and what do you get in that translation jack? Velociraptor. That terrible, terrible lizard. Yeties, you look fantastic today. And we hope you enjoy tomorrow's bonus pod, which we're dropping at the usual time. I like what you did there. That's my best impression.

And that's your final clue. Your final, final clue? I'm going to feel great tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti Puxetani Phil in Pennsylvania, who just got out of bed and is looking for his shadow. We're hoping for six more weeks of stocks going up.

And a happy early birthday to my younger sister, Katie Martell, who is celebrating this Saturday in New York City, across the city. Party hard, Katie. and happy birthday to Amy Song from West New York, New Jersey. And Sylvester, the investor, Godolja. Happy birthday in Bradenton, Florida. Mattress, mattress, mattress. And get this, Sophia Ramirez and Christy Nicoletti,

cousins with the same birthday. Happy birthday. Speaking of which, Jack, Silver, and his twin brother both have the same birthday today in Seoul, South Korea. I don't know what's going on here, but Jennifer Wong and Vanessa Gonzalez both turning 33 into spot together. Have a great time this weekend.

And a happy birthday to Sue Mer Sao over in Orlando, Florida. Happy birthday and congratulations to Nicole Rashid, who has a birthday and had a baby in San Francisco. And Cormac Ronan celebrate that birthday over in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Happy birthday to Sarajeun in Brooklyn, New York. And Emily Sweet, happy birthday in Boston, just outside Boston. And happy birthday to the mom of twins, Kaylee Morris, down in Kentucky. And Nico Croft is turned in two in Durow, Florida. And a big happy birthday to Jennifer Corbyn and, and her.

their bunnies in Chicago. Oh, and Jack, Amy Yan just moved to Seattle with her husband, her dog, her cat, and her turtle, and her veliceraptor. I thought she was going to leave her turtle behind. Oh, and John Killen and John Killen Jr. are driving down to Tampa Bay for the NHL All-Star game. Fun fact, Nick's AOL screen name in middle school, face-off guy 22. Not ashamed of it either.

And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Nick and I both own stock of Peloton, Spotify, and Robin Hood. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of you listen to our show

while you're driving. Two hands on the wheel. Keep it ten and two. You might be cruising, Chris, no rush, stay in the right lane. Or you might be doll lane from Duncan, dotting from lane to lane. And there are different drivers on the road.

They're different investors too. Maybe you're cruising down the long-term lane with stock investing, or maybe you're a more advanced full-speed trader. Well, the Robin Hood app helps put you in the driver's seat wherever you're at in your investing journey. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinood.com slash T-B-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robinhood. It's a great party trick. You just sneak up behind someone and go, hey. My life goal is to be a human soda stream.