The Best One Yet - 🐘 “The Jurassic Park startup” — Toast’s IPO champagne. Mailchimp’s bootstrapped billions. iPhone 13.

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

Toast is popping bottles for its IPO after finding the one area of food everyone forgot about. Mailchimp just sold for $12B by pulling off something no other startup its size has ever done. And every September, Apple hosts its major product event… behold the iPhone 13.$TOST $INTU $AAPLGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday. The new Thursday. September 15th. I know what you're thinking. How is the sod?

Yeah. How is that sod coming? It's like, what's the deal? I still don't understand that. Grown in Saratoga, New York. Yeah. Growing today in Vermont. You got self-driving cars.

You need self-growing lawns. Snackers, this is the best one yet. This is a TV-O-Y. Jack, what's our first story today? Email newsletter legend, Mailchimp, just got acquired for $12 billion. We're talking about the biggest bootstrap startup story. ever, like in history of the world.

For our second story, Toast. They're getting the tasting menu somewhere real nice right now because they're going public via IPO. Here's the thing about toast. They found the one area of food that apparently everyone forgot about. For our third and final story, Apple just did what they do every September. They had a big product unveil to show us the new iPhone. Yeah, this year's unveil was basically the iPhone mini of product.

Yeah, iPhone 13, rounding error. However, though, Jack, this is a fantastic mix of stories, Jack. I love this mix. But before we hit those three stories, we have to tell you about a shocking and alarming new startup. Yeah, it's called Colossal. Great name. Colossal. It sounds like a big deal.

We're actually not telling you about Colossal. No or not. It's more of a warning about Colossal. Jack and I are warning you about Colossil because Colossil's business model is to bring back the woolly mammoth. This is for real. True story. They just raised.

$15 million from venture capitalist because they want to genetically resurrect this extinct elephant-tine woolly mammoth species. Yeah, Jack, they're basically, they're trying to Jurassic Park this thing. That's what they're doing. Yeah, it's totally Dr. Grant. Where's Jeff Goldwyn when you need them? Life finds a way. No, Jack, we should talk about the business model here.

Step one for this company, colossal. Get fossil DNA from ancient dead mammoths. Pretty straightforward. Very Jurassic Park. Step two, modify the genetic code of the modern day elephant so that you can breed thousands of baby mammoth elephant things. And then you got to love step three, Jack. Unleash these mammoths back onto the Siberian tundra today. What could go wrong?

Classic. Now, the goal of colossal, they claim, is to fight climate change, believe it or not. Yeah, it's not just ego. The mammoths will eat the moss in the Arctic ipso facto. that stops the frozen soil from melting. Can you tell me about the business model? How are they going to make money? Yeah, Jack.

It looks like it's a D to C, direct to caveman situation. Yeah. Competitive advantage for Colossal? It's the tusks, Jack. It's the big tusks. You can't fight them. And what is the big business risk? Well, the risk here is that the mammoths think people taste better than Arctic Moss.

The best part, though, the investors are also exotic species. Yeah, it's Peter Thiel and a couple of the Winklevoss twins. Love it. Colossel. Let's hit our three stars. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about the hair ain't food.

It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robin Hood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you.

Robahood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. Our first story, MailChimp, the company that is cramming your inbox right now, just got acquired for a whopping $12 billion, Jack. Is that the mammoth startup? What's going on over there? Intuit is the acquire, Nick. And Intuit sent two checks to two people, the two co-founders. That's it. Sounds like the beginning of a Stephen King novel. Keep going. I'm curious now. Let's go. Snaggers, Melchimp is an OG of the creator economy.

Oh, yeah, 13 million people and small businesses send out email newsletters using MailChimp. MailChimp has been sending email newsletters since 2001. And rule number one of having an email newsletter next, talk to me, Jack. Subscriber number one has to be your mom. Oh, every time. Your mom will open every newsletter you said. When we launched Market Snacks back in the day, we were using MailChimp. We should share that.

My mom was the biggest refer. They're still opening those emails, which is great. They're still opening. They're not sending them out, but they're still. opening. My open rate is 3,000%. It's not even mathematically possible, mom, but I'm impressed. If you go to your Gmail right now and type in MailChimp, there's probably seven or eight emails. You had no idea that were powered by MailChimp. One's from Tommy's Tomatoes, the like weekly produce update you're getting. The other one's some political thing that you've got to donate immediately. All right. Clearly Nick and I

have a thing for Mailchip. But why is into it a financial software company acquiring Mailchip, a newsletter company? The explanation seems to be that. But Intuit thinks small businesses use MailChimp and Intuit wants more business with small businesses. Yeah. So if you use MailChimp to send your email newsletter, get ready. Because Intuit is going to start peppering you with marketing emails for TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and anything else they're selling. Because they own all those companies. But here's what Jack and I find fascinating about MailChimp. Snackers, MailChimp is unlike any other startup we've seen for this reason. Mailchimp never took money from outside investors. Never. The two co-founders of MailChimp put all of their savings into MailChimp all the way back in 2001.

And then that was it. And then for 20 years, they never took venture capital funding. They didn't toss on the Alberds, hit up Silicon Valley with like a 12-slide pitch deck and tell everyone, hey, we're changing the world, man. We're connecting everybody. Instead, Mailchimp made 800 million of revenue last year. That's the money they used to fund the business. So according to Axios, MailChimp is actually the biggest ever acquisition of a bootstrap startup in history.

MailChimp was founded in Atlanta and is still based there. And Atlanta is the opposite of San Francisco. It's the opposite for like a whole bunch of reasons we really don't even have to get into. All right. The two co-founders of MailChimp, they own 50% of the company each. Andresen Horowitz. Yeah, Jack. owns none of MailChimp.

That's wild. We're talking about two guys who launched Mailchip as a side hustle. And now they just got to be. got $6 billion each. We could make this up. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who we used to use over at MailChimp? Venture capital isn't for every startup and it doesn't have to be. Yeah, Snackers, Jack and I were talking through the story. We were whiteboarding the whole thing. We were thinking about doing a takeaway on the power of the newsletter industry. Because your Gmail inbox is powerful digital real estate. But then Jack and I like reassessed. And we said, you know what?

The real takeaway here is on MailChimp's story, not on Mailchimp's business mom. Bootstrapping is the way that MailChimp. scaled from 2001 all the way to today. It takes longer. It's a slower road of entrepreneurship. It took Melchimp 20 years to exit the company. That's a lot of time. But the typical venture capital way to grow a business, that brings challenges to. Yeah, you got constantly pitching VCs, takes money, you got pressure to scale, takes time pivoting your business model to like meet investor goals. That's a whole different thing. And if you're an entrepreneur, you like to think that you are your own boss, right? It's a great thing. But if you take VC funding, the VC is your

Meanwhile, the MailChimp founders focused entirely on their business instead of on their investors. Bootstrapping definitely isn't for every entrepreneur or every startup. But neither is venture capital funding and MailChimp just showed why. For our second story, Toast is IPOing like this week or next week. It's happening really soon. And Toast is thriving in a category that DoorDash Uber eats and Square all neglected. Take out. Take out.

Because honestly, the founders of Toast, based in Boston, lovely place. They loved restaurants, but they noticed something going on with like the ordering tech. We've all seen this. If you order takeout, you call somebody. Somebody answers. For a while, you misunderstand each other's orders. Yeah, first, they don't answer for the first three times you call. It's the fourth time you call they pick up. True.

And then when you finally tell them that you want a thing on your thigh? Chicken low made. Okay, let's go with that. You finally tell them you want chicken low made. They write it down with paper and pen. Scribally. And then whip that piece of paper through a zip line to the kitchen. It's going to hit somebody.

And then when the order's done, They spike the order on a spike. What is that? You know those spikes? I know the spikes. They look like a liability in the kitchen. I don't know what they still have. It's so that you can look back five orders ago and see who screwed up.

So that is what Toast is trying to fix. Boston-based Toast, they call their app basically digital hospitality, beautiful terms, specifically for restaurants. Toast lets you do online ordering, contactless payment, and takeout ordering at restaurants. Let's say your go-to smoothie order at Pometo is a Bay Blend bowl with the, coconut latte. You get it every time. The toast app lets you reorder that same order for pickup with like two taps in the toast app. Super easy. You get to the store, it's right there with your name on the tab. Which is wonderful. The sad downside here, probably a matter of time before wait

staff and order takers are replaced with the toast app. True. Toast makes ordering so easy. I am worried for the whole server industry. But snackers, Jack and I step back for a sec. Here's how we're seeing toast fit in. There have been huge shifts in behavior. you during the pandemic. And it happened in restaurants in a big way. Right. White collar firms, they all signed up for Zoom. Yeah, they did. Well, restaurants all signed up for Toast. Boom, you got 48,000 food and restaurant locations using Toast right now. Okay, Toast made almost 500 million in revenue on 38 billion in sales for all the food that was ordered through toast. Big numbers. Let's keep going. That means Toast made 1.3 cents for every dollar of orders that was ordered through toast.

That's a tiny amount. It's teeny 1.3 cents on each dollar. That's like not much. But if you look at the 2.6 trillion spent globally every year at the world's 22 million restaurants. Oh, that's a big number, Jack. Then you realize if Toast can conquer just a tiny fraction of that, we're talking a lot of cents next. So Toast making teeny bits and all your takeout, but there is just so much takeout. Toast is hoping to IPO this week or next.

They're still unprofitable, but they're hoping for a 20%. 20 billion valuation. They're also hoping the return to post-COVID normal doesn't make restaurants quit their toast subscriptions. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies eating over a toast? Toast focused where the rest of Silicon Valley didn't take out. Snackers square, you know it well, the payment dongles, they dominate in-store retail for cafes and every coffee shop in your neighborhood.

Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhubhub. They dominate the delivery app market right now. Toast does both dine in and delivery, but what really differentiates toast? is takeout. Takeout is the deep-fried Cinderella story of the entire 18 months of pandemic we have. I love the way you put it. Euro monitor, a research firm, they're expecting a whopping 51% of all 2021 food service revenues in the United States to be takeout. Let that sink in. If every order you make at a restaurant was a vote, yeah? Takeout would be president right now. Takeout is the emperor of Americans eating food. In second place is dine in with 40%

And just 9% of restaurant orders are for delivery. That is it. So Square and DoorDash, they totally neglected takeout. Toast is thriving on it. For our third and final story, Apple, just hosted its once-a-year epic, huge, big, annual product unveil event. I got to say, this was the smallest, huge event we've ever seen. I mean, honestly, I don't want to be mean either, Jack,

but like, kind of the most boring Apple event in years. No eye car, no eye toilet. Great graphics. Just another iPhone. I guess if you want to be disruptive, Apple, bring back the iPod. There are marginal improvements across the board, but no new features at all. iPod 18, one step backward to make one step forward. Snackers, what Apple actually unveiled yesterday is the iPhone 13, cool. The Apple Watch Series 7.

Okay. And another iPad. Yeah. And Apple claims that iPhone 13 has better battery, better screen, and a better camera. Right. And we claim you probably won't notice the difference. Yeah. Because the price is the same tip.

Yeah. It's 800 bucks. Right. The iPhone 13 Mini comes in at 700. The 13 Pro comes in a thousand and the pro max 1100. You know the drill. And it's going to now come in Sierra Blue because you want it to match your Tesla. Of course.

Ooh. You're that guy. You get to be that guy. Apple's one more thing. Yeah. It was actually Apple Fitness Plus. It was. A $10 a month fitness app that's been doing pretty well.

Well, actually, Apple Fitness Plus, we noticed, has been doing so well that Apple is adding winter sports to their brand new fitness regimen lineup. Olympic gold medal skier Ted Liggety. Great names. Is now working for Apple, I guess. And helping skiers get their quads ready for the skisies. Yeah, apparently they're doing a whole bunch of winter sports and are overdue for a smart puck. I puck.

That's the next thing. Now, they're also doing group workouts because if you are going to work out at home, you may as well be working out with, I don't know, your mother-in-law, that would be fun. We should do that, Chuck. The light in me sees the light in you. And they're doing team guided meditation. So, Jack, despite everything we just said about Apple's event, which wasn't like the nicest thing ever, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple?

As the iPhone gets more boring, it also gets more lucrative. Snackers, in the last 12 months, they have been the best 12 months ever for Apple by far in its entire history. Yes. And Apple is on pace for 200. 39 million iPhones sold this year, which would beat 2015's record by a lot. Apple just had its best year ever because iPhones are having their best year ever. iPhone innovation, though, has gotten boring. Yeah. The iPhone 13, I got to say, it's a rounding error difference from iPhone 12. But despite all that, more and more people are flocking to iPhones. One thing we always hear about

Apple, what's going to be the next big thing for Apple? Well, iPhone isn't done being its current Big thing. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us? Like you whipped up that bassinet, allegedly. We're going back to the bassinet. It's proof. You could say whipped up that backyard. The sod.

Mailchimp Snackers went from side hustle to $12 billion success. Because VC funding isn't the only way to scale. Mailchimp proves it. Toast is obsessed with restaurants and technology. And takeout which Silicon Valley like pretty much neglected. We're surprised Apple didn't skip 13 like elevators do. As the iPhone gets more boring, we're thinking it's getting a whole lot more lucrative. Now, time for our snack fact of the day.

This one sent in by Kevin Jimenez in Miami, Florida. Have you had a Cuban sandwich? I do enjoy the occasional Cuban sandwich, a little of the extra pickle. The Cuban sandwich has origins back in Cuba, but the one we know today came from Tampa, Florida in the late 1800s, specifically the cigar-producing neighborhood of Yibor City. The sandwich was popular among Cuban-American workers in that Floridian day. district who worked in cigar factories actually. Okay, so even though it's called a Cuban sandwich, the ingredients are kind of a nod to like the southern Italian bricklayers and the German cigar

workers who also immigrated to Florida in that same era. Yeah, we're talking pork, Swiss cheese, fantastic, pickles, break combo, and mustard. Yes. All sandwiched in Cuban bread. The Cuban sandwich, it is a melting pot. It is Florida. It is Cuba. Snackers, happy Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins today and lasts until October 15th. And if you've got to, a snack fact like this or any others, we have got a link right in this pod. You can click, give us a snack fact. I would love an audio snack fact right about now. We would love an audio snack fact. Snackers, go to your local Cuban deli if you're lucky enough to have one and ask them, HY, HY, HYSD. And then they'll know, have you had your snacks daily? Nick and I will see you

tomorrow. It was a pleasure. If you know, you know. And before we go, happy birthday, or should we say anniversary, to Louis, Louis. Alexander Martino from Sissu of France. And happy birthday to Shruti in India. And Daniel Petrarcha over at the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business. Network hard. Happy birthday to Hunter U-Man in Gainesville, Florida. Go Gators.

And Ava, the big 14th birthday over in Boston. But there's a lot of toast. I'll tell you next. Shelby H. H. hated her old job. I heard that. Just got promoted to a new one. Yeah.

Over in Seattle. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a big T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack, Nick owned stock of the Apple and Square. Robin Hood Snacks, Newsletters, and Podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.

They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc., Robin Hood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.