The Best One Yet - 👼 “The Mechanical Mary Poppins” — Snoo’s bassinet lesson. Big Tech’s new map app. The Fed’s Smokey The Bear strategy.

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

The Snoo is selling $100M of smart baby bassinets every year — But this baby startup borrowed a lesson from BMW. Google Maps and Apple Maps are a navigation duopoly — But Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft just teamed up for a 3rd map app. The Fed just raised interest rates to their highest level in 22 years — Because the Fed’s thinking like Smokey Bear. $GOOG $AAPL $META $AMZN $MSFT $BMWYY Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn 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, July 27th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy, Jack. Nick and I are dressed in Barbicourt today. We are. But Jack, can we talk about the streak?

Have you noticed the streak? Wait, did the streak continue? The streak continues. 13 straight days of stock market gains. Jack, do you know when the last time the stock market was this winning? 10 years. No. 20 years.

No. 30? The streak is older than us, my friend. friend. No. The last time the stock market was up this many days in a row, 1987. This is Joe DiMaggio-esque of a streak. Jack, that's not millennial. That's Gen X. Some 87 babies are going to be very upset with that comment. It's a controversial line. Jack, what's the first story for today's show? For our first story, the map industry has been dominated by Google and Apple for over a decade. But three other tech giants just teamed up for a third map. That's right. We're going to have Google Maps

Apple Maps, and what we're calling Franken Maps. It's alive. Jack's second story, what do we got? The Fed just hiked interest rates again. The 11th interest rate hike of their inflation crushing campaign. Because the Fed is following a lesson from our buddy, Smokey the Bay. And our third and final story is the Snoo. The Snoo.

This smart bassinet transformed parenting. But the snoo had to borrow an idea from BMW. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. It's just a lovely mix of stories. Jack, great mix. What is the most relaxing animal you can have in your presence? Jack, is it a cute kitten? Is it a koala?

Is it a precious puppy? What is it, Jack? Great guesses, but no. The number one most soothing, alleviating stress relief animal is a bird. It's the bird yet he specifically bird noises. According to the Wall Street Journal, if you're trying to relax, you don't need to borrow your buddy's pet puppy. All you got to do if you want to relax is you need to listen to birds.

Feathered friends help you avoid a freak out. That nightingale is a namaste. This is part of a trend that the Wall Street Journal is calling ecotherapy. Ecotherapy. It is scientific evidence that bird sounds provide therapeutic support. Real thing. That's right. Churps relieve stress.

That peep alleviates anxiety. Birds. The other Twitter. Less carnage, more cardinals. Less Q or not, more swan. Jack and I should point out, you could spend $100 bucks on a psychiatrist right now. Or, like I did, you could drop 20 bucks on a bird feeder and three more bucks on some bird seeds. Because when you turn 30, you don't find birding.

Birding finds you. Exactly. But Yeties, we also see this trend in the day. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. Turns out bird songs on Spotify, they're up 40% this year. Birds are the new Bieber. Let's do a leap of more doves. Plus, Lizzo.

More larks. Shh, Jack, I'm listening to Drake. Oh, yeah, I love the rapper Drake. No, the bird Drake. Adam, can you play us A songbird? Pretty sure that's an owl, Adam. That's a songberg.

Yetis, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm that had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the bad need to practice. 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 Google and Apple dominate the market for maps but a third player

is coming and it's a very interesting third player rivals meta Amazon and Microsoft all teamed up to create a third map app

but Jack if we're going to talk about maps today can we talk a little bit about maps yesterday the oldest map known and still intact is from 700 BC

who whipped up that one Jack where did that come from It's a Babylonian tablet. Classic. Jack and I'm looking at it right now. No, my cartography's a little rusty, but this doesn't look drawn to scale. While there's been a resurgence in physical maps during the pandemic, the truth is, we just don't need maps anymore. Yeah, because of the map apps on our phones, Google and Apple, they are most likely, like, honestly, they're the number one apps in your, they're on your home screen.

And these two dominant map apps have broadened their use case beyond the navigation, the GPS that we started. Because when you whip open a Google Maps, you're not just navigating, you're going to get the restaurant's phone number. or you're going to the website of that bodega, or you're checking out the store hours of the drug store. And Google and Apple, they don't give away their map apps for free either. No, they don't. It turns out that advertising in these map apps is a profit puppy. Google makes $11 billion a year, $11 billion,

just in ads placed on Google Maps. It's like three lifts. And both of the apps, they also charge companies like Uber, big money in order to access their maps for their own apps. Yeah, so Jack and I are saying here is lots of apps have to pay these map apps a lot of money, to use their maps. And that huge market is dominated by two companies and two companies only. Just Google and just Apple.

But in December, three other tech giants dropped a pin. Shocking news with more information yesterday. Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon announced plans to share data for the creation of a new third map. That's right. Call Magellan because the data set for that third app just went public yesterday. Jack, I'm sorry, we couldn't reach Magellan. but we did get Sir Francis Drake

and he would like to have a word. Did we just say Drake again in this podcast? Three different Drake's, one episode. I like the bird the most. Now this third app, it's not an app yet. It's a data set to build an app. Now, Jack, we should explain why that is key. This data set includes 59 million places,

buildings, streets, roads, and boundaries that meta, Microsoft, and Amazon together have crowdsourced. Again, meta, Microsoft and Amazon have put together all their information to take on Google and Apple. And with those 59 million data points, a developer can build a third app to rival Apple Maps and Google Maps.

Here's the game. It's three tech giants versus one tech giant versus another tech giant. I'd make a triangulation joke because this is a map story. It's fair. But that's all I got, actually. Well, Lewis and Clark with the original Jack and Nick. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the tech industry? Our tech giants don't like each other.

And that's actually a great thing. Yeties, we have five tech Goliaths in this economy. And you know what? That's a threat to competition. But those mighty tech Goliaths, they compete against each other. They're always picking fights with each other. That's actually a really good thing for us consumers. That Elon and Zuck happen to hate each other and hate each other's abs.

It is great for consumers that Google and Apple are competing against each other for smartphones. And that Microsoft and Google are at it in AI. In fact, all five of these tech giants are battling each other in the market for tablets, for example. Do you want more? Our tech Golias are even forming alliances to take down the other Goliaths like we're seeing right now. This story is meta, Amazon, and Microsoft taking on Apple and also taking on Google. Yeah, did we ever think we'd see the day? Because we never thought we'd see the day.

This is like a cage match for computing. This is like a Royal Rumble. For RAM. Yeah. Our tech giants do not like each other at all. And that is a good thing. For our second story, in its biggest meeting of the summer, the Fed just raised interest rates to its highest point in 22 years, but maybe for the last time. Because when you're done putting out a fire, you pour on one more bucket of water just to make sure.

Yeti's last month, Jack and I spoke to you about a really interesting thing. It was called The Paws. After 10 straight interest rate increases, the Fed paused their interest rate hikes in June. The Fed paused. Everyone loved it. It was exciting. It felt like things were just chilling out in the economy. But yesterday, things weren't chilling out. The Fed raised interest rates again. They ended the pause. They pressed play on the pause, Jack. The Fed upped interest rates across the economy by a quarter percentage point to a 22-year high. Hot pause summer is over.

Hot pause summer is over. If you're looking to buy a house, a car, or if you have credit card debt, It just got a quarter percentage point price. All debt, everything involving interest rates just got 0.25% more expensive. And it was actually a big surprise that the Fed did this, because we told you this month that inflation has slowed way down. Yeah, this was such a shocker because prices have stopped popping. In June, according to government data, inflation fell to 3% from a high of 9.1% a year before. So Jack and I are wondering, why did our nation's central bank vote unanimously 11 to 0 to

raise interest rates again. Why are we working so hard on fighting inflation? Prices of eggs had already dropped by their biggest amount in 60 years. The frittata frustration inflation situation is over. The egg prices is not an issue anymore. And interest rate increases, they are painful. Why is the Fed continuing to hurt the economy with more and more heights? Now we know we should sprinkle on more context here. We're not at the target inflation rate of just 2% just quite yet. We're not quite there. But it seemed to our head in the right direction. We might have gotten there naturally. Now, the Fed did hint that this might be the last time that they raise rates on us.

But why another painful interest rate hike when it seemed like we didn't need it? Jay Powell, why? That's so frustrating. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the economy? Like Smokey the Bear said, when you think you've put the fire out, pour on one more bucket just to make sure. Yeti's inflation is a fire. If rising prices get out of control, it can destroy an economy like a fire. That's not an overstatement.

Rampant inflation can crush consumer spending. It can erode your savings. It can even lead to civil unrest. And that's why Jack and I see inflation as like a wildfire. Because it can burn up wealth. It can take down the income of an entire economy. So when you're trying to extinguish inflation, you take it seriously. And that's why the Fed is following the rules of Smokey the bear.

Yeties, the Fed, they'd poured on 10 huge buckets of water. It looked like the embers were gone. There was no more hissing. There wasn't even any steam coming up on that last bucket. It looked like the fire of inflation was out. But what does Smokey the Bear tell us, Jack? Dump on one more bucket just to make sure. Smokey the bear says pour on one more bucket just to be sure. And that's what the Fed did yesterday with this one last interest rate hike. Because when you think the fire's out, you pour on one more bucket of water.

Only you can prevent inflation. Now word from our sponsor, Rocket Money. Yet he's every month for two hours. Jack and I read the worst book ever. It's the 15th of the month for me, and that brutal book is my credit card statement. You're like trying to remember all those things that you spend money on.

Wait, what are these things? By far, the worst part is realizing I'm still paying for that subscription. I should have canceled. Yeah, $15 a month for streaming plus? A monthly oatmeal meal kit delivery? $85 for a $5 for a $5? flower delivery going to our old address?

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Go to drinkelement.com slash T-Boy to get a free sample pack with any purchase. That's drinklm-M-N-T.com slash T-B-O-Y to hydrate like every day is the new Friday. For our third and final story, the snoo. The snoo was transforming child care in America with a tech-enabled bassinet, but then sales slowed. So, Snoo found a solution by turning to BMW. A baby company found a solution from a car company. It's just as expensive as a BMW. That's a great point.

Yeah, that's why the big drama right now when you become a parent, trust us. People ask, are you getting the snoo? There's a lot of judgment. Yeah, it's not like, are you going to find out the gender? It's, are you getting a snoo? It's like question number one. They only want to know the name. They want to know the snoo.

The snoo. It's a $1,700 baby appliance. This thing is a smart bassinac. Yeties, this thing is a mechanical Mary Poppins. It's the Tesla of Cribs. Literally, it was invented by the doctor who discovered the five S's of soothing a newborn baby.

And those five SES are swaddle, shush, side position, swing, and suck. Yeties, the smart technology in this bass net will sense when your baby is fussing and then use the five S's to soothe it so you can get back to sleep. That's why we see it as the Tesla of Cribs. If your baby's

crying, it starts swinging. If your baby's fussing, it starts shushing. And frankly, it looks like a West Elm collaboration with the Apple store. Yeah, this thing is mid-century modern design with metal eggs, a beautiful white fabric webbing thing. Which is why Gwyneth Poutra bought one. Jessica Biel bought one. Jack, did you hear how many Beyonce has? No, but I bought one, too.

Where does she has eight of them? Ours is two babies deep, actually. Sounds like you didn't read the user manual, Jack. No, that's not true. You can buy it and use it for multiple kids. The real question is, why is there no adult version of this thing, Jack? Yeah, I'm also looking for an adult strolling. would love to be pushed around Central Park, wrapped in a nice blanket.

Give us an adult happy meal and then rock us to bed in an adult Snoo. We would love it. Entrepreneurs, your move. In the meantime, Snoo has raised $45 million from investors like Justin Timberlake and Google. And they've hit $100 million in sales last year, but there's one problem with that number. They were targeting $150 million in sales. So Snoo has a funny challenge that Jack and I noticed. Snoo's biggest competition is itself.

Snoo's biggest competition is itself because there's a huge market for used snoo. If you go to Craigslist and type in snoo, you're going to find like 40 used snooze. Literally right now, San Francisco is searching for snooze on Craiglist 42 snooos, 42 used snooze half the price. If you work at JPMorgan or Snapchat, you can expense your snoo actually. It's a company benefit so that you can remain productive and get more sleep. Which sounds good for SNU, except that those parents then put the snoo's on Craigslist and sell them to make a quick buck. Here's the fundamental issue. You only use the SNU for the infant phase for like six months and then you don't need it anymore.

Then you toss it on eBay and then SNU has to compete with that use snoo. So this is good and bad for SNU, the secondary market. It's good because it shows that the snoo's product is long lasting and durable. Yeah, not every product has a secondary market. But it's bad because new snooes have to compete. with lower priced perfectly fine, use snooze. That's why sales of new snooes have been snoozing recently.

If you're snoo and you snooze, you'll lose. If you snooze, you're snoozing losing. Yeah. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at snow? This baby company learned a critical lesson from BMW. Yes, they did. Yet he's 20 years

ago, BMW car executives realized they had a problem, and that problem was used BMWs. There was huge demand in 2003 for a used beamer. And that started to hurt sales of new beemers. And BMW had no control of the quality of those used beemers, which also hurt the BMW brand. So BMW launched certified pre-owned BMWs. Remember the commercials? Love the commercials. Remember them well. BMW would buy used BMWs and then sell them for a little bit of a profit while also maintaining

quality control. Well, this year, Snoo took that business lesson from BMW. They launched certified pre-loved snoo's. Certified pre-loved snooze. Snoo recognized a large used market it was missing out on. And they recognized they needed to control the quality of that large used market. So yeah, now Snoo, they're selling you snooze for half the price. But that protects the brand and it's still profitable. That is a certified pre-owned business model.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for the new Friday? Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are game. banging up to create a third map app. Tech Golias don't face much competition except from each other. For our second story, the Fed raised interest rates for an 11th time in just two years.

Because when you think the fire is out, you pour on one more bucket of water just like smoky tautus. And our third and final story is the snoo. It's making waves among the new parent text chain that your buddies in. And this baby company took a lesson from BMW.

And full disclosure, Jack, we did the certified pre-love snoop. That's what we ended up doing. I know. I feel a little guilty. We cut out of their profits, but this felt better. Does it smell like the other baby?

I didn't notice a little something. Oh, worry. All babies smell great. But the pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, meta just announced earnings. And the stock jumped 6% on advertising. But Zuck admitted they've spent $21 billion on a Metaverse

that doesn't even exist yet. And second, the executive from Mattel, responsible for Barbie's huge moment right now, is leaving Mattel. He's selling his own stock really high. He got promoted to be the CEO of the Gap. And finally, Trader Joe's is recalling two cookie products because, get this, they contained rocks.

They may contain rocks. Yeah, the almond windmill cookie and the dark chocolate chunk and almond cookie. Yeah, that chip felt a little too hard. Definitely spit it out. Now time for the best fact yet, this one sent in by Larissa Hatch from lovely Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania. It is outrageously warm this summer. It is so hot right now.

It's the dog days of summer right now. The thermometer proves it. Which led to the question, the term dog days of summer, where does it come from? It comes from ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks noticed that the Sirius star was the brightest star in the galaxy in the month of July. And Sirius is a star in the constellation Canis Major, which happens to be the concept. installation that looks like a dog. So the Greeks believed that the power of those dog stars

made these summers so darn hot. They made them like that dog days a summer. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And because Jack and I want this to end on a really cathartic, therapeutic note for you, Jack, what do you say we'd play a couple bird songs for the Yetis? Adam, could you whip up the iconic song of the red-bellied white-tipped, sap-suckling northeast warbuckler sparrow, please?

with a side of piping plover. Let's make it too. Yetis, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, happy birthday to Yeti, William Simeone, the heart and soul of Trinity College. And happy birthday to Reagan Simiomiomi, William's sister,

who was born on the same day five years apart. And a happy birthday to Slovak Kali, the Slovak Queen of Massachusetts, just outside Boston. And happy birthday to Carl Ream from Grand Rapids, Michigan. And congratulations to a couple of Yetis, Brendan and Samantha who got married in the crazy mountains of Montana. And congratulations to coach Cameron Benjamin, who launched an F-45 fitness studio down in

Miami. And Savannah Westwood, congratulations on 100 five-star reviews for your savvy sitter service, a legendary Yeti business. You're getting all the love from your pen pal T-boy buddy, Kelsey Black. Do Yetis, now pen-pals. We love to see it. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify. Dude, that's actually the way that an owl hoots, it says, who cooks for you?

That's an owl. Who cooks for you? That's good. No, it's a really good call. Yeah. Who cooks for you?