The Best One Yet - 🍓 “The perfect strawberry” — Oiishi’s indoor-grown super berries. Budweiser averts labor strike. Figure AI’s humanoid robot.

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Subscribe at tboypod.com/newsletter to get The Best Newsletter Yet.Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI all just invested in FigureAI, whose humanoid robots can do manual labor — The key isn’t the human-like bodies, it’s the AI brains.Following its worst year ever, Budweiser managed to avoid a worker strike — And it reveals one of our favorite lessons on negotiation.And Oiishi has invented the perfect strawberry… that’s also the world’s most expensive strawberry — The “Veblen Effect” explains how this berry defies economics.$BUD $NVDA $MSFTSubscribe 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. It's Friday, the real Friday. March 1st, and today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy. It's a T-boy. The top three pop business news stores you need to know today. Jack, last night in San Francisco, how are we celebrating the wins, man?

We're going to my first ever Michelin Star restaurants. It is taking Jack to the bar at Spruce to get the hamburger. We're getting the hamburger. Nick is so good at restaurant reservations. I love doing this for you. He's basically my cultural attache. in the best possible way. All right, today's we're going to the bar at Spruce.

We're going to get the burger. And then Jack's probably going to ask for like a truffle supplement on his caviar. No, you're going to order that for me because I don't know how to order that. One more flogra off for this guy, waiter. I'm very excited for my first Michelin experience. This is going to be fantastic. Jack, we got a wonderful show today. First story, what do we got?

For our first story, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Open AI and Jeff Bezos all invested in the same startup. Figure AI. We're building a humanoid robot with a human-like brain. For our second story, it's Budweiser. Budweiser just avoided a strike that would have shut down their breweries nationwide. And this strike was a masterclass in negotiation. And our third and final story. A Japanese-American farm in New Jersey has created the world's most perfect strawberry.

The strawberries are $2.50 each. $2.50 each. A six-pack of these strawberries is $15. Barry just broke economics. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Wonderful mix of stories today. Love the mix, Jack. Something happened a couple Saturdays ago.

And then something happened again this past Saturday. And it's happening again tomorrow. Yeties, last year, Jack and I went back to our newsletter roots, and we launched an email newsletter to complement this very podcast. Here's what Nick and I realized. That newsletter was pretty similar to this pod. Yeah, so this year, Jack and I decided to remix the newsletter, and we gave that newsletter a glow-up.

This newsletter is phenomenal. It is living the dink life, baby. Every Saturday, we now send out what is truly the best newsletter yet. Yeah, it is this newsletter. It is everything that you need to be the most interesting person for the weekend. It's like a weekly magazine. Because every week, Jack and I consume hundreds of books and articles and songs and podcasts. But here's the thing.

Nick and I can only fit three business stories into each daily show. This newsletter is every nugget that Jack and I found fascinating. But we couldn't squeeze into the podcast. This newsletter is intimate. It is personal. It is behind the scenes. Think of it as Nick's and my shared Google. Yes.

It's our shared diary. It's the notes tab that we're constantly writing our good ideas. It's the private underwear drawer of newsletters. I don't know about that. Yet he's 40% of the newsletter is highlights from this week's pod stories that you may have missed. And 60% is stuff that was never in the pod. So you've never seen before. Let's say Jack and I read a quote about fashion and a memoir and we just can't get it out of our heads.

Put it in the newsletter. Or let's say we discovered a budgeting hack that we really want to share. That's in the newsletter too. Or there's this one song that we heard on a morning run and we think you have got to listen to this song before your next interview. It's in the newsletter. Nick, didn't we put that picture of me wearing my white prom talks from high school in this thing? If you're lucky, you're going to see that white prom talks to Jack in the newsletter. This is everything that we love and feel and want to share.

If you know, you know. But if you don't know, hit the link in today's episode description to subscribe. SDC Saturday in your inbox. The best newsletter yet comes out tomorrow. Okay, we got to start typing, Jack. But first, yes, let's hit our three stories today. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm, they had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

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. investors, Jack and I have ever seen all just gave money to one company. It's figure AI. They're building a humanoid robot with an artificial brain. All right, Jack, stop me if you heard this one before. Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Microsoft walk into a bar. That's not a joke. No, it's not.

That is the latest round of investors in this one company. Those are the investors. Yeti, Invidia and Open AI are like the busiest companies in the world right now. Microsoft is the most valuable company in the world right now. Plus Jeff Bezos, the only billionaire more Jack than Mark Zuckerberg these days. And that's the cap tiple of this company. The Silicon Valley Hall of Fame just invested in one company. And that one company is Figure AI. Here's the news.

This week, they raised $675 million in private funding at a $2.6 billion valuation. And here's what they do. Figure AI is building a humanoid role. robot that looks pretty, what does it look like, Jack? The one that Tesla is building. Yeah, we actually jumped in T-boys style. We got the details. Get this.

This humanoid robot from Figure AI, it's 5'6, 133 pounds. It's spelt. It kind of looks like the Fox Sports NFL robot. It does. You know what I'm talking about? But not quite as big, 5'6. It's interesting they want with 5'6. I think it's a short king, right?

I think it's a short king. They don't want to intimidate a lot of guys out there who are in the 510, 511 range. Yeah, yeah. He's metallic, this guy. He's like the combination of the Terminator and the Tin Man from Wizard of Eyes. His calves, he's got like lacrosse calves. They're good. But again, so far, this sounds like the robot Tesla's building, which is named Optimus.

So Jack and I got curious. What's the real differentiator about this robot? It's the brain. We discovered it's not the body. It's actually the brain. We mentioned earlier that OpenAI invested in this company. It's the company behind ChatGPT. They're going to build ChatGPT into this robot's brain.

Yeties, they are uploading our... artificial intelligence from the world's most powerful artificial intelligence into the brain of this robot that is shaped like a person. Pretty scary, actually. It is a little freaky. This thing will be the physical manifestation of chat GPT. Which means yeties, for the first time in history, a robot with a face, a torso, and glutes is going to have the mind of chat GPT. Again, either really exciting or really scary, depending how you think of it. Or the sequel to the next Will Smith robot movie, Jack.

Now, this idea is so out there. The CEO said something really honest that we read on the website. Yeah, we kind of love this. The CEO of Figure AI said, we face high risk and extremely low chances of success. That's the most fresh and honest thing we've heard from a startup CEO. I actually think he may have been sarcastic, Jack. No, no, it was real. It was real. It was honest. The truth is, any company getting venture financing has a very high risk of failure. So it's really interesting to us what success looks like for this robot company. And that success is illustrated in our takeaway.

Yes, it is. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies building a UNI'd robot with a brain over at Figure AI? Immigrants and robots fill America's employment gap. Yet he's interesting thing this week, a senior economist at the Fed credited America's booming economy to immigrants. Here's what she said. You can't grow like America's grown with just the native workforce. It's simply not possible. The United States has the fastest growing economy of all the G7 countries and its thanks to immigration. America's high relative immigration. We have millions of empty jobs in this country. And that is what

Figure AI is targeting, the 10 million what they call undesirable or unsafe jobs, some dirty jobs. These robots, the first things they're going to do is backbreaking physical labor like moving boxes. The jobs that people don't want to do. So, yet, in our past and still today, immigrants have been a major driver of economic growth. In the future, Figure AI thinks humanoid robots will drive our economic growth. For our second story, A, B. Inbev, the owner of Bud Light just finished in their worst year in decades. But they averted a Budweiser strike.

And that gives us a lesson in negotiation. This is good if you're approaching a job interview right now. But Yet he's, Budweiser was once the king of beers now, kind of the gesture of juice. Because last year, we all covered the conservative boycott of Bud Light. Oh, and update on that boycott, it's still happening. Because in the fourth quarter, Budweiser just announced they sold 2.7% less beer worldwide. Oh, and in the United States, it was even worse, wasn't it, Jack? In the U.S., Anheuser-Busch's beer sales were 15% lower in the fourth quarter than the year before.

Jack, can you whip out the mugs and the whiteboard for us over there? Market chair, what are we seeing? A.B. Inbev used to control 40% of the U.S. beer market. Now they're down to just 35%. Oh, and yet he's the new king of beer. It isn't bud anymore. it's officially Modelo Especial. El Rey de Cervesa.

Yeah, we told you last year, sales rose 17% for Modelo, not too shabby. They've gone from a Mexican beer to a millennial beer. But yet, everything Jack and I just said, it's not as big a deal as what we're about to tell you. Because Bud also announced yesterday, not just their earnings. They also announced workers are not going on strike. Yeah, the big scare at a like nowhere this week was that Budweiser was potentially facing a 5,000 worker strike at their breweries in America. Yeah. The Teamsters Union represents 5,000 Budweiser workers, and they demanded a pay raise

or they would begin striking today. Okay, but yet here's the shocker that just happened. On the same day, they announced their earnings report. They also gave the union what they asked for. Kumbaya, and what did they ask for and get check? Andizer Bush is giving those 5,000 workers an immediate $4 an hour raise, plus $1 an hour. or more each year for the next five years. Okay, that's all. Plus, a $2,500 cash bonus. It's like Frank from finance invited everyone out to get drinks who works at the company.

Not through that. Thank you, Frank. It sounds expensive, but Budweiser just averted a crisis and gave the workers what they wanted. And gave Budweiser what they wanted. True. Which is in our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Budweiser? You can't get what you want unless you understand what the other's

side wants. Is this a lyric from a Rolling Stone song? I think this is. Is that what we're rolling with here, Jack? But if you try some time, you'll find out. You'll get what you need. You can't get what you want unless you understand what the other side wants. Let's take it away, Jack.

In this story, we just covered the AB&BBW workers scored a huge win. They're high-fiving right now with their $2,500 cash bonus, their higher wage. They're clapping the Clydesdale. And how did the 5,000 beer workers win against the biggest beer company in the world by understanding the most important thing for the other side. Yet he's after the Bud Light crisis, the one thing Budweiser wanted was to avoid another marketing crisis. Bud is still in a Bud light crisis.

They can't have a worker strike right now. Okay, that's the interesting thing. That meant that the worker union had the leverage because this strike would have caused another marketing crisis. So the union basically said, hey, bud, we'll spare you a crisis if you just pay us eight bucks an hour more and give us all $2,500 bonus. Well, with this quick Budweiser worker deal, both sides get the most important thing that they wanted. Here's the lesson. If you understand what the other side wants, then you can get what you want.

But if you try some time, you just might find you get what you need. For our third and final story, a Japanese-inspired company has raised 200 million bucks to create the world's most expensive strawberry. This one very expensive strawberry breaks the laws of that. economics, and we'll explain how. All right, Jack, favorite season? I'm going to say stone fruit season. Second favorite season? Yeah?

Peach season. All right, then our next favorite season is berry season, specifically strawberries. Oishi claims to have perfected the berries, specifically the strawberry. They're so confident in that. So confident. They named their company delicious in Japanese. Yeah, Oishi is a vertical farm startup based in New Jersey, founded by a Japanese native Hiroki Koga. They built an indoor farm in New Jersey, that, and I quote,

replicates the elements of a perfect day in Japan. Which apparently, and we quote, is soft rain, mild, heat, warm light, and buzzing bees, end quote. That's how they grow their fruit to perfection, and they price them like gold. This is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. The average strawberry in the United States

costs about 10 cents per berry. Oishi sells them for 25 times that. Sit down, stand up, and spit out the pit. They're selling strawberries for 25. times the average strawberry price. A six pack of these strawberries goes for about 15 bucks at Whole Foods and Fresh Direct. Jack, do not put that in your smoothie.

That is not a smoothie strawberry. That's a different food pyramid right there. I saw the six pack online. It looks like Swiss chocolate. Like each strawberry has a little dish. It comes in its own like safety throne. You have to bow before you eat this strawberry, Jack. If you bruise this strawberry, it's a tragedy.

It's going to bruise your wad. Yet he's Oishi just raised $140 million bucks in venture capital. capital money, they're targeting the perfect cherry tomato next. Eventually, they might even get to Nick Stonefruit. The interesting innovation about this company is that Oishi believes bees are the key to their success. Bumble bees. Yeah, bumble bees.

Can we explain this, please, Jack? The indoor vertical farm that Oishi uses, that's been a buzzing industry for about a decade. We've covered a couple of vertical farm startups on the pod. There's not much space in Tokyo or Brooklyn, so they grow produce vertically in a factory. But a problem has emerged in vertical farming. The economics of leafy greens don't work great. Apparently, arugula is a low margin crop, and the profit margins on radicchio are ridiculously low.

So Oishi is the first vertical farm not doing leafy greens. Instead, they're doing berries. A premium crop, because it turns out the fruit has better economics than the greens. But in order to grow fruits inside, they need bees. Okay, get this yet. He's. Unlike leafy greens, fruit needs bees. to pollinate them or else they can't grow berries. Which means Oishi isn't just growing strawberries indoors.

They're also raising a whole herd of bees. I feel like the employees. Like it's software engineers and then a team of bees that work for the company. It's the first time they've raised. I think it's the first time anyone's tried to grow. We've never seen this is what Jack's trying to say. Managing a worker bee workforce indoors is Oishi's true innovation. And that is how they can produce a strawberry indoors.

to perfection. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies selling really expensive strawberries over at Oishi? Oishi's $2.50 cents strawberry is an example of the Veblen effect. The adit is Econ 101, the higher the price, the lower the quantity demanded. It's just consumer instincts. That's just how it works. But the one exception to that law is the Veblen good. A Veblen good, named after the economist Veblen, has the opposite phenomenon.

The more expensive it is, the higher the demand. Because the higher price becomes associated with higher quality. The easy example is perfume or champagne. Great example. If you're celebrating your anniversary, you want the most expensive perfume and the most expensive champagne to show how good it is. Well, Oishi built their entire business model on that exact concept. Create demand by charging more.

This ridiculously priced strawberry, you must think it's the best strawberry in the world. It must be. You just kind of like make that assumption. And then that assumption about the strawberry becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and end up buying more of them. You're going to have a great time because you're like a Greek guy eating strawberries that gods ate back in the day. Jack's like picturing himself naked as someone fans him with a palm fron and dips $2.50 strawberries in his mouth. Exactly. They must be that good because they're so expensive. Besties, Oishi's $2.50 strawberry broke the law of economics because it's a Vellin good.

Jack, could you whip up the takeaways force for the real Friday? Figure AI has all-star tech investors as they build a humanoid worker robot. Immigrants powered our economic growth in the past. Robots could in the future. For our second story, AB InBev announced they averted a worker strike by paying 5,000 workers more money. By understanding what the other side wants, you can get what you want. And our third and final story is Oishi. They're raising strawberries to perfection, indoors thanks to pollinating bees.

They're sell the most expensive strawberry ever, and it's the perfect example of the Veblen effect. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. As far as tech and crypto have kept the fabulous February rally rolling into March. We just finished the best February in nine years. The S&P 500 rose 4%, the NASDAQ rose 5%. And second, earlier this week, Jack and I told you that Wendy's was launching surge pricing, but stop the presses, Jack.

The backlash, the outrage, the anger was so strong that Wendy's made an update. Yeah, they're not going to raise prices. They're only going to drop prices sometimes. I feel like the strategy backfired. It's like a frosty happy hour. We'll see if it happens. And finally, this weekend is the debut of Dune Part 2, the movie with Timothy Chalemay and Zendaya.

You watched Dune Part 1, right? I did watch Dune Part 1. Yeah. I thought it was just getting us to Dune Part 2. We're going to watch it. It's expected to bring an $80 million to a quiet box office. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Andrew Smaster from lovely Iowa City, Iowa.

The mouthwash Listerine goes all the way back to 1879. Here's the thing, Eddie, that mouthwash Listerine was not originally intended for anywhere near your mouth. It was originally a floor cleaner. Yeah. According to the National Institute of Health, it wasn't selling well as a floor cleaner. So Listerine pivoted, switched up the formula a bit, and marketed it for bad breath. It can clean up those nasty floors or it can clean up your molars. Yeties, you looked fantastic all week.

Jack, you looked amazing all week. I get great to get these Michel and star burgers with you the other night. I know, me too. But I'm flying back to the East Coast tomorrow. Okay. Are you, oh, by the way, you're going to put your phone. phone in airplane mode? We didn't decide? I always do. I knew you always do it. I thought you might always do. I'm an enneagram one. Of course I do. I switch my phone to airplane mode because that's the

rule and I figure it's good for safe. I'm very curious what the breakdown is of airplane mode and not airplane mode among the Yetis and the besties. We actually have a poll. We do. We want to know what percent of our audience switches their phone into airplane mode like they're told to and which ones break the rules. So subscribe to our weekly Saturday newsletter, the best newsletter yet. And tell us whether you switch your phone into airplane mode like me. We got a link in today's episode description, and then after you subscribe, celebrate the wins. By switching your phone into airplane mode.

Get a burger at the bar. Jack and I, we'll turn on the Wi-Fi, and we'll see you Monday. And before we go, a congratulations to my Yeti dad, Mike Martel, who after 20 years at Morrison Cohen Law Firm, is now joining a new law firm,

Loeb and Loeb. Mike Martel has taken his talents, a couple avenues over, starting at a new law firm. They'll still be marching down to Midtown. We're proud of you, Mike. And Mikey Pollack is celebrating a birthday with a poker night on the Upper West Side. Happy birthday to Fitzpatrick Maples, who's turning three and been listening to this pod since the womb.

And Jameson Corrin is on the way to school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is going to get some birthday cake today. Happy 35th birthday to Yukiko Clifford in Disneyland. Great way to turn 35. And happy 30th birthday to Justin Bieber from Canada currently on a private gym. Probably. Yeah. And happy birthday to Sammy Shira, who drives a boat and a Pac-Man in Caracas, Venezuela. And to all the other Yetis and besties up there, subscribe to our underwear.

To our newsletter. To our underwear drone newsletter. This is Jack. Nick and I both own ETFs of the S&P 500. A lot of sand. A lot of spice. Those sandworm animals are crazy. Remember the strut they do to not like wake up the worms underneath?

It's a great dance move. It's a great dance move.