The Best One Yet - 🛍️ “Tote-ally Obsessed” — Trader Joe’s bag hype. Palantir’s Iron Man deal. SXSW’s printable house startup. And TBOY Live NYC Tickets.

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

🎟️ TBOY Live NYC Tickets on sale now here 🗽: https://citywinery.com/new-york-city/events/tboy-pod-cs3z0iTrader Joe’s $2.99 tote bag has gone viral and we think it’s a manufactured sellout — But the real entrepreneurial lesson here? Learn to love the line.Palantir, the mysterious $55B tech company, just pulled a Tony Stark — But the stock has tripled in the last year because it’s the only tech company willing to make bombs.And the biggest surprise from SXSW? Printable houses — Icon Homes has hit a $2B valuation for houses you can print.$PLTR $KRO $WMTSubscribe 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 Thursday, the new Friday, March 14th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy Jack. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I'm sorry, Jack, pause the L train. Hold the four train and stop the podcast.

Yeties, today you can buy tickets to our New York City live T-Boy Show. Jack and I have a link in the episode description. Buy your tickets right now. We're going to bring our best to the Big Apple at City Winery, a beautiful venue on 15th Street in Manhattan. Right on the Hudson River. This is some prime real estate for a podcast, Jack. Beautiful venue.

Beautiful show. Nick's a beautiful co-host. You're looking fantastic. Jack, what did Frank Sinatra teach us again? If you can podcast there, you can podcast anywhere. I think it's podcast here, but Frank, it's up to you, New York. New York. Buy your tickets right now.

Link in the episode description, but Jack, three wonderful stories for today. For our first story, the Trader Joe's tote bag is making people lose their minds. But we think it's actually a manufactured sellout. So we're going to tell you why entrepreneurs should learn to love the line. For our second story, it's Palantir. Palantir just pulled at Tony Stark. It signed a huge missile deal with the U.S. Army. Palantir stock has tripled because it's the only tech company willing to make a bomb.

And our third and final start. At South by Southwest, new tech stuff gets announced, including a company that builds 3D-printed homes. Icon homes. They're building houses with a printer. But yet, he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack. Love the mix today. Nick is a cake and pie connoisseur. That's a true story. So today's a special day for him.

Apple pie, pecan pie, pizza pie. How about the number pie? Talk to me about the number pie, Jack. Pie. It's actually a symbol. It looks like a cute, tiny little hut. Pie, it's irrational, but it's completely rational at the same time. Pie, math's sassiest symbol. But Jack, I'm sorry, my pie is a little fuzzy. Can you jump in T-boy style for us over there?

I'll bring you back to eighth grade geometry. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to a circle's diameter. I'm sorry, doctor. Can we get a translation on that, please? Pi, you divide the outside of the circle's length by its width, and you get pie. And here's the beauty. No matter the size of the circle, the answer to that equation is always pie. So the number pie is the circle of life.

Literally. The number pie is irrational. Literally. In fact, pie is longer than time. Because pie is infinite and yet time theoretically is not. The number of digits in the number pie goes on forever. 3.14. And ever.

159. And ever. 265. Nick, there's actually like a challenge to see who can recite the most digits of pie from memory. And according to Guinness, an Indian man memorized 70,000 digits of pie in a row and recited them. One Indian man blindfolded himself and recited seven. 70,000 digits of pie.

Reciting pie, not as easy as pie. But easy, Archimedes. Why are we talking about pie right now? I'm so glad to ask Jack, because today is the only day out of all the days that is made out of pie. March 14th, 314. And 3.14 is the first three digits of pie. Yeties, the world is made up a circles. From atoms to planets to the sun. And within every circle is the mathematical truth of pie. It's not a number. It's destiny.

Happy pie day, besties. How high can you count the number of pie from memory? Send us a video your pie recoil at T-boy Pod. Ready for my, Nick? Hit me, Jack. 3.14159. That's all I got. Jack, let's hit our 3.14159-9-258-9-3-9-3-2-3-8-4-6-26-26, etc, etc.

Stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a nice. 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.

First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, a Trader Joe's product has gone viral, selling for 500 bucks on eBay. It's not a grocery. It's a grocery bag that's selling out. Yeah, it is the Trader Joe's tote bag is the perfect example we've ever seen of the manufactured sellout. Yeah, before we do this story,

can you walk us through the old Trader Joe's Hall of Fame? We covered it last year on the pot. It's the only grocery store we know that honors its best products with inductions to the Hall of Fame. Amanda and orange chicken, dark chocolate peanut butter cups. Everything, everything seasoning. Everything but the bagel.

Good catch. But yet, it's the hottest Trader Joe's product right now, it ironically cannot be eaten. The Trader Joe's mini tote bag. It's a couple of canvas straps, some embroidery of the Trader Joe's logo and it comes in four colors. So you walk in for the cauliflower rice,

but you leave with a tote bag, Jack. It's a mini tote bag. It's not what you see from NPR donors. It's not even a full tote. It's six inches deep. It's like a lunchbox, basically. It's also maybe the cheapest thing Trader Joe sells at $2.99 cents.

But Yeties, Trader Joe's doesn't just sell this tote bag. Trader Joe drops it in limited quantities. That's why, according to the New York Times, people lined up at the Union Square location at 7 a.m. To get their tote bag before they sold. out. They hit a limited to two per customer. It's like a supreme sneaker drop for a tote bag. There was so much demand that that $2.99 cent tote bag is now selling for $500 on eBay. It's like the Chanel of Toats. Jack, it's like L. Bean and Gucci had a baby.

But this random sellout of a random product, not even a full tote bag, reminds us of a broader trend, the Stanley Cupification. Because he had he's on social media. People used to go viral. But now products go viral. We think what's happening is man. Manufactured sellouts. Companies purposely make fewer items all but guaranteeing a sellout. Because according to Wharton Professor Jonah Berger, half of consumer purchases are made by word of mouth, not by traditional advertising.

We repeat, half of purchases are because your buddy convinced you to buy it, not because somebody in a commercial convinced you to buy it. So, manufactured sellouts and marketing stunts, get people talking about products and get word of mouth marketing going. Because Yetis, the trader, Joe's tote sellout doesn't necessarily mean crazy high demand, does it, Jack? It could just mean crazy low quantity was made. Trader Joe's, they didn't just drop a bag.

They manufactured a sellout, and people just can't stop talking about it. No new bags are going to be made until the next drop on September. Like, Joe, you couldn't make a new bag for June? They wanted to sell out, Nick. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our body is over at Trader Joe's? Entrepreneurs have learned the power of the law. line. That is, historically, economists, they see a line as a problem. Like a line, it means lost sales. If there's a line of customers, it means there's not enough supply to keep up with

demand. And the company has to try to correct that. But Jack and I want to drop a new perspective here. That line is a mistake. Maybe that line is actually marketing. In fact, a line for a product could be repositioned by the company as a marketing expense. All right, follow us in this one. Here we go. You can buy an advertisement telling people that your product, it is cool. It is cool. And that costs X number of dollars to buy the ad. Or you can create a line that shows people. This is cool. And that costs X number of dollars in lost sales.

Consumers, they say they hate lines, we hate lines, win for a train. That is really annoying, Jack. But consumers kind of worship lines. Yeah, you do. Because it's a signal that the thing being waited for is legit. And if you're an entrepreneur, lower sales that day, but higher sales long term, that is the power of the line. And that is why we're seeing more and more,

manufactured sellouts. For our second story, Palantir, the U.S. Army's top tech contractor has seen its stock triple in the past year. Because Palantir is the only tech company willing to do one thing. Drop bombs. All right, Jack, if we're going to talk about Palantir, you're going to have to whip out your hobbit shoes to explain the name to us, please. Palantir was named after an orb from the book, the Lord of the Rings.

Okay, keep going. The orb called a Palantir in Lord of the Rings. It lets you spy on what other people are doing. All right. It lets you see through to other orbs. And it lets Saran check and see what the fellowship was up to. You can leave Middle Earth right now and return to planet Earth. All right.

Instead of using magic, Palantir the company uses AI to spy on people. And yet he's Palantir the company has been a quiet winner of the artificial intelligence boom with its stock tripling in just the past year. Palantir. It's basically a publicly traded CIA. They're collecting. to deliver insights and they're getting paid handsomily. They have five straight quarters of profit, and they're growing 20% every quarter in revenue.

Yeti's Palantir is now worth $55 billion. That is 11 lifts. And Palantir just announced something that's less CIA, more U.S. armed forces. Not to go more Hollywood on this thing, but the latest product from Palantir reminds Jack and me of the opening scene of Iron Man One. Robert Downey Jr., take it away.

consideration the Jericho. Nick, Palantir just announced a $178 million contract with the U.S. Army. It's not called Jericho. It's called Titan. Titan is an acronym. T-I-T-A-N. It stands for Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node. Let's jump into this T-Boy style.

Palantir is going to help the U.S. military build 10 Titan vehicles, which use AI and machine learning to help the military fire long-range missiles accurately. This Silicon Valley software company beat out military contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to get this huge deal. It's a shocker. Palantir makes $2 billion of annual revenue. This single deal with the U.S. Army is nearly a tenth of that. And so what's Palantir's next move, Jack? Palantir's going to market this project to other country's defense ministers to try to win more huge military contracts.

As long as that country is an ally of these United States, Palantir is down to play ball. Palantir. Kind of don't want to mess with these guys. They'll target you. They might target this pod because I just said that. We may be getting Palin canceled, Jack. So Jack wants the takeaway for our buddies, our buddies over at Palantir. We're cool guys, right?

Palantir found their monopoly. They're the only tech company willing to get their hands dirty. Yeti's tech companies love to talk about making the world a better place, changing the world for good, doing no evil. That's why Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have colorful, feel-good logos and feel-good mission statements. Well, Yeti's Palantir doesn't worry about that. Everyone at Palantir knows what they signed up for.

Palantir's clear about it, and they're getting paid. Palantir's founder, Alex Carp, once told employees, who don't support military contracts to not work there. Unlike other tech companies, Palantir will happily work with the Army to help combat efforts or petro nations to extract more oil. The most valuable thing you can do in business or the workplace is find your monopoly. Yeah, we love to say that. Well, Palantir, Jack, they found their monopoly.

They're the only tech company willing to get their hands dirty. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, it's South by Southwest this week. and one company, Icon Homes, just unveiled their latest invention. A 3D printer that prints houses. Yeti, someday you'll be able to browse a catalog and select a house to print.

Now, yeties, home construction hasn't changed since the Middle Ages. You just add some plumbing and lighting to a few castles, Jack, and it's pretty much the same as today. Since the year 1,200, humans have been building homes with either lumber, sticks, or bricks. One piece at a time, a crew of...

builders on site. That's how it's been done for 1,200 years. No changes. But there was one development in home building, right? Sure. One recent development is prefabricated homes. You build most of a house in a factory and then ship it to a location, but those are rare. But we just saw an even bigger development in the construction of homes. A concept unveiled that South by Southwest in Austin this week, the printable home. But Jack, before we get to these printable homes, we should bring on some context to South by Southwest. It's a tech media and music conference happening in Austin, Texas. right now. How would you really describe it? Davos for young people. It's like a convention of Patagonia fleeces. They like, everyone flies in on the fleece into Austin. It's wonderful.

It's wonderful. It's delightful. Well, Yeti's this week, a startup at South by Southwest called Icon Homes unveiled the printed house. Like you print a high school essay. They print a house. And that demonstration of a printable house has earned ICON a $2 billion valuation. Now Yeties, Nick and I are fans of innovation. And it's not as much the homes we're impressed by that Icon built. It's that they built a house printer. And that printer is called the Phoenix.

We're more interested in the printer, frankly. Like the 3D home printer. It prints the walls of a house from the bottom up, layer by layer, like a baker applying frosting on a cake. You know the outdoor outside of the frosting? There's that big plastic tube of wet frosting that you squeeze it on.

That's this printer. But the frost. his concrete material and it's applied by a one big robotic arm. A huge robotic arm called the Phoenix. Now, Icon brings the Phoenix printer to where the home is to be built and then they print it with something called Lavacrete. Lava Crete is Icaud's proprietary concrete that's durable and printable with this machine. They roll one machine to the property that can print the foundation and then it prints the walls and then it prints the roof all at once. Way fewer workers, way less materials. Eventually, they say they can build a house for half the cost. And they unveiled yesterday a

catalog of 60 home styles, although these are, it doesn't look like your typical home. It's a little more alternative for our taste. The early ones kind of look like Fred Flintstone's house. I don't want to bring us back to Middle Earth, Jack, but there's a Lord of the Rings vibe going on me, Star Wars. It does look kind of hobbitish. But with this new printer, they say they can eventually build houses at scale for half the price of today's houses. So Jack, how about we head over to the living room? And you can tell us the takeaway for all our buddies printing houses. Innovation is the crucial counterforce to regulation. Yeties, this is fascinating.

Yesterday, Jack and I went to the Empire State Building, which was built in 1930. And Jack, how long exactly did it take to build the 102 floors of the Empire State Building? It took them 13 months to build this building, which is 1,200 feet tall. Yeah, these, the Empire State Building only took one year to build nearly 100 years ago. That same building today, despite all our technological advancements, would take five times as long. to build and cost way more money. And the reason, Jack. Regulations and labor and safety standards.

Yeah, the cost and time needed to build is way up because we don't accept workers dying anymore. Yeah, the Empire stabling was such a dangerous project at 1930 that definitely at least five people, but estimated up to 25 workers died. So, yet these rules and regulations, they have demonstrably made building safer, but they've also made buildings really slower. And more expensive. and it's resulted in a brutal housing shortage across the country. And that's why innovation, like printing houses, is so crucial.

We need these gains in innovation to offset the friction of regulation. The way Jack and I see it, innovation is the counterforce to regulation. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Everyone is talking about Trader Joe's mini tote bags. People are going crazy to get their hands on one. And that is the power of the manufactured sellout. Learn to love the line. For our second story, Palantir stock has tripled,

capped off by a huge deal with the United States military. Palantir, it found its monopoly. It's the one tech company willing to get its hands dirty. And our third and final story is Icon Holmes. The 3D printer is a giant robot arm that prints out homes from the end of it. A highlight is South by Southwest so far. Yeties, innovation is the crucial counterforce to regulation. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet.

Here's what else you need to know today. First, yesterday, the full United States House of Representatives voted yes to force bite dance to sell TikTok. The bill, which just passed the House, requires TikTok to separate from China. If they don't sell TikTok in 180 days, then it's banned in the United States. Now the vote goes to the Senate. Then the president said he would approve it. Its fate in the Senate is uncertain. It could die there or could pass into law.

And second, Southwest, Delta and United Airlines are all downgrading their. growth projections, and why is that, Jack? Because of Boeing, Nick. The FAA appears set to stop deliveries of new Boeing planes until Boeing can clean up its act. The airlines are going to have to make do with the planes they have. And finally, Outdoor Voices, the former Unicorn Athleisure brand is shutting down their 16 physical stores. Outdoor Voices is going purely online. They're our first advertiser ever.

We both have that gray sweatshirt. We love. We do. It's a classic. It's held up for like eight years. It's a great product. We're sad to see the store's close. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one discovered by Jack and me, and honestly, we just had to share with you.

Trivia. Who is born on Pye Day? Okay, okay. Who is like the perfect person to have been born on Friday? On Pied. You ready for this? He was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14th, 1879. And who is he?

Mr. Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein. The most mathematical brain you could even think of was born on the most math. mathematical day of the year. He's actually more of a physics guy than a math guy, but yeah, this is incredible. I guess, Jack, we're rounding up on this one. Yeah, we are. Yeties, you've looked fantastic this week.

Jack, you've looked fantastic. Have I? Brooklyn's looking good on you. Thank you. Yeah, it is. We have so much to celebrate right now, by the way, okay? New York City Live show. We climbed the Empire State Building.

We recorded an amazing podcast. We did. This was the best one, yes. And we had some cool interviews with a whole new video series that's coming out soon. Oh, yeah,ies, that's coming soon. Oh, also, Jack and I are dropping a special podcast. for you tomorrow that you're going to love. The T-Boy Hotline episode.

But in the meantime, pause the pod and buy your New York City T-boy Live tickets right now. April 24th, we look forward to seeing you there. We got a link in this episode description so you can H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. Buy those tickets before they sell out. If you know, you know.

And before we go, sorry Albert Einstein, but a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Teddy Kramer from Brattleboro, Vermont. Theodore Charles Kramer, Jr. Who is this, man? Jack? My baby brother, a fantastic dude, best father I've ever seen. And just the best smile I've ever seen, Jack. Congratulations, Teddy. And happy birthday to Ali Kirst, who's driving to Tahoe right now for a ski weekend birthday. Enjoy the slopes of the palisades.

Happy 40th birthday to Dana Taft in Nashville, Tennessee. And Tim Mueller is turning 40-year-olds two over in Edina, Minnesota. Happy 27th birthday to Kevin Keeter and Santa Barbara. And Stephanie Soley is an architect to the star celebrating a birthday in Maryland. And a huge congratulations to Blaze Sefer and Captain Rudolph. These two Middlebury Febs just graduated by, get this, skiing down a ski hill in their cap and gown.

From a couple of Febs to another couple of Febs celebrate that with. Congrats on that Middlebury degree. And Lindsay Moomy's got a new job down in Houston. And a heroic shout out to the hero, Colin Colin Bernie from Milwaukee. Yeah. This T-boy Bestie once saved his family from a live bear. He saved the family from a grizzly.

And now, he's enjoying this pot. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon.