The Best One Yet - 🧻 “TP to AI” — Toto toilets’ tech pivot. Minnesota’s CEO moment. Graza’s olive oil envy. +Spend-vesting

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, January 27th. And T-Ditties Pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. And you know, Jack, they say those stories do sound better when it's negative 12 degrees outside. It was negative 22 on Saturday.

Starting point is 00:00:20 Yes. Negative 8 on Sunday. And we got 15 inches of snow on Monday. That's right, Eddie's Jack is officially podcasting within an iceberg right now. So put on the earmuffs. Yeah, apparently Arkteric should be the sponsor of this show. And pause on your beaver skin pelt hats. Jack, three stories for today's tea boy.

Starting point is 00:00:39 What have we got on the pod? For our first story, everyone in America is watching what's happening in Minnesota, including Wall Street. And 69 CEOs in Minnesota just broke the vow of silence in corporate America. For our second story, Graza disrupted the olive oil industry with shampoo-shaped squeeze bottles. But now Graza's facing a grand old problem. Grazification. Everyone is zucking it. And our third and final story.

Starting point is 00:01:04 Why did Toto, the Japanese toilet and bidet company, see their stock surge by 11% in one day? Well, because this bidet business can actually power the AI industry according to Golden Sacks. We thought it was a joke? No, it's not a joke. Flush it twice, guys. But yet he's before we had that wonderful mix of stars. Seriously, Jack, what a mix of stories. Love the Mix for T-Boy Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:01:27 This week is your last week to set a lot. a new year's resolution. I mean, after this week, you may not resolve to do anything else in 2026. The statute of limitation situation. So here's our last idea that can help you start investing this year. Here's the plan. Every month, find one product that you bought, but then buy the stock. We call it spend investing. Ah, spend vesting. Jack, you whip up an example for us over there, please. So let's say you see a $100 Ralph Lauren item on your statement from your credit card that month. Boom, you're going to buy $100 a Ralph Lauren stock right there. Let's say you count $20 worth the lattes that you bought. Boom, you count a $20 Dutch bro stock right there. And if your parents are

Starting point is 00:02:05 still sharing their Netflix password with you? Well, then you should be buying Netflix shares, obviously. Spend vesting. It's also an alternative to no buy January because it encourages investing instead of consuming. It's for future you. Five years from now, you're going to thank yourself. Because the average stock in the last five years is up 15% per year. You can thank us too. Oh, another way to spend vest every month pick the one product that you can't live without. Again, credit card statement and say, YouTube premium, I can't live without that. Then you buy Google stock.

Starting point is 00:02:35 Going through your statement, can't ever live without Kirkland brand peanut butter? Then you buy Costco stock. It's impossible to do my job without a Salesforce CRM of every person I've ever met. You cash in on some CRM stock, Jack. This is the last week you're allowed to make a New Year's resolution. So, besties, we hope you consider spend vesting. Because as Snoop Dogg also once said, less spending, Mo Vesting.

Starting point is 00:02:59 That guy's got a lot of cash. Jack, let's hit up three stories. Fifteen years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice.

Starting point is 00:03:16 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota has us heading for a government shutdown on January 31st.

Starting point is 00:03:49 And on Sunday, 69 CEOs showed the business community how to speak up in Trump's second term. Do it together. Yeties, look, over the weekend, we were horrified, angered, saddened to watch Alex Pretti, a guy our age, get gunned down in Minnesota. The Trump administration publicly labeled him as a domestic terrorist and a would-be assassin. Now, if you've seen the videos, and pretty much everyone has seen the videos by this point. Alex Prattie was helping a woman who was being pepper sprayed when he was tackled and ultimately shot as many as 10 times. He was legally carrying a concealed weapon, but at the time he was holding a phone, not a gun, to record the officer's actions. But that sad and political story has also become an economic story.

Starting point is 00:04:31 Yeah, it has. Because Senate Democrats now say that they will refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security, making a government shutdown possible on January 31st. Jack, we should point out that this all came after an economic strike that happened in the Twin Cities on Friday to protest ICE's presence in the city in the first place. We have some friends in Minneapolis. We know this situation's incredibly intense there. I mean, we have one friend who said they're not even going into work right now. It is just too scary out there. So we're thinking of all of you in the land of lakes. It's huge news for this country. The big news from a business perspective is the letter that was signed by 69 CEOs on Sunday. Because yet this is what we look.

Starting point is 00:05:10 about the great state of Minnesota, 22nd in the country in terms of population, but ninth in the country in terms of epic companies. Get this. Minnesota has 17 Fortune 500 companies headquartered there. 17. That is ninth in terms of the rankings among the 50 states. And all 17 of those CEOs just called for an immediate de-escalation of tensions, quote unquote. Target, Best Buy, United Healthcare, General Mills, 3M. I mean, Jack, from Tarjeet to Post-a-Notes to Serial, they all just signed a letter that was published online by Minnesota's Chamber of Commerce. Now, they did not say who is causing the tensions happening in Minnesota and who therefore should de-escalate right now. No, the interesting and nuance of this letter is that instead, the CEOs called for cooperation

Starting point is 00:05:53 among state, local, and federal officials. And they seem to have gotten some results that they hoped for already. They have because President Trump said on Monday afternoon that he would reduce the number of ICE officers in Minnesota if local police cooperated more with ICE. And that happened after a phone call with Governor Walsh. But Basties, here's what Jack and I find fascinating. To us, this signals an interesting growing trend of corporate leaders willing to push back on President Trump. One quick example from yesterday is that Volkswagen announced their pausing plans to build an Audi factory in the United States, and they cited tariffs as the reason they're not building that factory. Yeah, you want to sprinkle on more context to that one, Jack? One year ago,

Starting point is 00:06:31 CEOs promised to build plants in America because of tariffs. Now, this is the first time we've seen the opposite announcement. They're not building a factory because of tariffs. It's unprecedented as a moment in a lot of ways. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in Minnesota? Minnesota CEOs show how to make public statements in Trump 2.0. Make them together. Yeties, in the last year, we've seen an unprecedented amount of capitulation from CEOs to a president of the United States. This is the only president to face zero public dissent from the business community. So it got our attention last week, when Jamie Diamond voiced his dissent with three different Trump policies, but then he got sued.

Starting point is 00:07:11 And here's the key. If instead Jamie Diamond had formed a coalition with other bank CEOs, he probably would have been harder to punish. And remember last year when every law firm was getting sued by Trump and every university had their funding taken away? Well, in both cases, those defendants were divided and they fell. But with Minnesota's CEOs, they're showing a different approach here. With falling approval numbers for the president, and a precedent now happening from Minnesota, We think more of this vocalism from CEOs will come.

Starting point is 00:07:40 You're going to see this because the leverage is shifted. CEOs will do again what they used to do and always have, and what is that, Jack? Voice their opinions on issues fundamental to the economy and their industries, even if those opinions displeased the American president. And if they do, we bet they do it together. For our second story, Graza is the olive oil brand that went viral by using a squeeze plastic bottle inspired by shampoo. too. Well, the entire condiment industry has copied that innovation. And there's nothing graza can do about it except one thing. One thing involving Forrest Gump. But Jack, before we start,

Starting point is 00:08:19 I should issue a public statement press announcement. You know, because I worked on an olive farm over in Italy. Wait a second. I thought you just like studied abroad in Florence. Yeah, it was like a side hustle on weekends. I was picking those olives. Dude, this is like, it's like the Advil for millennials. You pour that olive oil on anything and your stomach aches going to be better the next morning. I'm telling you, man. Coming from the guy. who pours olive oil on ice cream. Olive oil. It's actually one of the three most consumed foods in your lifetime, and yet we bet you can't even name one brand. Except maybe Graza, because Graza was founded in 2021 and sold

Starting point is 00:08:50 $100,000 of their olive oil on the first day of business. Okay, fast forward five years. They did 150 million bucks of sales just last year. It was founded by someone who worked at Casper who had a revelation while in the shower. His Dr. Bronner shampoo ran out and he was squeezing it into his hand, and he said, wait, what if I put olive oil in a shampoo bottle? So instead of having gravity be in control, like with every glass bottle of olive oil, you have to tap it a few times and then suddenly it bursts out. Break it on. Let your squeeze control the flow.

Starting point is 00:09:20 And now the founder of Graza is the Oppenheimer of olive oil, the Da Vinci of dressing. Jack, the Steve Jobs of Squeezing. I was going to say the Sir Isaac Newton, a thousand island dressing. Let's go with that one. And when Jack and I first covered Graza, we told you. our takeaway. It's that this is a perfect case study in first principles thinking. Because Graza questioned every assumption, including why every olive oil was sold in a green glass bottle. And now Graza is the fastest growing olive oil since Julius Caesar. Olive oil was his Roman Empire. Literally.

Starting point is 00:09:52 Now, yes, yet he's for Graza, the packaging is the product. The oil itself is an afterthought to the bottle, although the oil is solid. It's what's on the inside that counts, but it's what's on the outside that sells. But what Jack and I find fascinating is that in the year since we first covered Graza. Have you noticed more olive oil and plastic bottles on the grocery shelves? There's a whole copycat craze going on. Graza's plastic bottle idea has been zucked by every other olive oil oil startup. Jack, let's go roll up to aisle six. You've got startups like oleo and good fats, they're doing olive oil in a plastic bottle. Even the big guy. California's olive ranch, the largest olive oil producer in the United States, they have a squeezable plastic bottle

Starting point is 00:10:32 too now. Now, one food newsletter we follow, Snackshot, calls this grozification. Jack and I, we've been calling this Grazaformity. And they've even jumped the aisle into a different food group. Jack, you think about Molly Baaz? She launched Ayo recently, like Mayo, but it's served in a plastic squeeze bottle. Okay, besties, this grazaformity situation's gotten so bad. Gras's founder went full-linked in vent post ripping on his rivals. He said, personally, I think it's okay to get miffed when folks rip you off, and then he tagged the companies who have been ripping off his idea. Yeah, Brightside, you saw that tag a little bit awkward, right? Still, every condiment now wants to taste of the zolennial-coated squeeze branding that Graza started. One sec, Jack, I just got to squeeze

Starting point is 00:11:13 some prebiotic, protein-infused soda out of this shampoo bottle. So what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Graza? It's the Forrest Gump philosophy. The best way to stay in the lead is to never stop running. Yeties, at the core of this Grossoformity drama is one question. Do we reward innovators and punish copycats. Or are we consumers agnostic to who had the original idea first? Because you see, plastic, squeeze, shampoo bottle, olive oil? That's innovative, but it's not protectable intellectual property. It's not IP. It's VIP. It's vulnerable intellectual property. Now, Jack and I've noticed that in tech, we see zero loyalty when you copy someone, right, Jack? Instagram has copied all of Snapchat and all of TikTok, and Instagram is by far the most

Starting point is 00:11:58 profitable at the three, despite the entire product being a rip-off of the best features of the rivals. So here's a hard question. How can Groza keep tripling sales despite these zuckin copycats? The answer is keep innovating. Last year, Groza launched olive oil in an aluminum beer can, which you take as refills to fill up the plastic bottle and reduce single-use plastic. They also launched the first olive oil in a box, like a box of wine, so you can slap the bag of that Grasa at the pizza party. Graza didn't just rely on squeeze bottles as its only idea. It's expanding into different crazy formats. Because in a world where everyone is copying to catch up, you gotta keep running like

Starting point is 00:12:36 Forrest Gond. Run, Graza! Run! Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Toto, the world-leading bidet company just had its biggest stock jump in five years. Because Toto Toilets is actually an AI company. True story.

Starting point is 00:13:00 Sidegigs. become your profit puppy. All right. Now, Jack, pause the pod for a sec. Do you want to issue a full disclosure? Is it a horror story about bidet? Quite the contract. Trigger warning if you're sitting down right now. First time I ever went to a five-star hotel, I found a bidet in the bathroom. And ever since, I've been trying to find a pure play bidet stock to invest it. Because, dude, once you do bidet, you don't go back.

Starting point is 00:13:22 You never forget your first Japanese toilet. It opens up, the lights turn on, and it greets you like an old friend, Jack. Which leads to Toto, the Archduke of your undercarriage. The Sultan of the Sprits. Or simply the butt whisper. Yeah, these aren't our terms. These are the analyst terms, by the way. Toto, known among Americans as the makers of the high-end toilets, the porcelain throne that pairs well with your restoration hardware.

Starting point is 00:13:44 Nick, this thing's got rear cleanse, front cleanse, oscillating cleanse. Keep going, buddy. If you pay up, it has water temperature control, heated seats, and up to four user preset settings. We're not describing a Cadillac. That's a Japanese toilet we just described. And it cleans itself. as well as you. Yeah, their website shows a roll of toilet paper liquefying into a cleansing spray of gentle water.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Which tells it all. And despite my bidet bullishness, the stock of Toto has been an underperformer. And besties, we jumped in Teeboy style. Toilet sales in both Japan and the rest of the world were actually down in 2025. Basically, they're in the toilet. They're in the toilet. Yeah, but in one day, Goldman Sachs transformed the image of Toto on Wall Street from Tito to AI. Toto stock jumped 11% last Thursday because the smallest part of their business actually has the bright future. Sit down, stand up, and sit back down on that toilet again. Jack, I got to ask you, what are toilets made of? Porcelain. And Jack, what else is made of porcelain? Electrostatic chucks. And what exactly are electrostatic chucks, my friend? Well, we learned that word today, just like you did, but it's an important adhesive within a computer chip within a data center. That's right, Yettees.

Starting point is 00:14:54 Until now, this tiny electric porcelain part of Toto's toilet business. Just 7% of sales had just been an afterthought to that toilet business. But with years and years of order backlogs from big tech to build data centers for AI, Toto's realizing, hey, we can charge whatever price we want for these electrostatic chucks. So they are. And that's why that tiny division with just 7% of Toto's sales accounted for 42% of their total profits last year. It's the new profit puppy, electrostatic chucks. And that's why Goldman Sachs just upgraded Japan's Toto toilet stock to a buy,

Starting point is 00:15:30 because technically they're now an AI company. I think we can just say Toto. We don't have to say Toto. You just want to say bidet. You can say bidet again, so Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Clean it up over at Toto. Because of AI, every company is becoming a chip company.

Starting point is 00:15:47 Yeties, here's the secret sauce of capitalism. With great profits come a great competition. Three years ago, we said on this pod that Invidia made 95% of the chips needed for AI computing. Well, that monopoly has resulted in, an astonishing profit growth from $5 billion three years ago for Nvidia to $100 billion last year. Now, every company with a single computer science major on the staff, sees Nvidia's profits and says how can we get in on that? And that is why Google launched TPUs, their version of Nvidia's GPUs.

Starting point is 00:16:18 And it's why Amazon, Apple and meta are all making or testing their own AI chips as well. Or Jack, what about Rivian and Tesla? They also both have plans to make chips for self-driving in-house at their own companies. Now, if Invideo faced no competition like they did three years ago, we'd all pay for it as the high prices in video charged would trickle down to us consumers. But that won't happen, Basties, thanks to the secret sauce of capitalism. With great profits comes great competition. Jack, could you all whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Minnesota CEOs broke their vow of silence, calling for a de-escalation in their state.

Starting point is 00:16:54 They set a new precedent we think other CEOs will start using. If you're going to oppose the president's policies, you're going to do it together. For our second story, Graza pioneered the squeezable olive oil bottle, and now it's doing $150 million in annual sales. But now they're facing Graza Formity. Everyone's zucking them. So their only choice is to keep running like Forrest Gump. And our third and final story is Toto.

Starting point is 00:17:16 The high-end toilet business is being overshadowed by the components that they happen to sell into AI. Toto is now an AI biz, and every company is trying to be one too. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. I'm sorry, Jack, the economic and business calendar this week, protein packed. What do we got, dude? Well, the Fed announces their interest rate policy on Wednesday, and there's a 99% chance,

Starting point is 00:17:40 according to prediction markets, that no interest rate change is coming. But also, Microsoft, Meda, and Tesla, they're announcing earnings on the same time, on the same day this Wednesday. And tax season officially began yesterday. Plus, a new season of Bridgeton premieres on Thursday. And second, did you watch the free solo climb on Netflix that happened on Sunday night? I did, and I was extremely nervous the whole time. Jack was on a bidet for like an hour and a half.

Starting point is 00:18:05 Alex Honnold, the famous dude for climbing without ropes or safety harnesses, got to the top of a Taipei tower, the 11th tallest building in the world. We don't have Netflix's viewership numbers yet, but we just found out how much he got paid to do it all. In an interview with The New York Times, the crazy climber said he got an embarrassingly small number compared to other pro athletes. He got paid in the mid-six figures. 500 grand.

Starting point is 00:18:28 I wouldn't call that embarrassing. really small. But when you consider show Hey O-Tani's getting like 500 grand per swing, I guess so. Hey, Otani, call us when you do it on top of a skyscraper. And finally, Bob's discount furniture IPOed yesterday at a $2.5 billion valuation, Bob's furniture based just outside Boston. We're researching the company. We dove into the IPO paperwork. But if you have a great idea or something really interesting about Bob's or if you're a big fan, let us know in the comments because we might cover them tomorrow. Speaking of which Jack time for the best fact, yeah, this one sent in by Zadon Thomas, a legendary five-year Yetty.

Starting point is 00:19:05 Let's hit play. I'm a listener here from Mississauga, Ontario. My name is Zadan Thomas, and the Swedish pronunciation for IKEA is actually Ikea, not IKEA. I learned that off of Jimmy Kimball interview with Slatani for Himich, a Swedish soccer star. Thank you and have a great day. Bye. Ikea. Ikea.

Starting point is 00:19:28 That's how they say it in the native tongue. The meatballs are still meatballs, but Ikea, not IKEA. Although we should point out, it's somewhat common for foreign-based companies to be pronounced differently in this country. Like you're thinking, Jack, Adidas is really Adidas over in Germany. In BMW, they am they in Germany. Well, it sounds like this is a German issue, actually. Dude, Munich?

Starting point is 00:19:48 In Germany, they call it munchin. It's a good thing we pronounce it differently here. Speaking of corrections yet, he's just yesterday. we referenced Burger Kings Where's the Beef ad campaign? It's actually Wendy's Where's the Beef ad campaign. And the lady from that ad campaign

Starting point is 00:20:04 still hasn't forgiven us. Although we hope you have. You're looking fantastic, by the way. Oh, and if you've got a voicemail, if you've got the best fact yet, if you got a correction, if you just want a birthday bar mitzvah promotion shout out on the pod,

Starting point is 00:20:18 what do you got to do, Jack? Tap the link in our episode description, fill out the simple Google form and we'll get you on the pod. We'll help you celebrate the wins. And Jack and I, we'll see you for tomorrow's. T-Boy. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie's Brittany and Ariah Laughlin,

Starting point is 00:20:35 a mother-daughter team in Sarasota, Florida. Ari is a swim champ. Brittany's an entrepreneur boss. Happy birthday to Wendy Tapia in Newcastle, England, who also just started training for a weightlifting competition. And Jack, we got a 41st for Thomas Hicks down in Marietta, Georgia. Happy birthday, Tom. Happy birthday to Cousin Omar, turning 40 in Rio Grande Valley, Texas. And Casey Haley down in Knoxville, Tennessee is the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Austin, Jacobs in San Jose, California. See, we see you down at Fremont, California with a birthday. And congratulations to Keela's sake, because this girl chumps. She got into the University of Florida early.

Starting point is 00:21:10 If you ain't a gator, you're gator bait. Oh, I thought I would see you later. Rebecca Moretti, the legendary first person Jack and I ever hired for our newsletter, just got a new job at Ramp. And Rebecca, we are so proud and pumped for you. And a big shout out to Dirk Sheepers, who got a new job in risk management over at Polly Market. And Jack, I was walking around an art show with Molly over the weekend.

Starting point is 00:21:30 ran into a Yeti, Kyle from Milbray. This guy is the best-performing engineer at Meta, get him a pay raise, Zuck, and his son, Q, had the coolest shoes at the whole art fair. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, Nick it a T-Boss. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.

Starting point is 00:21:49 I'm on stock of Netflix and Amazon, and Nick and I both on stock of Apple.

The Best One Yet - 🧻 “TP to AI” — Toto toilets’ tech pivot. Minnesota’s CEO moment. Graza’s olive oil envy. +Spend-vesting

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