The Best One Yet - 🤬 “Twitter’s getting Tyrion Lannister treatment” — Panera’s coffee subscription. Bird e-scooter “Pay”. Jack Dorsey’s hedge fund pressure.

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Twitter shares jumped 8% on word an activist investor is trying to push CEO Jack Dorsey out of his role at Twitter (because Jack is also the CEO of Square). Panera whips up a coffee subscription that fits our formula for subscription power (not subscripturation). And Bird scooters decides it also wants to be in payments, so it’s launching a way for you to buy food...via Bird.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. And this is snacks daily. It is Tuesday, March 3rd. We got a rebound yesterday. It came out of nowhere. Stocks rose by 5%. We're talking big.

Big jump from the last week. It was a big rebound from last week, which was havoced by the corona. And that's why we decided to make today's snacks so much better than what we did last week. This is the best one. Yeah. Our first story, Twitter is getting trolled. By a big investor. These guys are huge.

A multi-billion dollar hedge fund wants Twitter CEO to get out. They think he's guilty of third-degree side hustle. Second story. Panera launches a monthly coffee subscription. Can you bundle this with Netflix and call us when it's ready? What is this? Ten bucks a month? Yeah, actually, it is. Does it come with cream?

Roughly ten bucks a month? Does it come with a dairy based, uh, an alt-dairy creamer? You're asking too many questions. But this is all about the cross-sell for Panera. Oh, first year of business school. What do we learn, Jack? Always be cross-sale. ABC's third and final story.

Bird is an e-scooter company that's trying to become a fintech company. We got an identity crisis over here. Someone calling someone who can handle identity crisis. But Snackers, today is Super Tuesday, so it's your duty as a good American to get out and vote. If you're one of the Snackers who's voting today, you better have one of those stickers slapped across that bicep that says, I voted. Unless you're not, you're from one of the states that doesn't vote to you. That's very true. It's Super Tuesday.

So we're talking California, Texas, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts. We're talking Virginia, North Kakalaki, Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah. We've got a final two here, Jack. You're running out of breath, so I'll finish up here. Minnesota and Alabama, those are the states that vote for their presidential candidate in the primaries today. Well, I'm getting that defibrillator, Jack, and we just mentioned that this should be a national holiday. Any voting day should be a national holiday.

It's kind of integral to our democracy. So, yeah, it should be a national holiday. Probably should just slack someone say you're taking the day off anyway. Also, Snackers, quick refresher. We take some measures at Robin Hood Snacks to keep the news as unbiased as possible. Snackers, you know Jack and I care about you deeply, so we let you know when we own stocks in companies that we happen to be mentioning on the pod. Because that's a conflict of interest disclosure.

Lake, Nick's Bitcoin. Right, Ben, the Bitcoin. If Ben gets brought up, I mention I own a Bitcoin. Or Rosie, which is my red Volkswagen share that I love so much. Full disclosure, we don't actually have pet names for all of our shares, but it could. You could do that. Also, we've decided not to cover news about Robin Hood as part of our editorial principles. We've done that since we launched last year.

There's an inherent conflict of interest, so we let others report on Robin Hood. We don't do that from Robin Hood's next. What we do cover is digestible financial news. And as managing editors of news at Robin Hood, but Jack and I do our 100% best to make sure every day is T-B-O-Y. The best one yet, aka T-Boy. Also, yes, happy birthday, Alexandra. I love you so much.

Let's hit our three stores. 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 robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities.

Nope. It's not a research report or investment. advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, Jackarabica or Ethiopia? Parabica. Did it on purpose.

The pronunciation, Nick. Panera just launched a coffee subscription to guilt you into a daily habit. This deal sounds too good not to do it. Actually, it sounds so good. It was fake. We thought it was fake. We looked into this. This is a free country, but you must. Must take this deal. Snackers, we were curious and we're thinking you were wondering if this is subscription. Well, it's a coffee subscription. We'll get to that in a second. First, it's not subscription saturation. We think this is a special area. Nick, Panera used to be a publicly traded company in the fast casual game. Back in, you know, the three years ago, it used to be right up there

with Chipotle back since 1987. It was a good looking stock. But then it got acquired by a mysterious German coffee conglomerate called J.A.B. Holdings. Right. They actually have a very almost borderline disturbing obsession with coffee. I think the word is fetish. Yeah, they own crispy cream. They bought up Currig Green Mountain, and they've even got Peets from out here in California. They also Einstein brothers, a whole bunch of other coffee chains. Also, Panera, we need to acknowledge. The name has some meaning. Right, they claim the meaning is Pan, which is like Latin for bread, and then era, which is like a period of time. So it's called the Bread Era. Yeah, it's okay. We're officially in the Bread Era, according to Panera's

name. Also, they're based in Sunset Hills, Missouri, lovely town of 8,400. hundred and ninety-six people. Everybody in that town must work for Panera. That is a Panera town. You don't want to be gluten-free in that town. Now, here's the news, everybody. They just launched an unlimited coffee and tea subscription for $9 a month. And yes, this covers hot, nice coffee.

And no, we don't know if it includes turmeric mouch or chai. That question's all irrelevant to meckas-snackers. You know I just get drip cough. Jack always has coffee. I'm not a coffee guy, but Jack, like, throws a cam-a-mail tea my way at 4 p.m. every day. Here's the thing. Panera is going where Americans wanted to go. American spend get this snackers $1,100 annually on coffee.

Now, a coffee at Panera costs $2.20 each. So Jack and I whipped out the whiteboard, did some math, which involved about a little bit of math. One calculation. Yeah, it was only one thing. I think it was division. To figure out what the break-even point is. At what point? If you have four coffees a month at Panera, then you should not get the subscription.

If you've got three, two, one, or zero coffees, do not do the subscription. If you get five coffees, get the subscription. If you get eight, if you get 20, get this subscription. Guess where we're going with this, next? It's $9 a month for unlimited coffee. Now, when it came to Panera actually launching this thing, they tested the concept out in 150 restaurants. This is a classic business strategy.

Tested out in a small market. See how the results go. If you annoy people, it doesn't matter. It's only a small market. That's why you always hear, like, Instagram is running like a pet dating service that they're testing in Manitoba, Canada. And then if things go well, you rolled out nationwide. They're rolling it out nationwide right now,

because the results in the tiny market were strong. Jack and I are envisioning like a bunch of guys in lab coats right now. Be like, what did you see? What did you see? 90% renewed their subscription to the coffee service the next month. 25% joined the Panera loyalty program, which must be called Pangia. And they didn't just get coffee. People started splurgeon on food. Honestly, if you walk by a Panera every day on the way to the subway, you have to get this deal.

It's a no-brainer. So, Jack, can you take a break from the latte art and tell us what the takeaway is for our buddy's Panera. Coffee subscription is the loyalty leader. The extra food you buy after, that's the Crosnackers. This is what fascinated Jack and I about this subscription. It's a powerful combination of loyalty leader and Croscel. First, the loyalty leader. Panera gets its foot in the door with a cheap daily habit that you can afford. We're talking coffee, it doesn't cost them that much money and you're probably going to do anyway. Then comes the cross sell. Once you're in the store, Panera is going to be slinging salads and sandwiches at you. Watch out. Tempting your every taste

bag. I got a chickpea in my eye over here. And that's when it makes sense. the money on the cross sell of the food. It's throwing beats basically down your throat. Another company's employed this strategy pretty well. Right. Disney offers Disney Plus really cheaply as the loyalty leader. Seven bucks a month. And then it gets you to buy toys, tickets to movies, and vacations at Disney World. That is the cross sell.

Now, our big ass care, you know, Chipotle charges extra for the Gwok. They tell me this every day. I'm not even going into Chipotle. They yell it out the window. What if they give away free Gwok as a loyalty leader? Boom. cross sales on the case. You're welcome, Chipotle, run with it. For our second story, Twitter CEO is under pressure to step down. Or just quit his other job as CEO of another company.

Hey, Jack Dorsey, Jack and I are trying to find your LinkedIn page over here. We're trying to endorse you for time management. Rule number one of being a CEO of a social media company, you don't have profiles at other social media apps. Rule number two, power move, you definitely have two profiles. All right, here's the news from yesterday. A powerful hedge fund called Elliott Management has acquired 5% of all the outstanding stock of Twitter, and now they're demanding the CEO Jack Dorsey be replaced. So Jack Kramer, my accomplice, am I right over here, right in front of me?

At Jack is not my Twitter hand. I can't believe that got taken, by the way. Jack and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to tell a little bit more about the story of Jack Dorsey's Twitter's family. Jack Dorsey is a walking resume of eccentricity. All right, get this, snagger. He starts his day with, you know, a cold ice bath. Then he walks to work, which is five miles, and he claims he. does it in an hour and 15 minutes, both ways.

Jack and I were talking to him. I'm like, what is it? Five minutes, five block. Jack's like five miles. Then he reportedly works from home Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. Must be nice. Finally, he works from a standing desk, so Nick must love it. I love that. I'm always at a stand desk. Honestly, the next best thing is going to be floating desks. We're going to get them eventually. I don't know when. All right. So that was like his work. Let's talk about life. He eats once a day, right? Meditates twice a day and finishes each night with a sauna and ice bath like three minutes in each cycle. I heard he eats the whole day, though, on splice. You know about Splund Days?

No. Fake eighth day Jack Dorsey made up just for himself. You're kidding. No, I just made that one up. Finally, miscellaneous, he doesn't use Google for search. He uses Duck. Dot. Also, he journals, and his journals are about some of his other journals.

They're very inception-oriented. He's very into wellness. Now, when he became CEO, he actually removed his nose ring. But he kept his beard. If someone knows who that nose ring is, we'd love to know about this. And today, he is the CEO of two Fortune 500 companies, both of which are publicly traded stocks. Snackers, we repeat, this is the kicker.

repeat, this is the kicker. Two separate huge companies. The first Twitter, he co-founded and he's been CEO of since 2015. The second, Square, a mobile payments company, he co-founded and has been CEO since ever. No joke. He gets to work having not eaten all day and works at one of them until noon. And then he works, oh, and then he eats his single meal of the day, which is like a broth. And then he works at the other company until, I don't know when. And then he walks home. By the way, both offices right next door to each other at Market Street. I honestly, I wish we could have said they were five miles apart. That would have been the coolest thing ever. But we've noticed signs that Jack has a favorite child.

Let us know if you've noticed this trend here. Now, Exhibit 1, or is it Exhibit A? Are these numbers or letters? You have not passed the bar. It doesn't work this way. You have not passed the bar. Dorsey, Jack Dorsey, owns $500 million of Twitter stock. And $5 billion of Square stock.

Slightly a letter difference there. So he's a little more interested in what happens at Square, at least based on his personal finances. Exhibit 2B slash B maybe. Jack Dorsey plans to spend six months this year in Africa. Oh, by the way, there's a presidential election. and he's the CEO of Twitter. He's going there because there's like a fintech revolution

basically going on across the whole continent. That trip is expensible to Square's expenses. Oh, yeah. The accountants of Twitter are like, not a chance. That's not a business trip. They're like, you got to tweet at least once a day in our free to be available expenses here.

Please, Jack, please. Exhibit 3. Yeah, 3C. Twitter stock is barely up from its IPO, which was seven years ago in 2013. Snackers, we're looking at this. Basically, Square is his Jamie Lanister. Twitter is getting the Tyrion-Lanister treatment.

And that is exactly what hedge fund Elliott management is claiming. That's why they want a new CEO at Twitter. But before you start banging on the door and saying, hey, Jack, throw away your shake for the day and let us move out of this office. Twitter has had consistent profits in the last two years, which is an improvement. And its growth in users is back. And employees kind of love him. Did we mention the nose ring? So they'd be sad if you left.

I think they'd be super bummed if they lost Jack as the CEO. So Snackers, Twitter shares popped 8% yesterday and hopes Jack will listen, which brings us to Twitter. a takeaway, Jack. And pay more attention to Twitter. What is the takeaway for our buddy name Jack? Well, we got one takeaway for Silicon Valley and one takeaway for Wall Street. Snackers, first time we ever done this, we thought we would play around with it. Jack on Jack. Silicon Valley, what's

the takeaway, Jack? The best example of Twitter's neglect might be in Vine. Right, the Wikipedia definition of Vine is a short form video hosting service where users share six second looping video clips. That sounds exactly like TikTok. And it exactly is like TikTok and Twitter acquired Vine

back in 2012 before TikTok. was a thing. Vine was TikTok before TikTok, but Twitter has shut Vine down way back in 2016 because it didn't work out. So Silicon Valley investors are wondering if that Twitter had had a full-time CEO, maybe Vine would have thrived. All right. So that's our Silicon Valley takeaway. Our Wall Street takeaway, Jack, what is it for Jack? When you go public, you lose control of your company. Unless you have super shares. This hedge fund we're talking about, it literally bought power at Twitter by acquiring 5% of all the stock that's out there. Snackers, when you IPO as a company, you're only, Ownership becomes fluid.

And unless you secure super stocks, which have like 20 voting shares per stock, like Zuckerberg has at Facebook, then shareholders can force you to do things like Elliott is trying to force Twitter. For our third and final story, this one's wild. Bird, the scooter company has a new product. Cars? Nope. Wings? Nope.

It's a bird. Nope. It's not even a took-took. Nests. Payments. This company is getting into payments. That's right, folks. An e-scooter company is getting into a fintech space.

Now, full disclosure here, Jack and I are scared of stand-up scooters. I don't like stand-up scooters. No, we're not into it. Well, in San Francisco, we have the opportunity to sit down on those scoots. Yeah, those are different. We, Jack and I prefer the Vespa-like scooters that make us feel like little old Sicilian women. You go faster. They're heavier, so if you crash into something, it's going to take the beating.

And you just kind of feel more comfortable. I just want a baguette in my hand. I want to scoot down the street. And Nick's exhausted from his standing desk all day. It doesn't want to stand anymore. I got to sit down when I commute so I can stand when I'm at work. Now, Byrd is the scooter company that is. It's valued at $2.5 billion, and it's now in 100 cities.

Oh, by the way, it's only two and a half years old, which do the math means its valuation has grown by $2.5 million a day. That's right. It was founded, and then the next day it was worth 2.8 mil. The following day, 5.6 mil. I can't do any more math. Now, here's what Bird is launching. A little feature called Bird Pay that we noticed.

It's in the app store. It's a lot like Apple Pay. You can pay for things. Now, Bird thinks it's an oversimplification to say that it just gets, you know, from A to B. From A to B, even though that's what it does. It's a knee-scroroof. They're like, hey, we get you from A to C with a little stop at D. No, they're actually underlining this community aspect

because 58% of e-scuder rides begin or end at a local business. And CEO Travis Vandersandin, by the way, we should point out the Zee in the middle of his last name. Like, the letter in the middle is capitalized. It's one word, Vandersandin, capital Z. It feels like he made a mistake when he was learning to writing kindergarten, and they just rolled with it. He claims that the small businesses in town, they often tell him the birds outside on the sidewalk, They're bringing business inside to my store. That's a wonderful thing.

We would love to hear a store owner say that. This sounds cool. This is hearsay. So we know what you're wondering. What does this bird pay thing actually look like elusively in the wild? Well, exactly what you'd expect. Yeah. Basically, when you take a bird scooter, you open up the app and you take a picture of the QR code on the scooter.

That's how you would unlock the scooter. To use bird pay, you open up the bird app. You take a picture of the store's QR code and then you put in like $10 if you want to pay $10. Now we know what you're also thinking. Are they the first company to like, branch off and do this game. Absolutely not. No. Venmo lets you pay with QRCA. And Uber money has an option. They're looking into more financial

products, too. Is there an original new element to this? No, there isn't it at all. In fact, Groupon offers you discounts and this doesn't. It's the same as Sweet Green. It's slower than Apple Pay, for sure. In fact, there's really no clear reason why this is better than any of the existing payment apps that are out there.

Seems pretty clear not to be. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies tripping away over at Byrd? If a product seems to make zero cents, then they're be another motive. Snackers, Bird is worth $2.5 billion with a B dollars. This is not a stupid company. When I saw this, I thought it was a really dumb concept. We were really questioning this concept right here. But Bird knows that this payment option kind of stinks for you and me at this point. So then Jack and I are looking at what's the motive here and we think it has to do with the fact that

Byrd pays for businesses. It's not actually for you and us. Remember Van der Zanden was bragging that business owners like Bird because it brings business inside. But Bird Snackers has a community problem, and we think this is actually an elaborate attempt to fix that. The truth is, stores, homes, and restaurants, they can't stand those ugly scooters on the sidewalk because they're ugly and they're blocking traffic. So Bird Pay includes like a bunch of features that are really focused on making stores like it. First of all, it lets the stores take electronic transactions with lower fees than like Apple Pay. And second, they promise to like highlight those stores in the Bird app.

So when you go from A to B or A, B, C, to D, you know what's going to be there. Yeah, when you get to the corner of Union and Gough, you can. see that there's a store just in case your eyes aren't working. But Bird, if you want to kind of pivot this concept of it and make it work for consumers, we've got a couple ideas for you. First of all, discounts. Give me a dollar off of a six-pack of White Claw? I might actually use Bird pay.

Boom, three bucks off of Bond Me? We're in. Jack, and you put down the Panera Cold Brew and whip up the takeaways for us over there. Panera Bread doesn't have a stock anymore because I got acquired by a mysterious German private company. But its new $9 a month unlimited coffee subscription is a loyalty leader so it can cross sell. Well said. Second story, second takeaway.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is accused of neglecting Twitter. Alligate management bought 5% of Twitter stock, so it's allowed to make some demands. Third and final story, to make store owners happier with Bird, it's launching Bird Pay. And this Bird Pay Snackers is not about you, me, or Jack, or anyone else. It's about Bird's image. Time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in from Nicholas Bacall, originally from Mexico City. Now he's in SF.

The oldest company in the world. Yes. That is still operating. and still in business. That's key, key distinction there. Is in Japan. Not only is it in Japan, its name is Congo Gumi, and it was founded 578. I assume we're talking AD on this.

I thought this was going to be a brewery in the Australian Alps founded by monks. But actually, that wouldn't be a business. That'd be like a religion. No, that's just like kind of a fun side hustle. So Congo Gumi is actually a construction company still operating in Osaka, Japan. Apparently people are always building things. It sounds more profound than it is. Snackers, I love today's podcast.

Nick did too. We loved it together. You're like our shared child. We just think you guys are the best. But if you see anybody's, please ask them, H-Y-H-Y-S-D. Have you had your snacks daily? Oh, by the way, if you'd like to learn more about our editorial principles, check out Snacks.robinhood.com. There's a link at the bottom of the site. Right at the bottom, if you know, you know. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Mark It's Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.