The Best One Yet - 👽 “UFB: Unidentified Flying Billionaires” — Space Inc.’s huge week. Subway’s shutdown. Square’s physical bitcoin.

Episode Date: July 12, 2021

Branson is beating Bezos to orbit because this is the biggest week for space since Buzz Aldrin. You’ll notice your local Subway sandwich spot is shut down today for its biggest makeover ever. And Square announced it’s building a physical Bitcoin hardware wallet (real thing) because all good crypto stories involve Liam Neeson.$SPCE $BTC $BAGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, July 12. kicking the week off with another stock market record on it. Not too shabby. Jack, you know how I know this is the best one yet we've ever done?

Wow. We're drinking the same spintryflavor flavor, baby. Snackers, for our first story. This is the biggest week for space since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Alda. I feel like you're not as excited about the spin influencer moment, check. I already finished mine. Billionaires are about to make or break like the entire. space business model. For our second story, Subway Sandwiches, thinks that avocados are unhealthy because

they're high in fat. Not anymore. The biggest restaurant chain in America is closing early today to refresh for tomorrow. For our third and final story, Square just announced it's building a Bitcoin wallet that is hardware. Like all good crypto stories, it all comes back to Liam Neeson. Snackers, before we hit those three stories. Honestly, this is the best way we started a week out. Did you enjoy it? Did you enjoy? Did you enjoy? last week. Did you like the four-day work week, Jack? You enjoyed it. You'll look rested. You look relaxed. Paul Rudd, did you enjoy doing less? It may have been the spin drift. It was probably the four-day work week. Well, the data is in from Iceland. The frozen island turned itself into

a laboratory of workplace experiments. I don't know how we missed this, Nick. How did we miss this? But for four years, Iceland has been testing out nationwide, the four-day workroom. From frozen sea to shining fury. Hey, Magnus, go ahead and take Tuesday off if you like so you can enjoy a haddock-flavored ice. Hey, Katja, leave the office. Go simmer in a hot spring for a couple days. The Nordic four-day work week, aka three-day weekend, the data is in. And according to Iceland, their big four-year four-day workweek experiment was a quote-unquote overwhelming success. That's the executive summary.

The results were so good. In fact, in the two years since the experiment ended, 86% of employers have reduced the number of mandatory hours people have to work. Now, there are a couple fascinating takeaways here in Iceland. Most important for skeptical bosses out there, the four-day work week actually boosted productivity for the island nation's workers. Icelanders basically became corporate Vikings. A less surprising finding, but still important, it boosted workers' happiness, obviously.

Yeah, Thor prefers three-day weekends. I mean, he doesn't just want to carry a briefcase around. He's got that hammer. Snackers, here's their suggestion for you. Okay, first, go to your boss, ask if they've ever been to Iceland. Second, share the data about the four-day workweek experiment from ICE. And then third, tell them that time kills all deals and then just walk out of the room. We think you'll like the results.

Let's hit our three stories. Let's go. 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 hearing food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities.

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 Fenbra slash SIPC. For our first story, the biggest week for space since Man on the Moon is happening right now. That was 1969.

Yeah, it was a great year. We weren't around. It's 2021. Now we're looking at the short term, medium term, and long term future opportunities to invest in outer space. Yeah, Jack, we got a UFB situation going on over here. Unidentified flying billionaires. Yes. Richard Branson moved up the launch date for Virgin Galactic to send his body into space so that he beats Jeff

Bezos by nine days. This sounds safe. The kind of thing when you have a little too much money and a little too much time. For these two, it's your classic ship measuring contest between two billionaires. You got the leader of the company putting his life on the line to prove this business model. But this isn't sci-fi. There are some very real commercial and investing opportunities in space. Jack, I think we can file this under like low reward, extremely high risk.

For Branson. Yeah. First, Snackers, breaking this out time-wise, here are like the near-term opportunities when it comes to the space industry. Satellites, both for NASA and to beam down an internet signal to Earth. And that's what Elon Musk's private SpaceX company is doing so you can get Wi-Fi from their space satellites starting next month. If you live way out in the sticks, way off the grid, you can still get a signal from these. Sticks, real place. SpaceX also refuels and restocks the international space station. Okay, so that's what SpaceX is doing. But then you got Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin,

which are doing the whole space tourism thing must be nice. I think it's like $25 million for a seat on Jeff Bezos's rocket. You put this on the wedding register. This isn't something you're funding yourself. Now let's fast forward a few more years and look at the medium term opportunities for space commerce. All right, so here's how Jack and I are seeing this. The medium term opportunities are basically national defense. There is a sixth branch of the armed forces today, the Space Force. It was created by then President Trump in 2019. And we're thinking you could actually start seeing Star Wars style X-Winks capable of in-spice combat coming out from these kind of space companies, medium term.

We're going to have to recruit Luke Skywalker, like, you know, lasers. This is a real possibility now. And Boeing has long industry ties with the military, so they may have an advantage since they already have a space device. Yeah, they are. Check out the earnings report. Boeing mentions their space division frequently. Now, this is the most exciting opportunity for the space business, but it's also the furthest away, the long-term opportunities. We're talking the colonization opportunities on the moon or other planets that also involve manufacture. Jeff Bezos is excited about the potential to mine natural resources from other planets and ship them back to Earth for consumption here. Because we're all just trying to get that unobtainium. That's the goal.

Literally, the plot of Avatar, that big evil corporation, Jeff Bezos doesn't want to be evil, but he wants to do that business model. I mean, Jack, you enjoyed interstellar McCona Hay. Really, really confusing movie, but yeah, they like tried to live on another planet because Earth wasn't so good. This is like page six of the Blue Origin pitch deck. Exactly. Also, they're thinking maybe we could throw our dirtiest factories onto another planet

and import the products back to Earth. I mean, you then kick things up on arch. You think even longer term, we meet some marshes. those are potential Pelotanistas. There you go, new customer. Seriously. If we encounter aliens, they could join our economy. Boom, Wookie is a service, new thing.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the space industry? Space stocks? They're actually like stars. They're hidden throughout the stock market if you know where to look. Now, Snackers, NASA and its three Amigo billionaires are the best known investors in space so far. The VC and wealthy angel investor community also invested a record nine billion. billion dollars in space startups last year. But, you know, SpaceX, Blue Origin, these other space startups, they're Sumo. We're straight up missing out, S-U-MO, unless you're a VC or one of

these wealthy angels. Unless you're a VC, you can't invest. But there are some public space stocks beyond the obvious Virgin Galactic and both. Jack, you got your satellite logic, your planet labs. They just announced SPAC deals last week. They're going public, space-focused companies. According to Space Capital, one of those lucky VCs, Amazon and Microsoft, are actually one of the most overlooked space stories of last year. Yeah, get this, space cloud computing, aka the ultimate cloud computing. Yeah.

So technically, Amazon and Microsoft are in the business of space already. So Snackers, there are plenty of opportunities for retail investors to, like, invest in these high-risk potential intergalactic reward opportunity. It's not just available to the UFBs, the unidentified flying billionaires. For our second story, we've been waiting to cover this for a while, Jack. Subway is closing 10,000 stores early today on purpose. Subway sandwiches is getting a major, major rebrand. First of all, we got to begin this with like a total shocker.

Maybe the best trivia question we can think of these days. What is the biggest restaurant chain in the world? The answer. The answer is actually McDonald's, 39,000 stars. It's probably what you expect it. Subway is a close number two, though, with 37,000 locations. But then you're going to knock them off their socks with this. What's the biggest chain?

in the United States. Subway. 22,000 locations. And Subway was number one globally for years. It was. But recently, they've closed thousands of locations. I mean, I'm comfortable going on the record here, Jack, and saying Subway is the mayonnaise of restaurants. I'm comfortable going on the record that when I was 14, I grew six inches in height,

didn't gain a pound because of Subway sandwiches, no joke. Is that a stock endorsement? This is Jack. My local Subway knew my regular order. It's a Chabata endorsement. Snackers, the reason Subway had to shut down so many locations is Chipotle. Chapolet. They redefined fast food to fast casual with the farm-to-face burrito assembly line.

Meanwhile, the only thing Subway redefined is my physique, apparently. But also the super toaster oven. I thought you looked great before. I think you look great now. I put it all behind me. Don't worry. But that's super toaster oven. Yeah.

They toasted my sandwich in like 11 seconds. I don't know how it did it. That toaster oven jack basically put Quiznos out of business. But Snackers, Subway does. have a publicly traded stock. No, it doesn't. The parent company is privately owned. But if Subway were to be a stock, you would see Chipotle stock and Subway stock making an

X going in very different directions. Chipotle going up. Yeah. Subway going down. Because Subway smashes avocados. Yeah, they do. And Chipotle adores them. Chipotle massages them.

Oh, it didn't help that Jared Fogel. Subway spoke person got convicted of being a pedophile. Yeah, it also didn't help when you're like $5 foot long hero product gets sued because it's 11 inches long. It's not 12 inches long. True story. I'm only paying $4.58. Yes. I did the math. Thank you very much. But Snackers, all that is why 10,000 U.S. subway locations are closing early today. You're going to notice it. You're probably going to notice this today. You might notice it. Yeah, you might. It's for Operation Eat Fresh, Refresh. And the number one change that Subway is making today is menu innovation.

There's going to be dozens of new ingredients, including fresh mozzarella, and also 10 new signature sandwiches on the menu. Now, don't worry, they're not changing their infamous tuna, or should we say funa sandwich. Yes. They firmly stand by and say it's 100% realtor. We're not saying it's not tuna, but we're not not saying it is tuna. Also, 7,000 subway stores in the U.S. are getting a digital update, you know, ordering

kiosks, being able to order on the app, and being able to get delivery through Dornash. So the staff is working overnight at Subways to learn, like, how to make all these new things. And tomorrow morning, when they open with this new rebrand, they're giving away a million free six-inch sandwiches. Okay. That's aggressive, Jack. But move quick because they're only doing 50 per location. So get there like early. Oh, and guess what?

In the sandwiches is avocado. Avocado is in these free sandwiches, and that's key. Now, guac is always extra, so you're going to pay eventually for this. But Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at subway? Definitions change. Snackers, if your brand depends on one word, make sure you're... You're following the definition evolution of that one word. For years, Snackers, Subway bragged about the word healthy.

14-year-old me heard it. Eat fresh. Picture that on all their napkins, Jack. You must have known them intimately. I remember them unfondly. They had seven sandwiches that had six grams of fat or less. I saw it every day. Fat used to be the enemy when it came to dieting and health.

Fat's not necessarily the enemy anymore. No, one avocado, 23 grams of fat. Subway's definition originally, avocados are horrible for you. Avocados are horrible for you, according to Subway. And yet everyone else calls them a superfood. Today, health trends are about clean eating. You got organic, low processed, low carbon footprint. The definition of healthy clearly changed.

For Subway, it didn't. For our third and final story, Square, just tweeted that it is building out a hardware wallet for Bitcoin. Weird. Digital crypto. Interesting. getting a physical thing. Square is living the full fintech lifestyle, aren't they, Jack?

They started off with a dongle for farmers to sell their berries at a farmer's market and accept digital and credit cards. But they now also own cash app so you can pay back your buddy Timmy for buying you those blueberries at that aforementioned market. And Thursday, we saw this tweet from CEO, Jack Dorsey. This is what he said. We're building a hardware wallet for Bitcoin. Okay, Bitcoin software wallets already exist.

That's the weird thing. We already know about those, like digitally storing cryptocurrency information to prove you own that particular Bitcoin. That's a software wallet. But Square wants a hardware wallet for your Bitcoin. Very strange. What is this hardware wallet we dove in Snacks style? We think it's going to be a physical USB stick-like thing to store the key that proves

that the crypto is your crypto. So this will be a physical thing, like a USB stick. And Jack Dorsey said that their product, which isn't available yet and is just beginning development now, it's going to be a mobile first physical wallet. Okay, so you're going to want to picture some tiny plastic thingy that's going to plug into your phone or connect wirelessly. Again, picture like a little USB. And it's going to have the code that proves that the Bitcoin is your Bitcoin. Which leads to the question we all know you're asking, why would an inherently digital thing?

Bitcoin. want an extremely physical thing. And the answer is security. Security. Snackers, sit back and now picture like a typical Bank of America checking account. Hackers or bank robbers could steal the money from your Bank of America account. Because remember, FDIC insurance covers bank failures. It doesn't cover hackings or robberies.

But a hacker sitting at a computer in Russia can't get the paper money in your physical wallet that's sitting in your khaki pockets right now. We're talking about the Abe Lincoln in your wallet, in your pants at this moment. And it's the same with Bitcoin that's stored in your physical wallet that's off the grid. Exactly. A hacker can't get your Bitcoin keys because it's in a thing under your mattress. So that's the benefit of a physical hardware Bitcoin wallet. You can't be hacked from somewhere else remotely.

Ben, the Bitcoin, Nick, he can't be taken by some faraway hackers. Some hackers are going to have to come physically show up at your door and then deal with Liam Nissan if they want to steal your Bitcoin if you got a physical Bitcoin wallet. They might get your physical Bitcoin wallet. Yeah. But they won't be leaving with their arms and legs. I've got a very particular set of blockchain skills. I have a very particular set of blockchain skills. You don't want to meet that man. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy, Jack Dorsey and everyone over at Square? When you eventually start paying for things in Bitcoin, Square wants it happening on cash app. Snackers, here is Jack Dorsey's dream. It's you at a farmer's market paying for those blueberries,

but in Bitcoin and with Squares Cash App. Today, Cash App can handle payments and it can handle Bitcoin trading. Yeah, you pay for things in dollars with Cash App, but you invest in Bitcoin with Cash App. Jack wants you doing both in one, paying for things in Bitcoin. And this new physical wallet could make people more comfortable holding money in Bitcoin just like they do with cash. And then we'd start treating Bitcoin more as a stable currency, maybe.

not like the wild investment that it is today. And that is why this move is squarely in squares business interest. The end goal is to get you to cash app at a farmer's market with Bitcoin for berries. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to start the week? I love these stories today. The space industry has only just begun. But if you look close enough, you can find the space stocks in the stock galaxy already. For a second story, Subway Sandwiches launches and eat fresh refresh tomorrow.

Definitions change and Subway didn't keep up with the definitions. For a third and final story, Square is developing a physical Bitcoin wallet. Physical. So you can start cash apping someone for berries in Bitcoin. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one's wild sent in by Rob Rebman. Volkswagen's best selling item has nothing to do with an automobile. That's right. Volkswagen's best selling item is actually a sausage. Snackers, behold, the Volkswagen curry worst. I love the pronunciation jack.

Back in the 1940s and the 1950s, Volkswagen treated its workers to lunch like any very nice, generous European company would do. And it was a blue-collar German factory. So why not a 10-inch spicy sausage? Yeah. Well, guess what? Volkswagen made those sausages themselves. Yeah.

It's part number 199393850A. And they have legendary cult status still today. We're not kidding. Just like the bumpers, VW made these sausages. In 2018, the last. year we have data. Volkswagen sold 6.5 million of these VW curry worsts. So Volkswagen sold more sausages than the number of cars they produced that year, which was only 6.2 million. Volkswagen, a sausage company. Snackers, you look fantastic. Jack, I feel like you still have some stuff to work out

with like the subway phase of your life. I, no, put it behind me. Snackers, the best way we can grow, tell your friends, H-Y-H-Y-S-D. Share snacks daily with your friends, and we'll see you. tomorrow. Have you had your snacks, Steve? If you know, you know. And before we go, happy birthday to Hans over in Sydney, Australia. And Kendall Coletti in Los Angeles, California. And Mack, the Long in Augusta, Georgia. And Chiragin Garani in Dublin, California. And happy birthday to Keith Gardner. We almost missed it. Congrats to Ike, who just graduated from UNC's MBA program. And Mary Figueroa, first day of work over in lovely Los Angeles. Enjoy. Congrats to Henry Huang for moving to Big Apple. And Noel

Gatowski on the dream job landed in California. Happy anniversary to Brian and Emily in Orlando, Florida. And Solomon Ash, congrats on the anniversary in Mexico City, Jack, a couple that fell in love snacking. And congrats to Charles Lee for opening up a second location of Palmetto's superfoods. Jack, no joke. Just last week, Molly and I were telling someone, we cannot wait until they move into the neighborhood. I don't know what they do with their coconut. They shave them into flakes and they're delicious. Anyone else celebrating something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick own stock of Square and Chipotle. I own stock of Amazon and Volkswagen. And we both own stock of Peloton. 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 Markets, 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. Verst wagon? Verst wagon. First wagon.