The Best One Yet - 🧘 “Unicorn Pants” — Lulu’s leggings turn 10. Chime is the McD’s of Money. Cava’s hummus surge.

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

TBOY bi-annual survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3qlyZFxoJvFhFaeLululemon’s Align Leggings just turned 10 years old… And they actually invented athleisure.Chime, the online banking app, just filed to IPO… Because they’re the McDonalds of money.Cava is beating Chipotle and Sweetgreen… We’ve got the apples-to-apples numbers to prove it.Plus, the most profitable graduation gift in history is… Dr. Seuss’ “Oh The Places You’ll Go”TBOY Live Chicago July 23rd, Tickets on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Google Maps 🌎$LULU $CAVA $SG $MCDAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, May 19th. And today's pod, out of all the pods, is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But first, a quick question. Besties, do you want a free Yeti cooler? All you got to do is take our semi-annual T-Boy survey.

We drop it only twice a year, and you might win that free Yeti cooler. That's right. We want to hear from the besties so we can make this the best show yet for you. So click the link in the episode description, take our three-minute survey, and you could win a Yeti cooler. But in the meantime, Jack and I whipped up three fantastic stories. Jack, what's on today's pod? For our first story, 10 years ago, Lulu Lemon's Align Leggings invented the athleisure category. So Jack and I will tell you the surprise reason Align Leggings became a billion-dollar brand. For our second story, Chime, the online bank that swears it's not a bank.

Just filed to IPO. Because Chime is the McDonald's of money. And every industry needs its McDonald's. And our third and final story. Of all the food chains in America right now, one is thriving. Who is Jack? Kava. Kava.

Why is Kava beating Sweet Green and Chipotle? Well, Jack and I are going to serve up the answer for you. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, no one's doing this mix. Love this mix, Jack. The top Google search happening right now What is it, is graduation gifts. Ah, graduation gifts.

The tradition of writing a check to your nephew after four years of them parting at Sig Sig Epp. They get diploma, you give gift. You got degree, they give money. The trending graduation gifts this year, what are they next? Jack, it's good. The fifth one is a surprise, but number one is a laptop. That pairs well with an entry-level job. Number two is a Yeti water bottle.

You got to hydrate like a boogie adult. Number three is AirPods. Got to listen to podcasts all the time. Number four is the Kendra Scott necklace. Welcome to your 20s. You earned this necklace. But the fifth most popular graduation gift, what is it, check? A book. Specifically, Oh, the Places You'll Go.

That's right. Dr. Seuss's book is the fifth most popular searched graduation gift. Yeah, in fact, this was Dr. Seuss's very last book, published back in 1990. He was 86 years old when he wrote this book. And it turns out, Oh, the Places You'll Go is now the best-selling. book in May and June nearly every single year, according to BookScan. It sells 200,000 copies every graduation season, and this book is nearly 40 years old. The wild thing for Jack and I? Dr. Seuss never intended this book to be a graduation tradition in the first place. Yeah, it was Walmart, Target,

and Amazon. He started promoting this book as a graduation gift. Classic. But now Dr. Seuss's final rhymes are the go-to grad gift. And they make $7 million every spring for the Dr. Seuss estate. So do all the Yetis out there graduating? You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. Let's hit our three stories of the best business news. Let's hit him, Jack. 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 an norm. Tis. 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, Lulu Lemons align leggings. They turned 10 years old last week. Women wear leggings all day. In office, at the brunch, at the gym, and it's all because of these leggings. Because feel matters more than form. But first, Yeties, every brand, every great brand has a hero product. Absolutely. Jack, let me read them off the whiteboard for you. Sony has PlayStation.

Ford has the F-150 truck. Glossier, they got their boy brow. Lulu Lemon has Align Leggings. Yes, they do. It's not just a product, it's a franchise. Besties, the reason. Lulu is a $40 billion company today. The reason!

They invented Athleisure. The reason! This brand disrupted the downward dog? The Align leggings. It's the Align's. Look, Lulu popularized yoga pants when they launched back in 1998. But it was the Align Legging back in 2015 that was the first with a new versatile fabric

that worked for bar class and for brunch. Before the Align Leggings, You'd have to shower after a workout. You couldn't go into the office and yoga pants. You'd left your leggings back in your Pilates locker. But after the Align Leggings, post-Pilates, you could stroll right to your desk and nobody would turn ahead. And now you can't sip a latte without seeing eight ladies wearing Align Legans out there.

Well, last week was the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Align Leggings, Lulu Lemon's first billion-dollar product. And here's the wild thing Jack and I noticed about Lulu Lemon stock. It only started blowing up in the years after Align. So Besties added up, and this isn't a hero product. This is a goddess product. So Jack and I got curious, how did Lulu create it? Turns out their R&D lab focused on the science of feel. And what exactly is that, Jack?

How do you feel as a customer when you first touch the product in the store? Okay, now here's the important contrast. At this time, Under Armour was living its best life. UA was all the rage. Get in this house. They focused on on field performance. Technical apparel. On the other hand, Lulu Lemon bet on how you feel being more important than how you perform on the mat. That drove them to develop this new fabric. It's called Newlu. And the moonshot goal of Newlu was to make it feel like a rose pedal. That was the ambitious goal here.

It was like, you know that feeling on the rose petals? It's like soft. Pretty amazing. There's a reason you buy a huge bag of rose petals to propose your fiance. And then stick your face in it. So, Jack, what was the result of this science of feel? By focusing on feel instead of form, women wore these pants after their workout, outside of the yoga studio, not for soul cycle class at all, just as a daily thing to wear. So it appears that philosophy of feel opened the door to wearing leggings all day becoming a cultural phenomenon.

And that's why we say it was this specific pant that invented the modern athleisure category. On the other hand, no one's going out for bloody marries in underarmor or wearing sweatwicking gear to the boardroom. Will you protect this house? No, no, we're okay, thank you. Yeties, without the aligned legging, Lulu would probably just be a hoo-hoo. But there was one other key to this product's success. Nick, were you Dr. Seuss's understudy?

Been training for this moment my entire life, Jack. So what's the takeaway for our buddies with the Lulu Align Leggin? It's advice that Yogi told us, ironically, let go of what you can't control. Yeties, there is one surprise factor that also caused Lulu Lemon's aligned leggings to take off and be worn all day. It was something Lulu couldn't predict and couldn't control.

It was skinny jeans. Yeah, back in 2015, skinny jeans were the pants in style. Every millennial lady had like six pairs of made well. And by chance, Lulu's aligned leggings had a similar silhouette as tight-fitting jeans did. Which meant you could wear the same tops with your new Lulu-aligned leggings as you could with your existing pair of skinny jeans. The result? It was so easy to buy these leggings because it was compatible.

with your existing wardrobe. Exactly. So Lulu, they could have never predicted this twist, but owning skinny jeans, ironically, help drive sales of a line likings. It's a reminder that when it comes to launching products, there's going to be stuff that's just outside your control. Let go of what you can't control. For our second story, Chime, the banking app, just filed to IPO, so we jumped into the paperwork and discovered something wild about an NBA basketball team. We'd also argue that Chime is the McDonald's of banking. because every industry needs a McDonald's. So, Jack, what is the hottest area in tech right now?

Oh, if you ask AI, they'd say it's AI. But we would say it's fintech. Financial technology is booming right now. Robin and stock has tripled in the past 12 months. Coinbase is joining the S&P 500. E. Toro just IPOed, and the stock is sitting up 20%. Which leads us to chime, the online banking app that filed to IPO just a few days ago. So over the weekend, we jumped.

into the financial paperwork. And now, Yeti's chime is a green-colored banking app, just like, you know, every fintech app out there these days. And they offer a long menu of banking products and services like checking account, savings account, loans, credit cards. Here are the key numbers. $1.6 billion in revenue, not quite profitable yet, but the losses are shrinking fast. And in 2021, when they last got a fundraise, they were valued at $25 billion.

Funny thing, they mentioned the word bank, 931 time. in their IPO paperwork. Hilariously, though, the first time they used the word bank was to say this, Chime is a technology company, not a bank. But then they said bank 930 more times. So, Chime, they're telling consumers they're a bank, but they're telling investors they're a tech company.

Yeah, we want a tech multiple, not a banking multiple. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating. The biggest surprise in the numbers was basketball? Chime paid the NBA $33 million? Yes, they did. this Yet this Yeties right as the company filed to IPO, they also became the jersey sponsor of the Dallas Mavericks. And that's symbolic of big marketing spend for this little growth company. In fact, we noticed that Chime dropped 500 million bucks on sales and marketing last year. Not too shabby.

That's 31% of revenues, though. Okay, so what we mean by that is that for every dollar chime made, they spent 31 cents on ads, commercials, or sponsorships. I'm going to sprinkle on some context. I would love for you to sprinkle on context. Coinbase spends 10% of their revenue on sales marketing. Robin Hood spends less than 10% and J.P. Morgan spends just 2% of their revenue on marketing. Meanwhile, our buddies over at Chime are dropping 31% of their revenues on these marketing initiatives. They actually mentioned the Dallas Mavericks 10 times in their IPO. Is Mark Cuban the CEO? I think Dirk Nowitzky is like a Chime Power User, Jack.

No, it's pretty ironic, actually, because Chime is a fintech company. They're trying to teach, like, financial responsibility. And then they go and splurge on self-promotion. Honestly, I respect it. Treat yourself, Chime. You're going public. Splurge, Flourge. Now, Chime would tell you that they're a growth company.

They got to spend money to get their name out there, ultimately, so they can make money down the road. But, Yeties, there's also another reason why Chime's revenue is surging right now and they're going public in this economy. And the answer is not Dirknewitzky. No, it's our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Chime? Every industry needs.

it's McDonald's. Yet he's the CEO of 1-800 Flowers. One said that he started his flower business because there was no McDonald's in flowers. He was talking about McDonald's unique value proposition that disrupted fast food, actually invented fast food 80 years ago. And here it is. McDonald's was the first low-priced, consistent, scalable, prepared food concept. We'd argue the McDonald's of fashion, though, is Old Navy. They're low-priced, consistent, and scalable. And the McDonald's of working out is planet fitness. They're low-priced, consistent, and scalable. And we'd argue the McDonald's of banking is chime. Yes. They're low-priced, consistent, and could scale across the whole country. And now, of course, Chase, Bank of America, City, Wells Fargo, they think they're the

McDonald's of banking. But Chime, Chime is internet first. Chime's menu of low-priced banking products with an engaging brand that's green. They're the McDonald's of money. Because there is an opportunity in every industry to become the McDonald's. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Kava is the only food chain defying the economic vibe session. We'll tell you why, apples to apples, Kava is crushing the fast casual competition. But Jack, in order to tell this story, can you please set the scene for us June

2023? We covered the Kava IPO. Ironically, we covered it on the same day we interviewed Sweet Green's co-founder. Awkward, but it was fun. Awkward because Kava and Sweet Green are both competing against Chipotle for your lunch bowl order. Every single day. Millennials, we sit at our desks and we eat bowls. That is what we do. Bread, wrap, man, that's empty calories, my friend.

Customizable lunch bowls from Chipotle, Kava, and Sweet Green. They hit the three-circle Venn diagram sweet spot. I know what you mean, Jack. It's like health, cost, conundated. convenience, boom, all three brands are right in the middle of that thing. In like 12 minutes, you get all the nutrients you need while you're still like reading an earnings report. Well, interestingly, one year ago, all three of those fast casual stocks were actually at all time highs. Another good thing about bowls, you eat them with forks, which means you're less likely to get messy.

I know you're a sport guy, Jack. Don't sell his short over there. And when those stocks were at all time highs, it looked like there was room in this economy for a Mexican bowl, a Mediterranean bowl, and a shroomami bowl to exist peacefully. But in the past 12 months, Sweet Green and Chipotle have shrank. Yes. But Kava, they have only accelerated even faster. Like fed at cheese, baby, Kava has got big tahini energy right now, so we jumped into the numbers. The vibe session is hitting Chipotle and Sweet Green really hard. Yeah, sales at both those chains actually fell last quarter.

And the reason, it's got to be this. Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has fallen for five straight months. Yeah, in May, we actually had the second lowest. consumer sentiment vibe ever. The only lower point was June 2022 when inflation and interest rates were crazy high. And we're seeing this in the brown bag effect that Jack and I told you about. Office workers are bringing lunch from home into the office instead of eating out. Ipsopacto sales at your average Chipotle fell 0.5% last quarter and sales at your average sweet green fell 3%. But Kava just announced earnings that made us ask for more hummus, baby.

Extra hummus, because it's not extra. The average Kava had a 11% sales growth last quarter. Even wilder, Kava customers are upgrading their bowls. They're splurgeoned on P to chips and juice right now. Despite this economy, Kava fans are going full treat yourself, and they're earning extra Muamara, even though that costs extra. Second point check, Muammar is like my favorite word to say ever. Baba Kanush is mine. But besties, there is an explanation for this, and it is strategic Kava prices. Although Kava bowls cost 15% more than Chipotle bowls on average,

that delta is narrowing. In fact, Kava's CEO said in their earnings last month, we are a port in the inflation storm. Kava has purposely kept their pricing slower than inflation. On the other hand, Chipotle, they're basically shrinking their burritos down to the size of an hors d'oeuvre. And they've raised prices seven times since 2021. I know the guac is extra.

So, Jagal, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Kava? Apples to apples, Kava is 50% more valuable than Chipotle. So, Yetis, how do a couple ex-finance guys like Jack and I compare Chipotle to Kava? Well, we don't look at their stock, and we don't look at their market cap either. We look at their market cap per location. Exactly. That's how you can compare two things of different size and different maturity. So you take the total value of the company and then divide it by the total number of locations.

And that lets you compare two companies apples to apples. Sweet Green is worth $2 million per location. Chipotle is worth $20 million per location, but coffee. Kava is worth $30 million per location. Wall Street gives Kava this high valuation on the belief it'll grow faster than your fast, casual, bowl competition. After all, Kaba only has one-tenth as many locations as Chipotle does. Which is why, based on our analysis, apples to apples, Kava is 50% more valuable than

Chipotle. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Lula Lemon's aligned leggings turned 10 last week. They invented a athleisure. And their story is a reminder that you should let go of what you can't control. For our second story, Chime has filed to IPO. The stock should begin trading in about two weeks or so. And Chime is trying to be the McDonald's and banking,

because every industry needs its McDonald's. And our third and final story is Kava. Their sales grew 11% last quarter while competing healthy lunch bowl chains, drank. And that's why apples to apples, Kava, is worth 50% more than Chipotle. But Yeti's, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the CEO of Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk is stepping down. Apparently, the Ozempic inventor needs a turnaround.

One year ago, Novo Nordisk was the most valuable company in Europe. But in the year since then, compounded versions of their weight loss drug have eaten away at their market share. So Novo Nardisk is down 50% as hymns and hers soared selling a cheaper version. And second, Christopher Nolan's next big movie? The Odyssey. Which is going to be as you just film yet. This sounds amazing. But here's the surprise. The whole film is filmed on IMAX film. In fact, the IMAX company, a publicly traded business, by the way, made new cameras specifically for this movie. That's what it needed. And the role of Odysseus? Who is it, Jack? Matt Damon. Yeah, we didn't get it. Is Ben Affleck thrilled or pissed about that role?

And finally, Harvard University just made the biggest accidental discovery in their history. They have an original of the Magna Carta, and they didn't even realize it. Get this, in 1946, Harvard Law bought a copy of the famous British document for $27. They just thought it was a fake copy. They thought it was a copy. But they just discovered that it's actually one of seven original versions, so it's actually worth $20 million. Now, time for the best fact.

Yeah, this one, whipped up by Jack and I for Monday trivia, it's on LeCroy. Here's the question. Who invented sparkling water? Yeah, like who first put bubbles into your H2O? What was the company? What was the business? Who was it, Jack? Mother Earth did that. That's a good point. Carbonated water comes naturally in certain springs. But Jack, who is the first to discover this and essentially commercialize it? Hippocrates. That's right. In 400 BC, the famous philosopher, Hippocrates, found carbonated water and determined it had healing properties. Hippocrates, by the way, is where the Hippocratic oath comes from, but every doctor must swear.

And in tomorrow's show, we'll reveal why we're asking questions about sparkling water. A certain company from Wisconsin, 2,000 years later, scaled Hippocrates Discovery. Yetis, you'll look fantastic today, and you'll look extra fantastic when you fill out our survey. It takes three minutes, and you could win a Yeti court. Nick and I are going to pick it out, or maybe we'll let you pick it out, actually. Maybe we'll do both, yeah, we don't know. But either way, we should let you know. One of the best things any business can do actually is surveys.

big believers of them. That's how you understand what everyone's thinking about what you're doing. We want to hear your positive feedback. Any negative feedback? Let's make this show the best one yet. You can whip up your takeaways on our takeaways. We got a link in the episode description. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a shout out to Rich G for a correction on our podcast. Rich points out that DreamWorks movies will be licensed to Hulu, not Disney Plus, which we'd said on Friday. Happy birthday to Miranda on Spa. From Cordillade, in Idaho, who's on the way back to work right now.

And Jesse Delfonso down in Hotland, Atlanta, past the Series 65, big-time Yeti recruiter. Love you, Jesse. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Morgan McQueen in San Francisco, who's hiking the Inca Trail down in Peru. Oh, keep crushing it, Morgan. Oh, and then the creator event that I spoke at yesterday,

I met a couple of Yetis in the crowd, Jack. Ramon, a lifestyle influencer, and Gracie, a designer influencer. Guys, thanks for being Yetis. Thanks for attending the talk. Congratulations to Anne and Charlie Warren for having a baby girl, Catherine Beecher. And Guillermo, you're going to be a fantastic big bro. Congratulations to Gabriella Gibson, who's graduating from the Wharton School and is now traveling a bra.

I love you said that, Jack. And Owen Moynihan is graduating from the Catholic University. Congratulations Owen. And congratulations to our good buddy, Nick Marino, who had a valiant effort in jeopardy on Friday last week. Okay, we want to point out Nick actually answered the majority of questions. He only lost the very last minute. He basically won the show in our business. This is Jack.

I own stock of Disney, Kava, and Ford. Nick own stock of Lulu Lemon, and we both own stock of Chipotle and Robin Hood.