The Best One Yet - 👑 “We crunched the coronation cash” - England’s Royal ROI. Airbnb’s room strategy. Band-Aid’s IPO.

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

The coronation of King Charles the III is tomorrow in London — but you didn’t realize the royal family is Royalty Incorporated (worth $21B). Airbnb’s always let you book private rooms (not just entire homes), but it’s doubling down on affordable options because that’s core to its identity. And Band-Aid Brands is part of the biggest IPO of 2023: Kenvue — It’s worth $40B, because branding is a powerful drug.  This week’s pop-biz pop-quiz: Go.tboypod.com $ABNB $JNJ $KVU $CMGWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeLearn 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. It's Friday, the real Friday. May 5th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It is a T-boy. What a T-boy, Jack. Yet he's Nick and Molly.

They only have a little bit of dink time left. So they're dinking so hard this weekend. Jack, we dinked it all the way down to Southern California. That's how hard we dinked it, man. Nick is recording this episode from a place called Los Alives, California. That translates to the olives, California. The other olives. garden. I'm enjoying the pinos. Molly's drinking olive oil. That's how this is going down.

It's a baby moon and a birthday. Happy birthday, Molly. It's like our third baby moon, by the way. What's our first story for the show? Airbnb's big new announcement is actually Airbnb's smallest product ever. Airbnb is launching a couch. It's a couch. For our second story, we just got the biggest IPO of the year. And it's not a tech company. It's not an artificial intelligence startup. Yeties, the biggest IPO of 2023 is? Band-Aids. It's Band-Aids. And our third and final story, for the first time in 70 years, Britain is crowning a new king this weekend. So Jack and I are looking at the numbers behind the royal fortune. We call it Kingdom Incorporated.

But yet, he's before we hit that fantastic mix. I mean, Jack, this is how you going to a weekend. Today, Oi is Cinco de Mayo. But it is not Mexican Independence Day. Cinco de Mayo celebrates a Mexican war victory over France. happened to happen on May 5th. However, Mexican independence from Spain happened on September 16th. So don't screw that up, Yeti's and besties. But since it is Cinco de Mayo, you may be celebrating with some servesa right now. Oh, you may be cheers in with a Chalula. But either way, we've got critical news. That's great news for your Cinco de Mayo party. Jack and I bring fantastic

words for wherever it is, you are Cinco de Mayoing. Get this. Avocados, which is a huge export of Mexico, by the way. It's big. It's pretty big. Avocado prices just fell to their lowest level in five years. We repeat, avocados are extra cheap right now. Avocados are on the sale rack, and so is that pit in the middle. That pit, it gets us every time. Chipotle mentioned this as a surprise in their earnings report.

We covered it last week. Jack and I noticed Chipotle was all in on this cheap avocado situation. And Chipotle knows because they buy 100 million pounds of avocados every single year. We're not rounding up. There's a lot of extra that goes into that guac. So we're looking at the inflation scoreboard. Egg prices are up 70% from last year. That's eggflation. Cupcakes are up 15%.

That's frost inflation. Instant coffee is up 10%. Jack, that is double double double digit lottes, my friend. And yet, avocado prices are down by 18% from last year. Jack, what are we trying to say here? The toast now may cost more than the avocado. Avocado, it's almost cheaper than the cherries. You don't need an Amex for that avocado salad anymore.

You don't need an IOU for that avocado. Millennials rejoice. Yetis, avocados, they ain't extra right now. But the guac, the guac still is. Gwok, it's always extra. That's going to be a couple bucks, thanks. Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 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. For our first story, Airbnb, they're going back to their roots with a revamped option to crash on someone's extra couch. That's what this is. The crash in someone's extra bedder. That's what this is, yes. Because affordability is Airbnb's. identity. All right, Jack, if we're going to do this, we better sprinkle on a little context.

Take me back to that trip you did to Berlin, 2016. I feel like you were working on a little bit of a budget. Well, I was on a company trip, actually. So they paid for my airfare, which was great. But I wanted to stay an extra weekend, and I was on a budget. So what did you do then? So I booked a room, just a tiny room within an apartment in Berlin for three nights, 57 bucks a night. Are you, that is like the price of a Weissedverse. Jack, okay, that is a cheap room. Now, let's fast forward, six years. You're going on your Lake Tahoe honeymoon with Alex.

What did you pay for that hotel room? 381 bucks a night. Like, eight times the price of my Berlin room. That is not the price of a pretzel. That's a niche, nished. Nished. Yet he's Airbnb. It used to be the cheaper place to crash, as Jack's experience just showed us.

Part of Airbnb's original value proposition was affordability. It's cheaper than a hotel. But in the last couple of... years, there's been a change in the Airbnb pricing strategy. Because it just mirrors Airbnb sometimes more than a hotel. It is not just you. That is the situation. That is the problem for Airbnb.

Because right now, at this same time, people are getting laid off and travel budgets are getting tightened in this economy. You just dropped your record $671 for a flight. So you want to save a little money on your accommodations, not pay extra for an Airbnb. Yeties Airbnb just announced their newest. product, which is actually their smallest product. To beat hotels in this economy, Airbnb just launched Airbnb rooms. Airbnb rooms, private rooms in a larger home. Yeah, like you just get one room in the upstairs somewhere. Like you go upstairs and it's first door on your left,

bathrooms down the hall. If you see the cat, you went too far. You were too far. You booked that one room that Nick just mentioned. Don't go too far. That's someone else's room. And now, Jack, we should sprinkle on a little bit more context here. Airbnb has already had rooms that you can book. They did. But private rooms on Airbnb, they haven't really been working. They haven't been working because you're just not comfortable hanging out on Freaky Frank's Futon for the evening. That's why Airbnb rebranded and updated their rooms offering. Exactly. Rooms now has something called a host passport for every listing. And what is that show? Before booking a private room, you can see what the host looks like and what their information is, because you might be living

with them. And now these rooms listings highlight security details that you didn't see before on Airbnb. be. Yeah, that room at the top of stairs on the left that you're staying in, it will tell you whether the door is lockable. It will tell you if that bathroom that's down the hall is your bathroom privately for you or a shared bathroom. And it's going to tell you how many cats Frank has. You're not freaked out by all Frank's cats. And this is key because Larry the landlord looks nice, but I don't want to be barged into while I'm in the bathroom on the toilet. That is just that ruins the Airbnb experience. So Airbnb is launching a super clear entry level price point. Airbnb rooms. They got one million rooms with an average price of 67 bucks a night.

And how does that 67 bucks a night compare to the average hotel room in the United States right now? Well, Jack, the average hotel in the United States, it's going to cost you $212 bucks a night. So Airbnb has a million rooms that are about a third of the price of the average hotel. That's a pricing strategy. With doors that lock. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Frank? Actually, they don't necessarily lock. Always knocked twice. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Airbnb? Every company needs an annual checkup on their core identity.

Yeties, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. When they announced Airbnb rooms, CEO Brian Chesky explained that the soul of Airbnb has two parts. It has two parts. One is being more affordable than a hotel. The other is that Airbnb is the most authentic way to experience a city. Well, Airbnbs are still the best way to mingle with the local. you can live among them like they're your neighbors, so it is authentic.

Yeah, so that part's still core to their identity. But the affordable part, that part of the soul of Airbnb is kind of disappear. And if Airbnb loses its reputation for affordability, then honestly, it's just a hotel, but with a lot fewer perks. Yeah, Airbnb is just a hotel where the owner makes you take out their trash and do their chores. And Jack, when you leave that cute top on the floor, I don't think anyone's picking it up for you at an Airbnb. You know what I'm talking about. Well, that Yetis is why Airbnb is launching rooms.

Airbnb is launching rooms because it lost touch with its core identity. For our second story, the biggest IPO of the year is Kenview. It is Kenview. Kenview is the all-star lineup in your medicine cabinet. Yetis, here's the deal. They are number one because their packages say they're number one. Who's going to argue with their packages? You're not going to argue.

with that. We actually might in the takeaway. Yeah, he's here. Funny thing Jack and I have had to deal with this year. We just haven't had many IPOs to tell you about. Just hasn't happened. You know, IPOs are a big source of our material. Yeah, they are. Like for the show. We got a shortage of IPOs. We've been scraping the bottom of the pan over here. We thought our first IPO this year would be a self-driving artificial intelligence metaverse, but it hasn't been. No, the biggest IPO of 2003 happened yesterday. And it was Band-Aids. Yeah, the biggest IPO of this year is cough medicine, moisturizing cream, and Band-Aids, the official Band-Aids. We're talking, of course, about Kenview, a portfolio of high-end, over-the-counter health brands. It's basically Isle 6 at CVS. This company,

like, you have a drawer in your home dedicated to this company. When someone yells, Mom, they are going to use a product from this company. Kenvue owns the Band-Aid brand, but they also own Listerine, Tylenol, classic. Benadryl. I know well. Neosporin, which is better than triple antibiotic oil. If you know, you know. And 40 other brands. Yeah, basically the biggest risk to this company

is if someone gets fewer boo-boos in their lifetime. The biggest risk is that you've stopped scuffing your knee on the sidebar. Now, funny thing, Yetis, you might be confused because you must be thinking, wait, these companies that Nick and Jack just mentioned, they've been around for a while. The oldest, brand we just mentioned, goes back 135 years. Yeah, if Band-Aids are 135 years old, then why is this company going public now today? The answer is two Johnsons. Yeah, Johnson and Johnson. Johnson is the $400 billion publicly traded American medical giant. They happened to own Kenview, and they just

decided to spit off Kenview into its own independent company. Johnson and Johnson is known for pharmaceutical drugs. They actually made one of the COVID vaccines. Well, now, Johnson, Johnson and Johnson thinks, you know what? We kind of just want to focus on all this fun scientific stuff. We don't want to deal with the other things. Yeah, we're not going to assign the scientists to like the moisturizing cream products. Come on. Johnson and Johnson just wants to focus on the pharmaceutical stuff.

They don't want to do the facials. So they're slowly selling Kenview. Yesterday, they sold 10% of Kenview on the New York Stock Exchange. Kenview stock rose 20% and now Kenview is worth $40 billion. Which is 10 lifts. Now naturally, Jack and I jumped into their IPO paperwork, and we noticed this little detail in Kenvue's S-1. We noticed the number one.

As in number one, they mentioned the number one a lot. Like the number symbol and then the number one after it. Yeties, if Kenview were a pro athlete, their jersey would be number one. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies putting ointment on the skin over at Kenvium? Branding can be a powerful drug. Yeties, Jack and I control F to it. They mentioned number one 103 times in their IPO paper. Because just about every brand they own is number one in their category.

Number one most trusted. Number one most used. Number one most doctor recommended. It was everywhere. But here's the wild thing about that. Tylenol may be number one in its department. But it isn't anything special. Tylenol is just a drug with the active ingredient, acetaminopheny.

And Jack, what happens to be sitting on the shelf right next to Tylenol in every drugstore? Two other products that are the same thing, generic versions that are also a set of aminophen, but $5 cheaper. And yet, Yetis, you pay that extra $5 for Tylenol because of Tylenol's package, because of its name, because it's the brand you know and trust. Even though the identical product is sitting right there next to it, it's cheaper, it just doesn't have a brand you've heard of. Can View, its products all happen to be number one.

And that is a reminder that branding can be a powerful drug. For our third and final story on Saturday, we're going to see the coronation of King Charles the third. Adam, can we get some horns? So we're going to look at the money behind the business, because being royal in Britain is a business. Yeties, this

weekend, we're going to see something that humans have not seen in 70 years. The last time the Brits coronated a new monarch, color TV didn't even exist. We're talking about the coronation of a new British king. Yeties after Queen Elizabeth the second passed, her eldest son Charles

was kind of like the king elect. Yeah. It wasn't like officially the king until a priest puts a crown on his head, dabs his face with some holy oil, and then says some very old words. Right. He wasn't officially the king until this holy ritual, that is, the coronation. Well, on Saturday, King Charles is going to leave Buckingham Palace on an eight-horse golden stagecoach, real thing, and head on over to Westminster Abbey. He is going to be bedazzled in like jewels and badges and ornaments. He's like a walk-in Christmas tree. It's going to be one hell of a cute top. And Charles has been trained. his neck to hold this crown for like 74 years now. He's been trading for 74 years. Now yet he's, to sprinkle on some context here, the United Kingdom is a constitutional

monarchy. The king is the head of state, but it's a ceremonious position. It's the elected parliament that can pass laws and only the elected parliament. But here's why Jack and I wanted to cover this story. Because the British royal family isn't just a family. It's a business. It's a business. We call it Kingdom Inc. And it goes back 672 years. And you. And you're not. And you, And get this, Jack, how much is the British Royal Family worth? Forbes clocks it at $21 billion. That's five lifts. And how much has this investment grown?

Not too shabby. It's up 80% in the last decade. Now, yet, here's something you should keep in mind. If you want to know where someone's wealth is, if they've got a lot of wealth, all you got to do is look down. Because that wealth, it came from land. It almost always involves, it always involves land. The royal estate has owned land since basically William the Conqueror.

Since 1351. Buckingham Palace is hundreds of years old and it is now worth $1.3 billion. And that's just one piece of land that the royal family owns. Now we should point out technically Charles can't sell these palaces. He can't just make a quick buck on them while he's king. He's forbidden from selling these castles because they are held in a trust for future kings and queens of England. However, here's the interesting thing. A lot of the land that the king owns is income generated.

He can't sell it, but he can rent it out. In fact, he has rented it out to some shops that you may have shopped at, so you have probably paid King Charles some money. Exhibit A in the Royal Portfolio, Regent Street in London. Yeah, it's a lovely street with fashion stores, toy shops, a whole lot of places you can spend a nice afternoon. The king owns all those buildings, and they all pay rent to the royal family. Another example.

The king happens to own 46. thousand acres of farmland over in Wales. Farmers work, plow and cultivate that land, and then they pay rent to the king. And kind of the most shocking of all, the king happens to also own a 200-year-old prison that

generates revenue. That flows to the king. Yeties, the royal family, is one of the biggest, most diverse landlords in the world. But as the French philosopher Balzac once said, behind every great fortune, there's probably

a crime. Yeah, when you build up a $21 billion fortune over 700 years, there's going to be some controversy in there. There's probably some controversy in there. A lot of that land the royal family owns, it was pillaged. It was taken from their original owners by force.

And there's also a little bit of controversy today with the royal family's fortune. The royal family doesn't pay an inheritance tax from generation to generation. Okay, so what we're saying here is that when King Charles inherited $500 million from his mom, he didn't pay a tax on that. If the average Brit's mother passes away, they do have to pay taxes on that inheritance.

40% of that inheritance. But Charles, he doesn't have to. It's good to be king. It's good to be the king. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Kingdom Incorporated? The real value of the British royal family to England is marketing. Yeties, this weekend's coronation ceremony of King Charles III, it's basically like, it's like the second coming of the Super Bowl.

That's what this is. This event is expected to generate a quarter billion pounds just for the London economy. In fact, one brand agency estimates that the crown generates one billion pounds in value for the United Kingdom every single year. The British crown attracts tourists to England. It helps with international relations and trade. And it spreads the British brand across the whole world. And for that service, the British state pays the royal family a whopping 86 million pounds a year.

All those benefits for Britain and the rural world. Family only collects an 86 million pound allowance. Add it all up and the crown generates 10 times more in marketing value than it costs to maintain. That is some royal ROI. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend? Airbnb just launched rooms, a new and improved way to book just one bedroom for cheap. Because every company, including your company Yetis, needs an annual checkup on your core identity. For our second story, Johnson and Johnson spun off its medicine cabinet into a separate publicly traded company. It's called Kenview and it's number one because branding is one heck of a drug. And our third and final story is King Charles III. His kingly coronation happens with holy oil this Saturday.

And the real value of the British royal family to England? What is it, Jack? Marketing. That is some royal ROI. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent. in by Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando. First and play. Here we go. Hello, Nick, Jack, besties and yetis. Here is your fact for the day.

May 6th of 2023 will be a day of Kings. King Charles III's coordination will take place in the UK. And as it's the first Saturday in May, the Kentucky Derby will take place. Horse racing is often known as the sport of Kings. Additionally, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's historic Derby win and Triple Crown Sweep. He still holds the best

records in all three races for the Triple Crown. Happy Derby Day. You got anything about horse racing? I mean, Jack, let's just step back for a second. We got Cinco de Mayo. Then we got a King's Coronation. We've got two sets of playoffs and the Kentucky Derby. This is the most exciting weekend since like hands across America.

And it's Molly's birthday. I think we should all celebrate the wins like Kings and Queens. And it's Quiz Friday. Yeties, you looked fantastic. this entire week. But if you want to have some more fun this weekend, you should play our weekly Pop Biz Pop Quiz. At T-Boypod.com, it's a one-minute pop-biz pop quiz. Five questions. How well can you whip up the takeaways? Nick and I will see you Monday. This weekend, celebrate the wins. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Molly Martel, my wife, who is from just outside

of Boston, has the soul of a New Yorker, currently lives in San Francisco, but is really high. happy hanging out in Santa Barbara right now. You know, she lived down the hall from Nick and me when we were freshman year roommates. There's an epic picture of Nick and me hosting a freshman year party with Molly under both of our arms. And we had no idea what it would become. Great girl. Great girl.

And happy seventh birthday to Brooklyn Brink and Skyman Brank, who just turned seven and five years old and hang a mask. Just outside Boston. Sky is celebrating with one pump vanilla at Starbucks and Brooke is celebrating with some brand new pierced ears. And happy 60th birthday to Lee Allen in New London, North Carolina. And Shazade Shaghani, happy birthday down in Houston. Beckett Freshwater, happy first birthday out there in California.

And Emma Martinez is turning six down in Phoenix. Happy birthday to Kyle Osborne, turning a mighty eight in Minneapolis. In the meantime, Lauren, Katie, and Nikki are celebrating their 40th birthdays together down in Nashville. Jack, that is a girl's trip. birthday to Sarah Cecilia Flores in Charleston, South Carolina. And Cody D. Christina is celebrating that birthday on a road trip to Chicago doing logistics. Amy Byrum, it is time to get ready for a special surprise in Chicago. And Cat, the avocado Elliott, is turning 24, being a legendary Yeti and loving cheese over in Natick, Massachusetts.

Just that's that hypothesis. And to all the Yetis graduating this weekend, there were so many of you to get shoutouts. we actually didn't have room on the podcast. If you graduated this weekend, there's a Yeti or a Bestie who wishes you well, and so do we. We're celebrating your win. Congratulations.

All cum laude is to our book. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Chipotle and Airbnb.