The Best One Yet - 🌴 “Welcome to Amazon Resort” — Amazon’s luxe influencers. The Warriors’ software championship. Elon’s tweet-and-greet.

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

The Warriors won the NBA Finals, but the real MVP was a shot-tracking startup called NOAH. Amazon just took over a luxurious all-you-can-anything Mexican resort because it desperately wants fashion Influencer friends. And Elon sat down with Twitter employees for his first company “Tweet & Greet,” but it was anticlimactic.$AMZN $TWTR $GOOGFollow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn 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. Welcome back. It is Tuesday. T-Boy Tuesday, June 21st, and today's pod is the best one yet. T-B-O-I. Although I gotta say, just about everything was down last week. It wasn't a T-boy for the whole stock market, wasn't it yet? Crypto, stocks, housing prices. They're all starting to get a little wobbly. I just spent like $45 on a lobster roll. I'm not in a good place, man. But we did have a three-day weekend, which means we have a four-day week ahead of us. Let's go, baby. Jack, first start. What are we got? Amazon is always excited to launch a new product, but they didn't publicly announce this one.

Amazon took over a luxury hotel in Mexico for the influencers of TikTok. For our second story, the Golden State Warriors won another NBA finals. Jack and I noticed their best player was actually a startup named Noah that is obsessively perfecting jump shots. For our third and final story, Elon sat down with actual Twitter employees last week for a real meeting at Twitter. Okay, Jack, this part says it all. Elon was 10 minutes late. But before we hit that wonderful mix, Mac. Perfect T-Boy mix for a four-day week, Jack.

It's hoarder's almanac. We're flipping over to week 116. Things were running out of because the pandemic. Jack and I have been keeping track for you. This week, we're running out of tampons. Tampons, pads, tampacks, sanitary napkins. They are all M-I-A. Now, we should note this is problematic because over half of this country is women.

And this means ipso facto, we can't even meet their monthly needs. Here's the hard data. As of last week, 7% of tampon shelves in this country are out of stock. And that's caused prices to rise too. Now, full disclosure, Jack and I have never had a period. Although we've run into a store to aisle 6 to buy a few tampons before. We have. There's nothing funny about a tampon shortage, but one part is actually literally by definition

fun. It's literally funny. Now, grocery stores and pharmacies don't know why some of these regions are short on tampons. One thing Nick and I found, though, for this tampon travesty, it's Amy Schumer. Get this yet. He's last year. Amy Schumer, the comedian, did a marketing campaign with Tampax. Parent company Proctor and Gamble said on a recent earnings call that Amy was so freaking good at promoting that product that sales jumped by 10%. Amy Schumer literally caused a sales surge, which contributed to the current Tampax shortage that we have

Today. We need to sprinkle on a little context here. Jack and I are not blaming Amy for the Patpocalypse. In fact, we're applauding her. She ought to get a sales bonus or something. She should be going out and just doing conferences where she teaches sales teams how to make stuff sell. There is nothing funny about a shortage of tampon. Except for Amy Schumer's stand-up routine.

Yeah, that's excellent. Welcome back. Let's hit our 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 of it. For our dix 50% That's a fat tip

Tea boy city on your at list If you know you know Cause we're ready to go We can't wait no more So just start the show Start the show For our first story This one's wild

Amazon just opened Amazon resort In coastal Mexico But only for influencers Yeah here's how to think of social media influencers By the way They are decentralized media companies

Okay Jack About a month ago Remember for the Cinco de Mali celebration the birthday? Yeah, Molly's birthday. Yeah, we flew down to Cabo and then we took a cab, like an hour and a half north, to Toto Santos, like right on the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, which means all the saints. And you didn't go to this hotel, but it is the subject of the story. The hotel is called the Peridara. Okay, and how much is that going to cost if you're going to get on? Oh, okay, okay,

okay. Now, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we saw the activity list for a recent weekend. And for that particular weekend, they were living it up like a four-season spawned steroids. This hotel was offering guests a sunset beach dinner. It was offering surf lessons. It was offering organic virgin oil massages by the sea turtles. We made that last one up. This was like Toulomb but covered in Gucci. And this glamtastic weekend, it wasn't hosted by like Louis Vuitton or Hermes or Sotheby's or Instagram or any other French brand that I can't pronounce correctly.

It was actually hosted by Amazon. Amazon took over this Peradero Hotel and called it Amazon Resort for three days last month. Bezos by the beach, you were hanging out under a cabana in a soaking tub. Jack, the fabric was hand-stitched in Wohaca. Now, this Amazon glamorous event, it wasn't for you, it wasn't for Nick and me, unfortunately. It was only for members of Amazon's influencer program, which Amazon has quietly been running for five years. Amazon flew a bunch of people down, all expenses paid for, including an influencer named Kat Stickler. Yeah, who was there posting a video, trying on Amazon swimsuits to her one million Instagram followers.

Coincidence. Kristen Titus was there and posted a YouTube video of all the free stuff Amazon gave her at this glamorous Mexico trip. Because Amazon just used its record profits to temporarily take over an entire luxury hotel in Mexico. And here's the deal. Amazon has a huge and growing fashion line. That's the point of this whole trip. Okay, Jack, so it looks like they've got like five different private labels now, high-end fashion by Amazon.

It's called Good Threat. It's called Daily Ritual. It's called Spotted Zebra. Those are all things you can buy on Amazon. Oh, wait, there's more. There's also a department store, Amazon just opened in Los Angeles, to sell these five Amazon fashion brands. So Amazon shipped all these influencers down to Toto Santos

and started getting them free stuff on one very particular condition. You post pictures, and you post videos of this free Amazon fashion stuff that we're hooking you up with. Hashtag Prime. Hashtag spicy margaritas. And if your Facebook post leads to a sale, here's the deal, influencer. You get 20% of the commission. That's a fat tip. Now, in the five years since Amazon launched their influencer marketing program,

spending on influencers like this, it's up 10x across the industry. We repeat, influencer spending is up 10x across like all the tech companies and the fashion companies. And that's why Amazon felt okay, taking over an entire luxury resort on the Pacific Ocean to host a bunch of beautiful people with followings way bigger than they could ever wish they had for themselves. One sec. I can't hear you. Are those cucumbers on your eyes? Those are cucumbers on my eyes. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon Resorts? Here's the new way we're thinking of influencers. They are decentralized media companies. Look, besties, if Amazon did this 20 years ago,

they'd want their fashion in Vogue magazine. That's where they'd want it advertised. Right. And Vogue might even whine and dine Amazon to convince them that our Vogue magazine is where Amazon wants to put all their advertising dollars. But now it's not the magazines. It's the influencers with the followings. They're getting the ads that the magazines are used to. And influencers don't cater to Amazon like Vogue used to. Amazon is catering to the influencers. So now you've got groups of online creators that have replaced entire media companies taking more of the ad share and getting more of the load.

If you got a pretty good following, influencers are getting it pretty good. And those influencers, they're really decentralized media companies. For our second story, the Golden State Warriors spent the entire weekend partying their NBA finals championship. But the MVP award goes to one tiny startup. Not starter, startup. Honestly, Jack, worst day in Boston since the series finale of cheers. We just sent Dahlene a get well soon, Kat.

The Boston Celtics lost. And somewhere at some Neskak school, a kid from Needham is smugly not smug anymore. Ravilla, after six games, San Francisco's own Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship. Their fourth NBA finals victory in eight years. But to sprinkle on a little context here yet is two years ago, the Golden State Warriors had the worst record in the entire NBA. In 2020, in the 2020, like, bubble. season. They won 15 games. That was pathetic. So the real MVP here, it wasn't Steph Curry and it wasn't Steph Curry's playoff beard. Jack, who is the MVP for the Warriors? It was Noah.

Noah, a startup used by the dubs, which helped them become the best shooting team in all of the NBA this season. Because get this, every single shot in practice, every single warrior's shot before a game in the warmups, every single shot was tracked by Noah. Noah. Noah, is a small startup that's inspired by the Bible and by physics. It's called Noah because of like Noah's Ark. Like the company is obsessed with the arc of a basketball shot. Right. They also are obsessed with physics.

And they've determined that the ideal three-pointer or ideal any shot for that matter enters the rim at a 45 degree angle. The entire business is focused on the perfect shot. So here is how Noah actually works. Noah creates a camera that you put above the basketball hoop and its facial recognition ID identifies players and tracks every shot that they take on the basketball court. And that's where the software kicks in, which analyzes the shooter's arc and tells you in real time if that arc is too low or too high. Noah understands depth too.

So after practice, it'll tell you if you're consistently shooting a little bit too long or if you're consistently on the front of the rim a little too short. It's not like heckling, but it's like, hey, Drayman Green, you're six degrees off, man. Noah's like a robo coach. It's Steve Kerr's bestie. When Steph Curry makes a three, the assist kind of goes to Noah. So Noah's got a lot of big data. They've seen and analyzed 384 million 650,000, 675 shots so they know what the perfect shot looks like. They know that the hoop is 18 inches wide, but the perfect shot comes in 11 inches deep into the net. So the warriors don't practice to make a shot. They practice putting the ball in the perfect spot in the back of that net. That's how champs are made.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are actually anyone who uses data? Beware of analysis paralysis. Okay, Yetis, Jack and I dove in further, T-boy style. Turns out the Warriors are jacked up on more tech software than a Palo Alto engineer. They also use a product called Catapult, which collects biometric data from all the players. They also partnered with Oracle to create another shot analyzing software just last year. And the Warriors used Google to organize the data. of all that shooting data.

But funny thing, Jack and I noticed, one Warrior's front office guy said they're approaching the point where they just got too much data. They might have too much data because some findings are conflicting with other findings. Yeah. Like, you know, in that golf buddy, he always gives you six tips to improve your swing and you're like, hey, buddy, Timmy, I got this? It's like, Timmy, I can handle one tip at the most. I can't implement six tips all at once.

It's completely messing with my swing. In fact, Clay Thompson got sick of all that data. And instead, he just watches his own highlight videos on YouTube to improve his shot. Data is a powerful tool. But beware of analysis paralysis. And now word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Nick and I got to know Vlad and Bayshut, the co-founders of Robin Hood, when we worked there for three years. And there was this one business principle we heard from them.

And we just, we honestly loved it. A, B, L. Always be launching. Always be launching. That's what keeps customers engaged. It keeps investors happy. And it keeps competitors kind of concerned. Always be launching is also consistent with Robin Hood's mission to democratize finance for all. Yeah, not just stock trading, also options, crypto, spending, wallets, and more.

They launched a lot of stuff. And that's something we heard, we saw, and we adopted it. Yeah, this week, we relaunched the podcast as the best one yet, and launched a video pod right here. More to come. If you're not on Robin Hood yet, want to get started. Go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply.

All investments involve risk. LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or this podcast. For our third and final story, the big excitement last week was that Twitter employees got to confront Elon Musk in a company Q&A. It was anticlimactic. Yeah. But got Trumpian levels of coverage in the news anyway. Forget the Patagonia fleeces. You were not a tech company unless you do a Thursday all-hands meeting. And the most exciting part of a Thursday all-hands is the Q&A with the executives at the end. Well, for this Twitter all hands, the Q&A was really the only thing that even mattered. Because it wasn't with the current Twitter CEO. No. It was with their potential future

CEO, Elon Musk. It was a tweet and greet. So this could have been like a huge news event. Remember, Elon is trying to buy Twitter. He has been trying for like two months now. And now the employees get to say, hey, what the heck is going on with this deal that you seem to be trying to get out of but tweet about every day and like consult the company? But here's the problem. The entire event was kind of summed up in this one image. Elon was 10 minutes late. Yeah, he didn't take it seriously. He was 10 minutes late.

He phoned into the Zoom. He didn't even bother sitting down and opening up a computer. But also, all the questions were just like a little disappointing. And Elon's responses just didn't include much new info for us to work with. Yeah, the transcript is out there. And Elon hit up his go-to points about free speech, hitting a billion users and ways that Twitter could make more money. He also said that employees could work from home, but only exceptional employees. So like work from home is an earned work.

And because it's Elon, he went off on a tangent about aliens too. Naturally. So Elon was there, and that might be a sign that he actually still wants to close this Twitter deal, even though he makes it look like he doesn't anymore. On the other hand, Jack and I are looking at this and he did the bare minimum, didn't really seem to care. It's the meeting equivalent of cotton candy. Yeah, it is. It's kind of big and fluffy and good to look at.

exciting. But it's empty calories and there's like nothing in there. You can't build a career off cotton candy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Twitter? Elon and Twitter. It's the same story as Trump and TikTok two years ago. Okay, Yetis. Honestly, Twitter's future is really important. Jack and I use Twitter all the time every day. But we almost didn't cover this story. We didn't even want to cover this story at first because just not much substantively happened. Yeah. But that's not the impression you'd get. If you screen, scrolled Twitter or checked out the news on fraud. Jack, there was so much hype.

Like, for days leading up to this event, Elon meeting a Twitter, that dominated the headlines everywhere. The typical news agency had a story the day before this event, the day of this event, and the day after this event. This is just like President Trump two years ago. Elon reliably puts out a provocative tweet and reliably gets media coverage. In fact, Elon buying Twitter, all that drama, is the same as Trump forcing TikTok to get sold and all that drama two years ago.

Jack, look at this. It's the exact same situation. One company is in purgatory at the mercy and whims of an extremely powerful and erratic person telling them what to do. Elon and Twitter, Trump and TikTok. So we saw a lot of drama with Twitter and a lot of headlines. But not much substance is in this daily drip, drip, drip, tweet, tweet, tweet. Honestly, Bessie's the best thing you can do right now. Ignore the drips.

Don't have to follow the Twitter drama every day and wait for an actual outcome. Jack, can you whip up the takeaway? for us for the four-day work week. Amazon treated influencers to an all-expenses paid Mexican vacation. Influencers, they're like one decentralized media company. For our second story, the Warriors just won their fourth title in eight years, but Noah is MVP. Look, data is useful, but watch out for the analysis paralysis. Our third and final story is that Elon finally spoke to Twitter's employees. It was anticlimactic. Yeah, Elon and Twitter. It is just like the drama with Trump and TikTok two years ago. Now, time for this.

The best fact, yet this one sent in by Kelsey over in lovely San Diego. Pursion Black. San Diego. Hi, besties and yetis. My fun fact is the LGBT acronym has a specific reason that L is first. In the 80s and 90s during the AIDS crisis, the lesbian community helped provide medical care for gay men who are suffering and dying from AIDS. The acronym changed from GLBT to LGBT and continues to expand to include the vast spectrum. of identities. Happy Pride Month.

All right, Kelsey, acronyms, you know, you never think about the order sometimes. The acronym, order matters. The order matters, yeah. There we go. It's an evolving term that also has meaning. Happy Pride Month to all the besties out there. And before we go, if you want to get your voice on the pod and you have the best fact yet,

we got a form in every single episode. We want to get your facts. No pressure, but you only make the pod if it's the best fact yet. It just so happens today's was the best fact yet. Jack and I'll see tomorrow. And before we go, a happy belated birthday to our old roommate,

our buddy Dave Reed from New Canaan, Connecticut. Nobody, and I mean nobody, installs a shelf like our buddy Dave. And happy birthday to Nicky West over in Goodyear, Arizona. Happy birthday to Boss Babe

Nikki Mujabi in Kansas City, Missouri. And JD, down in Miami. And Ryan Carr in Tampa Bay. And Grant Choi, turn in 25 in Irvine, California. Happy birthday to Casper. Rikowsky in Illinois. Kara Spangler in St. Louis, celebrating a birthday with her Black Lab Gunner. Happy anniversary to Lindsay and Gabriel Liva in Tucson, Arizona.

And Megan Leo is graduating from the University of Toronto Maple Leafs. Congrats to Justin Blake, who's getting a new job in Dallas. And Rich and Wit Ricci just got back from their new vacation rental. And congrats to Peter Damien EasyOK, who just became a dad in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. Nick and I both on stock of Twitter and Robin Hood. And now worried about our sponsor, Robin Hood. We see ads all the time.

All over the place, 10 bucks off this $5 promo code for that, Jack. You can buy three suits, you can get one free. But something we always thought was cool about Robin Hood, the free stock promo. Yeah, this was wild. The promo isn't like some X amount of dollars, it's one stock. If you signed up for Robin Hood, they'd thank you with a single share in a publicly traded company on the house. And that free stock promo, it actually helped drive Robin Hood's growth and got new

new users in the stock market right away. One of the most creative moves in promotional history. So when Robin Hood became our sponsor, naturally Jack and I said, we got to do the free stock giveaway. If you're not on Robin Hood yet, you want to get started, go to robin hood.com slash t-boy and get cash to select your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash TBOY. Certain limitations apply.

All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. Do you think people would watch us play video games? Well, I'm terrible at them. They would definitely be entertained. What's the best video game? Like, what's your best game?

That I've played a video game? Like, the best video game I've ever played. Like, if you had to compete in like a life or death video game tournament, what game would you request that that tournament be? Wordle. That's not a video game. Competitive wordle. Wordle on a TV, Jack.

I can choose great characters. That's about it. I was so bad at video games that I remember in SummerCamp. I had a Game Boy and I let other people play it. I just handed them because I was like, I'm not enjoying this. Remember that like NBA jams? You get the Gameboy, you go, I used to lick PlayStation CDs.

You like go to there, I was like, no, no, no, don't worry about it. I got this. It's like a Nickelodeon episode. It was either that or you go all the way to the sink and rinse it off and then paper towel it down. Was that a thing?