🧸 “Bear Squeeze” — Build-A-Bear’s 2,500% surge. H-1B’s $100K visa fee. Beli’s Yelp-etition. +SNL’s talent accelerator.

0:28This is Nick. the bar. Well, like Sherlock Holmes, I figured out what restaurant you're going to. I figured out the time. I called the restaurant. I said, I don't think they're getting a reservation. I think they're just walking in and going to the bar, but they're going to be there at seven o 'clock. Nick is a very punctual guy. And when they show up, can you please give them this bottle of champagne? They're celebrating their first dinner since having a baby. Jack, that is mission impossible CIA level. Can I tell you two takeaways from that experience? What? First, First, champagne pairs with everything.

0:58Nice. Agreed. Second, tell everybody where you're going to dinner. You never know what you're going to win. Three stories for today's T-Boy. Jack, what do we got on the pod? For our first story, the best stock of the last five years, you're never going to guess. It's gone from a$1 bear to$1 billion. It's Build-A-Bear. It's Build-A-Bear. Yeti's Build-A-Bear has surged 2 ,500 % in five years because 92 % of us still own our childhood teddy bear. For our second story, President Trump jacked up the fee of an H-1B visa to$100 ,000. Wow. Causing weekend chaos. Besties, this is an immigration story, but it's also a trade story and absolutely a tech story.

1:42And our third and final story is the one app absolutely eating Yelp right now. What is it? Because Gen Z's favorite restaurant app is Belly. Belly has gone viral because everyone hates the five-star review system. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, fantastic mix. No one else is doing the mix today, Jack. Yesterday, we asked you some T-Boy trivia. Yes, we did. What TV show was inspired by a Snickers bar? Because like a Snickers, this show is both consistent, but offers variety every episode. And the answer, Jack, what show was inspired by a Snickers? SNL. Saturday Night Live.

2:19It's consistent. You know what to expect in every episode. But it's varied with a new musical guest and new host each week. Like the nougat, the caramel, and the peanuts of a TV show. With SNL, you know you're getting a cold open, dozens of skits, a couple of fake commercials, and a weekend update. But you don't know who's singing, who's hosting, or if we're gonna get more cowbell. And that secret strategy made SNL one of the most successful shows in television history. Saturday Night Live has won 113 Emmy Awards. That's more than any other show. To quote Jim Carrey, swing. But the way SNL, the show actually began, that deserves an Emmy too.

2:57Did you know it wasn't initially called Saturday Night Live? Yeah, true story. Another TV station already had taken the name Saturday Night Live. That's a fact. So yet he's check out our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin story on SNL. It's going to make you laugh. It's going to make you cry. And then it's going to make you laugh a little bit more. Did somebody say more cowbell? I hope they did, Jack, let's make it happen. We dropped a link in the episode description to the best idea yet. In the meantime, here's our three stories. Cue the cowbell. Let's hit him, Jack. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

3:32They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show.

3:53Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:34The weekly spending recap, it uses AI to categorize everything you spent organizing them into digestible buckets. Weekly emails are perfect by the way, because checking finances daily, that's too much. Monthly, that's probably not enough. So Monarch helps you make sure you're on track for seven different destination weddings this summer. Because you don't want to go into debt if you don't even know the groom. Who's Henry? Besties, use code TBOI at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just 50 bucks. Gusto. Yetis, there's nothing more satisfying on a Friday evening than celebrating the wins of our company from that week.

5:07Like how we triumphantly completed payroll paperwork right before the tax deadline. Just kidding. That's not a one to celebrate, but it is an annoying thing that we did have to do. Yeah, we did. Because if you're an entrepreneur, you're the HR team, the benefits team, the payroll department, and you have to be all those things before your morning coffee, double digit latte. But you could be doing it all with Gusto. Gusto is an online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote, friendly, and incredibly easy to use so you can pay higher onboard and support your team from anywhere.

5:34So save time with built in automated tools like offer letters, onboarding documents, direct deposit, and more. And it's super simple to switch to Gusto. You can just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast and don't even have to pay a penny until you run your first payroll. Because you're not toasting a Negroni on Friday to celebrate that paperwork. Nope. So besties, try Gusto today at gusto.com slash tboy and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash tboy. One more time, gusto.com slash tboy. Nick, did you see Liquid IV teamed up with Ring Pop?

6:06I did, Jack. And honestly, it's one of those collabs where you immediately think, how has nobody done this before? I mean, ring pop cherry is already iconic. My sons love ring pops, by the way. I give it to them at the beach. It occupies them for about an hour. But now it's a sugar-free liquid IV flavor too. Ah, it's not just a fun flavor. It's still the same liquid IV hydration formula that hydrates faster than water alone, has three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. I've been throwing one of these in my water before the gym and before bed pretty much every night if I sweated that day.

6:37Way more fun than drinking plain water. Probably for workouts, travel days, hot days. Honestly, anytime you know you're probably just not drinking enough water. So if you're looking for an excuse to actually stay hydrated, this is a pretty good one. Check out the new Liquid IV sugar-free ring pop cherry at liquidiv.com. For our first story, the stock of one company you've heard of is up 2 ,500 % in the last five years. And that company, who is it, Jack? Build-a-Bear. Yeah. The teddy bear company. They just broke ground on a location in Orlando because they're not a bear company. They're actually a brain company.

7:17Jack, let's pause the pod and check our portfolios here. NVIDIA, Palantir, Tesla, Microsoft. We don't own any of those, unfortunately. And in the last five years, there is one teddy bear stock that has beaten all of them. And unfortunately, we don't own it either. In 2020, Build-A-Bear stock was$1 a share. The company was almost bankrupt. What about today, man? $70 a share. The company's worth nearly$1 billion. Build-A-Bear stock is beating NVIDIA this year to the point it's making tech investors cry. Yeah. Hold your hard drives. This company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. They make stuffed toys.

7:53Okay, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the Build-A-Bear earnings report. They said artificial intelligence zero times. Only company we're aware of that doesn't mention AI. Now, we should point out, Build-A-Bear, this publicly traded toy company, it's not a meme stock either, is it, man? No. The fundamentals of this business are just as huggable as the bears are. Now, part of the reason this stock has surged 2 ,500 % in five years is it's grown from a very small base. Yeah, people thought it was going bankrupt during the pandemic. But in the four years since, record revenues each time. And Build-A-Bear ain't some beanie baby bubble either, is it, Jack?

8:29No. The growth, the business, they both look solid. Furby is freaking jealous of those financials. Now, Build-A-Bear's business should be hibernating right now. Yeah, this is what Jack and I found fascinating. Build-A-Bear bears are made in China. These tariffs are going to jack up the cost of those fun toys. Plus, it's facing unprecedented competition from Laboober dolls. Those mischievous little dolls are eating away at the market share. But yetis, nostalgia never dies. And in stressful times, nostalgia actually thrives. Inflation, uncertainty around politics, worries about AI, those are all correlated with buying little bears.

9:08Get this. According to a recent survey conducted by Build-A-Bear, 92 % of American adults still own their childhood teddy bear. Nine out of ten of you are listening to this podcast while hugging a little teddy right now. Although we need to disclose the immense bear bias of that data. Participants in the survey were people who follow Build-A-Bear on Instagram. Still, Jack, still, kiddults, kid adults are a big source of business for the Build-A-Bear. And they're basically turning kiddulting into a verb. For example, CNBC did an interview over at a Build-A-Bear store where a 26-year-old was celebrating her new birthday party with the Build-A-Bear.

9:48store. It's a nice new activity for young people. You design your custom teddy bear, you dress it up, you hand stuff it with the cotton, and then you do a heart ceremony and you get a birth certificate at the end of it all. I mean, Jack, forget happy hour. Young professionals are going out to Build-A-Bear stores and coming home with something that isn't a hangover. If Build-A-Bear does have to raise prices 30 % because of China tariffs, that 26-year-old Gen Z named Jenny, she's going to splurge on it. It's basically like an emotional support dog. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Build-A-Bear.

10:19The best location for a store is in the cerebellum, where your brain makes memories. Yetis, Build-A-Bear's success right now, it isn't just because they cater to kidults. Build-A-Bear, they deserve more credit, in our opinion. Over the last few years, they've invested to diversify their retail footprint more than any other company. Build-A-Bear now has 525 stores. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context, please? More than Chuck E. Cheese, Shake Shack, or Disney Store. But the key isn't how many, it's where the stores are. Exactly. They have found new store concepts to fit into every place that you're having fun.

10:53You see, five years ago, Build-A-Bear was just in malls. But now, Build-A-Bear has stores on cruise ships, theme parks, inside hotel lobbies. They squeezed many stores and kiosks into airports. Their biggest location ever, it just broke ground last month in Orlando, Florida, adjacent to the theme parks. Anywhere you get a boost of serotonin and make a memory, Build-A-Bear wants a location there because they're going to offer a location-relevant stuffy that you'll squeeze until you're 75 years old. Call them cerebellum stores, where your brain records happy events. That's the best place for retail.

11:30For our second story, the president's new$100 ,000 fee for H-1B visas caused chaos for tech companies and foreign workers over the weekend. So what are the new rules? Well, the H-1B visa is now basically a tariff on people. We'll explain. But first, yetis, we'll start with the news, which dominated brunches across San Francisco over the weekend. It begins on Friday afternoon. Jack, what exactly happened? That's when Donald Trump signed an executive order, increasing the fee for H-1B visas by$100 ,000. And get this, it was effective in 30 hours. Besties, we're talking 730 ,000 people working in America thanks to the H-1B.

12:15So as you can imagine, this caused huge stress for them and their families over the weekend. It appeared that companies sponsoring these people with a visa would have to pay a fee of$100 ,000 and they would have to pay that fee by midnight Saturday night. Okay, things got so dramatic that over the weekend, tech companies ordered all H-1B workers not to leave the country. There was worries they would not even be let back in. And workers who happened to be already outside of the country, they were ordered by their companies to race back to the United States before this took effect on Sunday. But then there was a plot twist on Saturday when hours before the deadline, the White House clarified that this did not apply to existing H-1B visa holders.

12:56Only new H-1B applicants, not current or renewing visa holders, would be impacted by this giant new fee. So those who left their Indian wedding in panic on Saturday to get back to San Jose didn't actually have to. That's the news. Here's the context. What the heck is an H-1B visa? It's a totally fair question. We got the details. Jack, let's sprinkle it on. Let's jump into history class. It's an employment-based visa, like a guest pass to the United States, but only for college-educated foreign workers. You see, the H-1B actually goes back to the 1940s, when Congress set up legal status for foreign workers to fill very critical labor gaps in our economy.

13:38During World War II, the critical labor gap was agriculture. So Mexican farm workers were invited into the United States with an H-1B visa. In the 1980s, the work gap was nurses. So we got a lot of nurses from the Philippines. Actually, if you had a babysitter in New York growing up who was Filipino like I did, it was probably thanks to an H-1B. But then in 1990, Congress added a new requirement. To get an H-1B visa, you had to have a college degree. And thus the H-1B visa became the nerd visa. Ever since, it's become a key recruiting tool for the tech industry, which has been saying for years that America has a shortage of STEM workers.

14:17Science, tech, engineering, and math. 65 % of H-1Bs work computer jobs, according to government data. Where do H-1Bs come from? 70 % come from India, 12 % come from China. And who's sponsoring all these H-1Bs? Well, it's mainly the tech companies these days. And they pay them well. The 2023 median wage for H-1B workers in the US was$118 ,000, which is in the 90th percentile. In fact, our five most valuable companies, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta, employ 30 ,000 H-1B visa holders. So if you're chatting it up at the office kombucha tap right now with a couple of rando office workers, chances are one of them might be an H-1B.

15:00But it's not just Silicon Valley. Hospitals in rural America hire H-1Bs too. Places where American doctors just don't typically want to live. Also, some super famous CEO types. Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, they're both H-1B visa guys. So is Melania Trump, the president's current wife. They all had H-1Bs. Now, Yetis, these temp work visas, the H-1Bs, can become green cards. So this is an immigration story at its core. And when humans are involved, emotions run high. But our takeaway, it looks at this challenge from an economic perspective. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies looking at the new$100 ,000 H-1B visa?

15:42This is a tariff on people. It's designed to get companies to hire American. Now Yetis, this is being labeled as an immigration story, but it is also a trade story. Because fundamentally, this is a new tax on corporations that buy abroad, just like all of Trump's tariffs are. But instead of buying goods, this is about buying labor. The big question, will this$100 ,000 visa fee make tech companies hire Americans instead of foreigners? The answer, maybe. If an Indian immigrant costs$100 ,000 more now, this policy could result in the job going to an American Gen Zer who just learned to vibe code.

16:20But if the tech CEOs are right and we don't have these tech skills here in America, then they will end up paying that$100 ,000 fee. Which would effectively be a tax. Yes. Just like the rest of the tariffs are effectively a tax that U.S. companies pay. So add it all up, Yetis, and this$100 ,000 H-1B visa was rolled out with chaos that caused unnecessary trauma for 700 ,000 families. And we know that because we know people affected. And those people affected had an extremely stressful weekend because of this. But fundamentally, Yetis, an economic lens through which to view this new$100 ,000 visa is as a tariff on high-skilled workers imported from abroad.

17:03Now, a quick word from our sponsor. NetSuite. Yetis, NetSuite is the corporate control panel for business. Has been since 1998. They probably use this on Star Wars. This pre.com software suite, though, it remains the market leader. But Nick, what is next? I got no idea, Jack. You tell me what's next. Well, they say every day your business is late for AI, you fall two days behind. I didn't know they said that. Now I'm stressed, Jack. That's an incredibly stressful thing. We're all anxiety maxing. So, Bessie, if you're feeling like your business is behind, there is NetSuite Next. NetSuite is a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth.

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18:12netsuite.ai. slash tboy.

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18:52For our third and final story, if you are under the age of 35, then you're not on Yelp. You're on Belly, B-E-L-L-Y. Belly's restaurant review app is going viral, and it shows that the five-star rating system is dead. Yeti's Yelp, it became a verb in the 2010s. Being a foodie was socially acceptable. Restaurant influencers didn't exist yet. avocado was on everything. Nick, if I had kids in this era, I would have named my kid Kale. Because it was peak millennial cringe. But there's a new food review app that's taking on Yelp today. It's called Belly. It was founded just four years ago in 2021 by a couple of Harvard Business School students.

19:35And Jack, can we dive in T-boy style to the numbers here? According to the New York Times, Belly has had 75 million restaurant reviews. Over that same period, Yelp has had 84 million reviews. So Belly is catching up to Yelp faster than you can fry a pickle. Where you really see the difference in these two companies is the age. 84 % of Belly's users are under 35. For Yelp, just 24 % of users are under 35. So relatively speaking, Yelp has kind of become more of a boomer app for your restaurant reviews. So Nick, how is this four-year-old app challenging the 21-year-old innovator of the food review?

20:10Well, besties, as we studied the business model, we discovered algorithmic gourmet. Here's the context. Belly fundamentally does the same thing that Yelp does. You get to review a restaurant with pictures, reviews, and a rating, but for Belly, it's one through 10. But the growth hack for Belly is that if you want to use Belly, then you got to share Belly. Nick and I downloaded the apps, so we're one of the 14 % over 35 now. But to get all the features of the Belly app, you have to send it to four people before you start. If you want to see the rating on that new Bartolo restaurant in the West Village, you got to text the Belly app to a buddy first.

20:50And the reason is that they're building Belly to be an inherently social app. Belly's not about the 500 randos who reviewed that restaurant down the street. It's about how three of your friends reviewed the restaurant. And the way people review on this app is social too. You basically make a post with pictures of everything that you ate. It's basically like an Instagram post, but all about the restaurant. There is another fundamental difference between Belly and Yelp. Yeah, this one's key. Belly has an algorithm. So as you post and your friends post on the app, Belly starts recommending food in restaurants that it knows you're going to like.

21:24So a 10 out of 10 rating on Belly has a different purpose than a five-star rating on Yelp. it trains the algorithm to find your next favorite bim-bim-bap spot in the East Village. Just like the TikTok algorithm improves as you like stuff. It's the For You page for your face. Yes. Now, besties, we should point out, Belly hasn't had the burden of monetizing their business yet. The app may become way less fun when it's full of ads next to your dumpling review post. But until then, investors are slurping up Belly like it's a bowl of ramen. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Belly?

22:01Goodbye stars, hello stories. The five-star review system is dead. R.I.P. Yeti is the five-star review system. It began about 25 years ago with eBay, Amazon, and the whole early internet. But an entire generation has lost faith with the five-star reviews. We all know that the numbers can be gamed. You see, bots and review forms can post inauthentic reviews. And tank or improve a rating based on how much they're being paid. Plus, Jack, you got rating inflation out there these days. Every Uber driver is between four and a half and five. It's a game of decimals. Also, Jack, rating bombings can happen, and that can be really unfair to a business.

22:40If your brand gets tied up in something political, you'll get a flood of ratings from people who've never even used the product. And finally, fundamentally, everyone's perspective is different. My four star is your two star, so what's the point? Besties, belly shows us you don't want a score to evaluate something. You want a story. And that's why the five-star review system is dead. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Build-A-Bear stock has risen from$1 to$70 in five years. It's up 2 ,500 % and 500 locations. Yeti's the best location, though, for a store. it's in the cerebellum where your brain makes memories.

23:25For our second story, companies sponsoring H-1B visas now must pay$100 ,000 per new employee. Here's the economic way to think of this immigration policy. Yetis, this new plan is a tariff on people designed to get companies to hire Americans. And our third and final story is Belly, the viral restaurant review app for people under 35. It's taking on Yelp with Algorithmic Gourmet. Goodbye, stars. Hello, stories. The five-star review system is dead. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Disney says that Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to ABC on Tuesday.

24:06Kimmel will address the whole situation during his show's opening monologue tonight. night. Now, remember, besties, Disney earned praise from Trump last week for suspending the show, but then anger from others for bending to him on free speech. So Disney's stock is down 2.5 % in the last five days. And second, NVIDIA's stock jumped 4 % yesterday on Word. They're spending more money right now. The chip maker is investing$100 billion into OpenAI. OpenAI happens to be NVIDIA's biggest customer. And remember, besties, this comes weeks after Nvidia bought stock in Intel as well. Nvidia, once financed by venture capital, now becoming venture capital.

24:47And finally, the hot new food in America is a classic one. Get ready for this. Hamburger Helper. The 1970s ground beef booster is making a comeback because of inflation. Americans are trying to stretch their dollars at the grocery store, so you're going down the value ladder to some Hamburger Helper. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Aria Bufar from lovely Orlando, Florida. Last week, we covered how people are actually using chatbots like ChatGPT. One problem is that AI writes with a lot of M dashes. You've probably seen this in your emails. It's basically a telltale sign that someone's used ChatGPT if their writing has a dash.

25:28Which is frustrating for Aria, who loves M dashes, but now people think it must not be their writing. They must have used Chatbot for this. But do you know why the M dash is called the M dash? It's because the dash's length is traditionally the same length as the capital letter M. And in case you're curious and have heard of the N dash, well, the N dash, which is a smaller dash, is the same width as the letter N. There you go. I had no idea. Makes perfect sense. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Now, I know Jack and I said that the five-star review is dead, but... Not dead by us. So remember to drop down and give us a five-star rating and review.

26:09We love reading them, and they're actually huge in the podcast industry still. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Five stars. And before we go, a happy 14th birthday to legendary Yeti, Tyler Mayo, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the trombone-playing, cross-country-running bestie out there. Happy birthday to Jace Aguirre in Mexico City, Mexico. And Xavier and Lisa Brosser from Medford, Oregon, have their third baby named Rocket. Congratulations, guys. Happy two-year anniversary to Frank and Sandra Rodriguez in Victorville, California. They're celebrating at Disneyland. And Lucy and Peter McCall just got a beautiful new home in Seacliff, San Francisco.

26:52It looks fantastic. Congratulations, Lucy and Peter. And a big shout-out to our very own Rachel Hauer. How are you doing? Well, just got a personal record. That's right. She was racing in a legendary race up north, and she finished with her best one yet. And a happy new year to everyone celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tova to all those who celebrate. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a team. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Amazon. Nick owns stock in Shake Shack, and we both own stock in Apple and Robin Hood. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot.

27:34The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com.