👀 “Deceptively Good Marketing” — A24’s Elizabeth Holmes hit. Hermès’ emerging suburbs. Supplement acid strips. +Failure Day

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, so we say Wednesday, October 21st. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news news stories you need to know today. Two weeks until our final live show of the IPO tour, Jack. It's in Seattle. In fact, I'm wearing Filson, a shirt I bought in Seattle for our last live Seattle show three years ago. I thought you were going to wear some Pendleton, but Filson will do, Jack. Filson will do. Besties, grab your tickets. We've got a link in the episode description. Oh, and the guests for the live show, we'll announce it later this week.

0:34It's the best venue in Seattle for the best one yet. Can't wait to see you there. Get your tickets. And in the meantime, Jack and I got three fantastic stories for the funnest place in finance. It's Tiago. What do we got on today's T-Boy? For our first story, Nathan Fielder's documentary of Elizabeth Holmes is being called the movie of the year. So we'll tell you why this documentary has a 21 % chance of winning best picture. For our second story, Hermes has declared a new emerging market, the American suburbs. The burbs, Hermes is opening stores just outside Nashville, but they won't look the same.

1:04And our third and final story, you can now get olive oil in a squeeze shampoo bottle and water in a beer can. But what about vitamin supplements in acid strips, Jack? Venture Capital is into it. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Yes, mix we've ever done. Love the mix on today's show, Jack. Actually, Nick, today's pod is the worst one yet. Oh, yeah, it's not a T-boy. It's a T-boy. Happy International Day of Failure. 24 hours fantastically focused on failing. Because in Finland, Failure Day is a national holiday. We ran out of T-boy shirts at our last live show, didn't we, Nick?

1:36We mispronounced the name of basketball's best defender. We've issued 27 factual corrections on the pod this year. Correction, correction, Jack. 28 corrections. You'll hear more at the end of the show. Because get this, today is not actually International Failure Day. That was last week. We forgot because we were doing a live show. Which means we failed Failure Day. But not celebrating Failure Day on Failure Day. Did we actually perfectly honor Failure Day? So if you meant to say Kendall Jenner, but you said Kylie by accident, like we did yesterday, it's okay. And if you still own Peloton shares, which we do, it's okay.

2:10And if you put all your money on the Rams this season, but now they're two and four, even Warren Buffett will give you a pass. It's okay. Happy International Day of Failure to all who celebrate. And especially those who forgot to celebrate. Celebrate the wins today by celebrating the losses. So let's hit our two stories. You mean three stories. Exactly. Make it 29 corrections. Jack, let's hit them. 15 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 is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice.

2:4550%, 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.

2:57Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:05Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, you got to tell them Nick and Jack from T-Boy sent you. Look sharp and support the show. Monarch. Yetis, did you guys get that grandma check for your birthdays growing up? A white letter envelope stuffed inside a wonderful handwritten card. Great penmanship. Great penmanship. Oh, I just wish I'd had a way to add all those checks up or track them or store them in a piggy bank. If I had Monarch as a kid, I would have known my account balances and watched them grow in probably a savings account before splurging on something awesome to treat myself.

4:38Because Monarch is the money app that we'd always wish we'd had. And when I say something awesome, I mean like a bunch of free spots probably. Yeah, using Monarch today, we know how much our money was going to taxis or it could have gone to scooters and subways instead. With all your accounts securely linked to Monarch, it's like having a financial advisor in your pocket and on your computer. With weekly AI recaps to update you on your spending spikes that you definitely ignored. And while most apps tell you only what you've already spent, Monarch helps you set future spending goals. It's the kind of money app that your grandma would have loved with all her heart.

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5:20For our first story, you can see everything. thing. The film by Nathan Fielder about Elizabeth Holmes is the movie of the year. This pseudo documentary had the best tease in film history. Let me just make sure I understand this plot line exactly, Jack. So a man known for creating fake businesses, Nathan Fielder, interviews the woman who created the most fake business of all, Elizabeth Holmes. That's it. Now we already have a Wall Street Journal investigative report and a book called Bad Blood by the reporter of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Okay, but Jack, we also have a Hulu dramatized series, The Dropout, and an HBO documentary, The Inventor, about Elizabeth Holmes.

5:59Sony, ABC News, Wondery, they've all done Theranos Downfall podcast series. It's like Theranos, the company, has been worth more dead than alive. So do we really need a pseudo-documentary about Elizabeth Holmes as well? Yeah, let me answer that one for you, Jack. Yes. Because You Can See Everything did$15 million at the box office this weekend, setting a bunch of records. We got the receipts. If you exclude concert films, that's the best opening weekend for a documentary since Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 in 2004. And it's the biggest movie to be shown in under 1 ,000 screens since Borat in 2006.

6:33Give it an ok-ya. Besties, this Nathan Fielder film has a 100 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Until one person gave it a negative review, now it's at 99%. But wildest of all is what this film is doing to the Oscars in the prediction markets. It's got a 21 % chance of winning Best Picture, according to Kalshi. Trailing only Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Because an un-awkwardable force met an immovably awkward object. That's the physics of this movie. You see, Yeti, just to sprinkle on more context, neither of us has seen this film yet, because we cannot physically get tickets to it right now. It's impossible.

7:08But both of us listened to long interviews of movie critics. Nick's had no spoilers, and mine had spoilers. That was an interesting strategy here. We jumped in T-boy style. As a full, full disclosure, this story contains no spoilers about the movie. And the story begins with Nathan Fielder, the former Canadian magician who became a comedian and acts in this documentary like a journalist, not like a comedian. Jack, I think you mean Nathan Fielder, the man who went to one of Canada's top business schools and got really good grades. That Nathan. And he tries to answer one big question along with Lance Oppenheim, the other director.

7:40Is Elizabeth Holmes a sociopathic liar? Her father worked at Enron. The family does understand fraud. Or does Elizabeth Holmes genuinely believe that she was telling the truth the entire time she built Theranos? Now, Nathan is known for wildly uncomfortable interviews. Yeah. His superpower is using awkward silence abundantly. Yeah, remember yetis, silence is a powerful negotiating skill. And that's what makes this former magician an objectively talented interviewer. But this interview spanned three years, including a full month with Nathan living with Elizabeth Holmes. Elizabeth Holmes has not spoken to the media in seven years.

8:16During that time, she was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 11 years in prison, where she is right at this moment. But 34 days before entering the clink, she invited Nathan to live with her and her boyfriend and her toddler and her six-month-old infant. Now, besides trying to answer the question, is Elizabeth Holmes a knowing liar or just mentally incapable of telling the truth, this movie also answers, Who is this man that she's living with, Bobby Evans, and why did he pursue her after her fraud was revealed? And why did he sign up to raise two children alone while she's in prison for an 11-year sentence?

8:48Even if she gets out early to a halfway house next year. And why is Elizabeth Holmes doing this film? Is she jockeying for a pardon or just trying to influence her legacy? But besties, what Jack and I find fascinating is that there's one episode of Nathan's old show, Nathan For You, that inspired Elizabeth to call him to do this movie. When Nick and I graduated from college, we were roommates again in New York City. We were. And we loved Nathan For You. his old comedy show about taking small business problems and giving elaborately comedically ridiculous solutions to them. Like when Nathan told a gas station to sell gas for 90 % discounts to get customers in, but only if the buyer hand-delivered a rebate at the top of a mountain.

9:29Now, three people did choose to pursue that comedically complicated rebate and hiked up the mountain with Nathan to get 90 % off gas. Ah, but along the way, they realized they're not there for the$40 gas refund. What they're actually looking for is friendship on the mountain. Nathan Fielder manipulated people on his show, Nathan, for you. But each episode seemed to have a happy ending. And Yetis, that is your clue for why Elizabeth chose Nathan. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking at the awkwardest and maybe best movie of the year? A24's magic marketing move is mystery. Yetis A24.

10:08That's the pre-IPO indie movie studio that's won two Oscars for Best Picture, and they produced this Nathan Filder hit. A24 spent less than$10 million marketing You Can See Everything, but compared to the other tech downfall film of the moment, The Social Reckoning, it did eight times more revenue at the box office per screen. Eight times more revenue than The Social Reckoning. According to Deadline, A24, this movie studio for indie films, has cracked the code on Gen Z. One big reason? Mystery. Right. Because we know the plot of The Social Reckoning. Mark Zuckerberg prioritized profits over people.

10:41But we don't know why Elizabeth Holmes committed fraud, or if her business was not a fraud if it simply failed, or why she made this film on the eve of leaving her newborn baby to go to prison. You can see everything's trailer. It was just one single scene. A painfully awkward 52 seconds of Elizabeth asking, why would I deceive you? A24 is the indie studio that markets every movie differently. For this one, they chose strategic scarcity. And the result with the ROI? Mystery.

11:11For our second story, Hermes, the Parisian luxury brand, has found a new emerging market. American suburbs. Because the money isn't in Nice. It's just outside Nashville. We're talking about Nashvillionaires. Nashvillionaires. But yeah, to tell the story, let's go back to 1981. That's when the World Bank noticed a new trend. The economies of the United States and Europe had matured. It was new economies that were driving global growth. We're talking Brazil, China, India, Southeast Asia, South Africa. They coined a brand new term, emerging markets. These new markets, with consumers wanting to spend their new money, were targeted by big Western brands.

11:52So Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, they opened up in Dubai, Singapore, and Shanghai. But today, LVMH stock is down 50 % from its all-time high. We're in a luxury lull. China stopped surging and the Middle East has been stuck in wars. So Hermes has identified a new emerging market. Yes, it has. But it's within a developed market. Here's how it's. It's the American suburbs. Greenwich has never been greener, baby. Hermes' newest targets are Austin, Nashville, and Wilmette, Illinois, just outside Chicago. Scottsdale, Arizona's getting an Hermes. Princeton, New Jersey's getting an Hermes. They got 45 U.S.

12:27stores at this point. And they're not just in Aspen. The latest one is Manhasset, New York, just outside Queens. I think you mean Manhasset, Long Island, Jack. They don't call it New York. It's Manhasset, Long Island. Because get this, of all the new millionaires created in the world last year, nearly half of them are Americans. And interestingly, that wealth has become geographically spread since the pandemic. We have billionaires in 47 different US states now. Relentlessly rising stock markets have simply minted millionaires from coast to coast and And everything in between. And we call this new demographic of spread out millionaires, Nashvillionaires.

13:02Yeah, the Nashvillionaires. Exactly, Jack. And they're shaping the strategy of this 189 year old,$150 billion, 6th generation French leather brand. Call up your buddy Pierre in Paris who's going to say, not possible. Oh, but it is possible. So here's what Hermes is doing. They're doing zip code analysis. Zip code analysis, what's that Jack? If tourists visit their store in Paris, purchase something, what was the zip code that is associated with their purchase? And then Hermes is looking at clusters of e-commerce sales, noticing where people are buying stuff online instead of going to stores. And the zip codes point to the suburbs.

13:34And what we find fascinating is this particular case study in that town we mentioned earlier, just outside Chicago, of Wilmette, Illinois. The people of Wilmette already have an Hermes in Chicago. It's only 30 minutes away. That's it. But those North Shore suburb shoppers are going to Paris' store for Hermes more than they go to the nearby Chicago one. So Hermes opened up a location right there in Woulmette to sell to them once a month instead of just once a year for their French vacation. By the way, Jack, I got a status update of that Birkin bag I put you on the list for last year when we did that episode.

14:06Still waiting? That's possible, Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway from our buddies in the burbs, the brand new emerging market? Make the store's siblings, not twins. All right, Yetis, Jack and I got a question here. If Hermes is going to expand across the U.S. suburbs, won't that potentially hurt sales at their flagship locations in Paris, New York, and Milan? Yes. Yes. But to mitigate cannibalization, Hermes is making these new suburban stores different. And interestingly, not just in the design, but strategically changing the products they sell in each store. Because every Hermes store is run like an independent boutique.

14:39They get to pick their own layout, their own artwork, and their own products. But now they're also getting a different assortment of products. Like they'll sell wallets at the Wilmette store that you can't find at the Paris flagship. But then they'll sell handbags in Paris that you can't find in the Wilmette store. So that Chicago suburb buyer has a reason to shop in their hometown and still fly to Paris each year. Hermes doesn't let the inventories overlap. That's the secret to their suburb strategy. Make this store siblings, not twins. Now a quick word from our sponsor. NetSuite. Yetis, remember we told you Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day?

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15:45He does, Jack. So after you finish that 83rd chapter of Herman Melville's White Whale Classic, pick up some lighter material on the modern day economy. And see how AI could really reshape work across your company in this guide and how you can prosper from it with NetSuite. If we needed this product, it's what we would use. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to netsuite.com slash tboy. Get your free guide at netsuite.com slash tboy. netsuite.com slash tboy. netsuite.com slash tboy. You know what's a fun habit? Getting to hang with you guys every day on this show. It's what we do.

16:14Another fun habit? Listening to audiobooks about habits. Like Atomic Habits, the legendary piece about building habits that better your life, right? And the Atomic Habits audiobook is on Audible. We're excited to collab with Audible because it's how we find our road trip companion. The written word, spoken. So besties, you can create a habit of enjoying audiobooks while you multitask. which I believe is chapter three of Atomic Habits. That's right, Jack. Wash pots and pans, awkwardly fold those fitted bed sheets, floss your teeth while you're winding down listening on Audible. If your hands are full while listening to Audible, then you're doing it right.

16:45So summer's not over. Replace doom scrolling by listening to an audio book that a human put all their thought and effort into. Audible, it's stories that speak to you. And new members can start listening with a 30-day free trial at audible.com slash tboy. That's a 30-day free trial at audible.com slash tboy. Take it from a couple guys with a lot of habits who have become your habit. for our third and final story vitamin supplements sold as acid strips that is the new form factor making millions to repackage existing products make them fun functional unexpected and a little naughty first of all i'm sorry trend alert spotted by the wall street journal this week supplements delivered in strips not pills or powders that guy's dropping all right but not Molly.

17:33He's dropping melatonin. The viral new supplement brand is Sleep or Die. It just got a $1 million venture capital investment earlier this year. And Jack, what is Sleep or Die's breakout product? Supplement strips that you drop on your tongue to help you go to sleep. Yet he's picture a postage stamp size Listerine breast strip that dissolves in your mouth before bedtime. Because pills are for boomers, powder was for Gen X, and millennials take supplements as gummies. But now Gen Z's catchin Z's with the newest wellness trend, supplement strips on your tongue. Dropping a healthy dose of vitamins because powders make a mess and gummies are too fun.

18:07I mean, Jack, if there were ever a story where I might drop a lick on the pod, this was it. But so far, we have successfully avoided it. But the innovation of this product is simply a new form factor. The same product just sold in a different form or packaging. And right now, in food and beverage, to become viral, you need a unique form factor. And we've identified a formula with three keys, functional, unexpected, and naughty. The new form factor must be functional. It must actually work in its new container. It must be unexpected. There must be an element of surprise in that new container. And it must be a little naughty.

18:40Got to be a tension that feels a little inappropriate. A little wrong. Okay. I don't know what you're talking about, Nick. I was meowing. But besties, that formula that we just spelled out, it literally spells out F-U-N fun. And we've seen it work with top trending products this year we've covered on the pot. Graza put olive oil in a shampoo bottle. Liquid Death put water in a beer can. Grunz just sold to Unilever for over a billion dollars by putting supplements in a gummy bear. But it's not just them. That's why Honey Department just launched honey in a toothpaste tube. And why one fancy Napa winery just put its most expensive wine in a college-style slap bag.

19:17And in each case, it was a new form factor, a new container for selling the product. Using our formula of fun, F-U-N. Functional, unexpected, and naughty. Each got attention, each became viral, just because we've never seen it served that way. I mean, Jack, what's another fun trend we've seen out there? Skin patches. Right? Looks like a nicotine patch or a tattoo, but it actually distributes vitamins through your skin. And we didn't stop there. Jack and I whipped out the whiteboard and we brainstormed more ideas with this F-U-N fun formula. Why is nobody selling granola in like a dishwasher detergent box?

19:49That would stand out at the farmer's market. Why is no one making cough drops in a lollipop form. We podcasters need that. Lollipops are vaguely naughty. And why not a mouthwash in a whiskey flask or ketchup in a keg? I love the vague naughtiness of all these form factors, Nick. But Bessies, just because you got attention by changing the form factor doesn't mean you can keep it. To keep it, you got to get really naughty. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies selling vitamin supplement acid strips? To create a moat. You must build a bridge. Yetis, one problem with this fun formula for launching a product, it's not defensible.

20:26It can be copied. Graza was the first to put olive oil in a squeezable shampoo bottle. Now a bunch of companies do. But Graza stayed ahead of the competition by expanding into metal and glass and boxes of olive oil. Liquid death has expanded beyond their initial can form factor to powders, or as they call them, death dust. You see, Bestie's novel form factor, that's not long-term defensible. For Sleep or Die's strips to succeed, they must do more. Sleep or Die must recognize they're a supplement brand, not a strips brand, and bridge beyond their unique form factor because it won't be unique forever.

21:00In order to create a competitive mode, you must build a bridge. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? You can see everything. A movie about Elizabeth Holmes has a 21 % odds to win best picture at the Oscars. Because A24 achieved what the social reckoning didn't. Mystery. For a second story, Hermes thinks the next emerging market is American suburbs. So it's adding stores just outside major cities. Nash billionaires. To avoid cannibalizing, Hermes is making those stores siblings, but not twins. And finally, sleep or die sleep strips are standing out because they're fun, functional, unexpected, and a little naughty.

21:40But fun form factors are not a competitive moat. You gotta build a bridge past them. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the two companies with the biggest X's on Wall Street just reported earnings last night. First was SpaceX and Nick. Elon announced during the earnings call that they've established a special board to discuss the potential merger of SpaceX and Tesla. Ooh, an Elon Glomerate, Jack. Potentially. So stocks of both SpaceX and Tesla rose yesterday. But then Netflix announced earnings that beat estimates, and yet the stock of Netflix fell 6%.

22:14The vibes are pretty bad at the flicks right now. And second, Yelp has invented the best use case of AI we've ever heard of. Yelp's AI can now call a restaurant for you to figure out how long the wait is for a table for two. Okay, but here's why this is hilarious. Now, a lot of restaurants out there have AI as well to answer their own phones. So your Yelp AI could call the restaurant's AI and the two AIs could hash it out. And finally, for seven years, Jay-Z has been the producer of the Super Bowl halftime show and chooses the star every single season. And for the 2027 Super Bowl, which is on Valentine's Day and President's Day weekend, Jay-Z has chosen...

22:55Jay-Z. According to multiple sources. Smiley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, they were considered, but eventually Jay-Z just tapped himself for the gig. Oh, and by the way, Netflix is hiring you too to do the halftime show of the Thanksgiving Eve NFL game. Because halftime shows make double the dollars. Now time for the best fact yet, which you had something lined up about Kylie Jenner, but then Jack swooped in and said he's got his own fact of the day. What do you got, Jack? One more movie story. We were going to do a correction on the Kylie-Kender-Jenner thing, but we already did that in the intro. So this week, Netflix released the trailer for their new Narnia movie directed by Greta Gerwig.

23:31It's called The Magician's Nephew. Go on. Did you see the trailer, Nick? I did not. It's got Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven in the background of the trailer, which is pretty epic. And here's the fact. No movie or show has ever licensed that legendary song from Led Zeppelin until Greta Gerwig for Netflix's new Narnia movie. No way. Yep. How did she get that song? I don't know. But this movie also comes out on Super Bowl Sunday. which is also Valentine's Day and also President's Day weekend. Sounds like we're going to have a follow-up fact about how they pulled this thing off. Dude, if Led Zeppelin did the halftime show of the Super Bowl, that'd be like just, my head would explode right now.

24:14I mean, I think Led Zeppelin was just holding out for a Narnia movie, Jack. A lion, a witch, and a stairway to heaven. Yetis, you look fantastic for Ceviche Wednesday. Jack, you are glowing over there. And with two weeks left to our live show in Seattle, we got one ask for you. Grab the final tickets left. We can't wait to see you there. We got links in the episode description for you to snag those tickets to our Seattle Live Show, which is the day after Election Day, Wednesday, November 4th. Also known as three months before President's Day, which is also the Super Bowl, which is also Valentine's Day, which is also - Greta Gerwig, save us!

24:52And before we go, a happy birthday to Ivanka over in Seattle, who's turning 12 years old, has been listening since she was six. will miss you at the live show this year, Ivanka. But we're coming back someday. You'll be there. And we can't wait to see you there. Happy birthday to Sushi Suda Syrup, a cheese dog-eating tech engineer in Los Angeles. And Devin, happy 35th birthday down in San Diego. Happy birthday to Kylie Hines in Phoenix, Arizona, thriving in her early 30s. And Jack, a shout out to a bunch of Yetis who I met in the last 12 hours. First, Jess from Andover, Massachusetts. Great to see you today.

25:24Then Burke and Haley just moved to Seattle in Pack Heights. Loved it. Congratulations. Enjoy the move. And finally, Jonathan and his wife from Mexico City and their lovely daughter, who are living it up in the Presidia playground. And a big shout out to Lloyd Brotman, the first Yeti who told us about this wonderful Finnish day of failure tradition. What a mix. Yetis, we love seeing you live. Celebrate the wins.

25:47This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix. And I own one share of SpaceX, and Nick owns more than one. Yetis, this holiday season, don't miss your chance to turn just looking into just bought it. Make it easy for your customers to say yes on the spot. PayPal Checkout is a trusted conversion engine fueled by 400 million active PayPal and Venmo accounts. And when you add Pay Later, you can turn holiday shoppers into regulars. 96 % of Pay Later shoppers are repeat users. So if you give them Pay Later flexibility now, it could help earn their loyalty all year long. PayPal is built for all business. Get started at paypal.com slash business.

26:22PayPal data, eight markets, March 2025 to February 2026. repeat users defined as more than one pay later purchase in the past year.