🏎️ “Disappoinzza” — Ferrari’s $640K electric. Shibumu’s banned umbrella. Spotify’s AI SLAP. +Origami Revival

0:00Yetis, huge news. The IPO tour are in-person offering. The next three cities are about to be announced. Nick, where will we be Wednesday, September 23rd? Sunny San Francisco, baby. Where will we be Wednesday, October 14th? Just inside Boston, Massachusetts. Where will we be Wednesday, November 4th to finish the IPO tour? In Seattle, Washington, baby. Tickets go on sale this Friday, so mark your calendar to mark your calendar. San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, we can't wait to see you live. Tickets will be in the episode description on Friday, and we'll also post them on Instagram at tboypod this Friday, May 29th.

0:38If you know, you know, and now you know. But in the meantime, Jack, we got the best show ever. Let's hit the pod. This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Ceviche Wednesday, May 27th. And today's pod is the best one yet. And this is a tboy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I mean, already excited for the second half of the tour, but Jack, what do you say we hit these three fantastic stories? For our first story, Ferrari revealed their first electric car. It's designed by the Apple guy, and it's priced at$640 ,000. But Wall Street hated it. But we think Wall Street is wrong.

1:11For our second story, Spotify is letting you use AI to create remixes of their music. This is not AI slop, it's AI slap. Jack and I will explain the difference. And our third and final story is Shaboomi. How three UNC Chapel Hill guys disrupted the beach umbrella and then got banned. If you saw one of these on a beach this weekend, consider yourself influenced. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Bro, like we said, what a mix. No one else is doing a better mix yet. The hot new thing in tech is the world's oldest hobby. Besties, Silicon Valley is obsessed with origami. Origami, the ancient Japanese art, actually goes back 600 years.

1:50Folding paper into 3D things without ever cutting with the scissors. And today it's all the rage. Silicon Valley engineers, AI people, Sam Altman, they're all doing origami. By our math, hottest moment for origami since Emperor Kokoku's 50th birthday. In Japan, they're building origami-inspired unfolding satellites that launch super compact, but then open up in space. Volvo's Polestar brand is folding car chassis from a single sheet of steel. No welding, no screws, just folds. Origami unfolding umbrellas, origami portable kayaks. We've seen origami beauty masks out there. MIT is even hosting origami parties.

2:29It's so hot right now. It's not a nerd fest. They're probably scouting for popular mechanics at these things. I think that makes it a nerd fest, Nick. But yet he's never forget the entrepreneurial advice from country music legend Kenny Rogers. Know when to hold them, know when to fold them. And Nick, what's the name of that game where you open up like four little quadrants in the playground and then they like pick one of them and then you have to unfold that and it's like you have a crush on Tessa or whatever. Can't raise VC money without Origami. Jack, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

3:00They 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.

3:22Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:16Monarch. All right, Yetis, you're never going to be able to guess how many accounts Jack has linked to Monarch. 31. Are there even that many financial products out there? Yetis, he's got credit cards, checking accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts. 529 college savings accounts for each kid and my nieces and nephews, Nick. Okay, I'm rounding up. Does that get us to 31? Where are we? Don't forget my mortgage, my house, the car I own. They're all linked and all their values in Monarch. You see, besties, Jack actually linked everything to Monarch one year ago during a little bit of spring cleaning.

4:47Until I used Monarch, I had a very messy, very chaotic spreadsheet, but now they're clean, synced, and automatic. Basically, Jack went full Marie Kondo on his finances, and he did it with Monarch, which can do your financial spring cleaning for you. One dashboard that gets your entire financial life organized. No more clutter, no more mess, no more scattered logins. Just logins, investments, property, and more, all in one place. Get your first year of Monarch for half off, just 50 bucks with promo code T-Boy. Use code TBY at monarch.com to get your first year half off at just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code T-Boy.

5:25For our first story, Ferrari just unveiled its first ever electric car, the Luce. And the stock, it tanked. We'll tell you why Wall Street banks, Ferrari diehards, and everyone else is wrong about this eFerrari. Oh, yeah, it is. Our favorite quote still from that deep dive episode we did on the best idea yet about Ferrari. Jack, what was the quote? It was so good. Enzo Ferrari was a race car driver before he was a car manager. And he said, when he started building cars, I don't build cars, I build engines. But yet he's Ferrari's founder, Enzo Ferrari. He would have quit his own company yesterday.

5:59Because Ferrari revealed their first electric model, the Luce. Now Maserati did this back in 2023. Porsche's had an electric car since 2019. Ferrari is showing up fashionably late to the e-car party. And that's a strategy. We've seen it before with Apple, haven't we, Jack? Apple wasn't first to the smartphone, but they beat BlackBerry by coming second, and nobody's come close ever since. First mover, second shaker. But speaking of the iPhone, Jack, this first Ferrari electric vehicle, the Luce, who was it designed by? It was designed by Apple's superstar designer, Johnny Ive. The guy who did the iPhone.

6:34Oh, and he called up some of his business contacts from the iPhone to get them in on this Ferrari electric car. Because they use Corning glass, just like the iPhone did, for a massive glass roof of this new car. Besties, add it up the way Jack and I see it. This Ferrari electric car is basically the Apple iCar that we never actually got. And it costs my phone costs, Nick. It's going to put you back$640 ,000 for the first Ferrari electric car. Jack, can you sprinkle on the context? That's two Rolls Royces, four G-wagons, or 16 Tesla Model Ys. But it's arguably worth it because this is the first ever Ferrari with five seats inside of it.

7:08So you can fit your full family in there while having your midlife crisis. Now, Besties Jack and I got to see pics of this thing four months ago. The first looks were in San Francisco, not Milano, which was quite a signal to us. Yes, it was. When we covered that story a few months ago, our takeaway is that screens are the new beepers. Because unlike other electric cars, this new Ferrari was light on screens. It was like a festival of buttons. You know, every other electric vehicle out there, it looks like it's inspired by an old laptop. It's all screen, no buttons. Futuristic vibes that honestly are kind of annoying because sometimes you just want buttons.

7:42But Ferrari's electric car has tactical switches and physical controls like an airplane cockpit. If you want to switch the drive mode, you have to turn a knob. If you need the AC, you got to flick a switch. Even the clock is a circular 12-hour analog clock. Oh yes, there also is one main screen that shows you the speed, the temperature, and the time. But to go into turbo mode, which they call launch mode, you have to press that big red button, just like in The Mandalorian I watched this weekend, which I found to be a disappointing film. Why, Eddie? Well, because as the iPhone designer Johnny Ive said, just because the power source is electric, why does an electric car have to be so digital?

8:19Johnny Ive kind of tossed shade at Tesla for being lazy and just emulating everything Apple did, but for a car. Based on all these buttons, the iPhone designer's Ferrari electric car actually ain't like the iPhone after. But it is in line with the key teachings of Steve Jobs to think different. For example, Ferrari just reinvented the windshield wiper for the first time since the Model T. You see, when these windshield wipers are in rest mode, they don't rest on the bottom of the windshield like every other car in the history of cars. They rest upward on the sides of the windshield, which also makes the car more aerodynamic.

8:53Oh, and also Ferrari invented a new font just for this vehicle. Every detail of the Ferrari electric car known as the Luce is a moment of theater. Add it all up, and what was the reaction to this long-awaited Ferrari e-car? A lot like a wife would react if a husband brought home a surprise Ferrari without telling her. And yes, 95 % of Ferrari owners are men. The stock of Ferrari fell 5 % yesterday, lost 3 billion bucks in value. That's like half a lift. Analysts are worried the electric vehicle business is bad. Other brands are exiting EVs just as Ferrari entered. And Ferrari fans just hate the design.

9:28They say it looks like a computer mouse or even worse, a Nissan. The former president of Ferrari said the car design is so bad, China's not even going to bother to copy it. He thinks they're not even going to be interested. That's quite a diss, dude. It's a true story. But besties, Jack and I think the critics are wrong, and it's because of our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ferrari? Ferrari can sell zero of these electric Ferraris, and it will still have one. Yetis, the choice to have the OG techie iPhone designer create this car was actually the critical signal.

10:01It signals that this is not supposed to be at all like a typical Ferrari, and it's not supposed to be at all like another electric car. So the way Jack and I see it, the two groups angriest online and in the markets about the Ferrari electric car, it's not for them, and it's not about them. This Ferrari electric car is for people who otherwise weren't thinking about a Ferrari at all, but now want to make a fashion statement and a virtue signal by buying electric. In fact, we'd argue it actually makes the conventional gas-powered Ferrari and the Ferrari brand more valuable. Think about it. Ford's electric pickup truck, it looks just like the regular Ford F-150.

10:36Cadillac's Lyric SUV, it looks just like other Cadillac SUVs. But Bestie's Ferrari said no. We're not gonna dilute the great gas product we already have. We're gonna make something that looks totally different, that doesn't affect the legacy business who were never gonna buy an electric car from us anyway. Add it all up and Ferrari now has two business lines. They have Ferraris and something completely different, the electric Ferrari. Plus, Jack, the publicity from years of buildup to the final luxury electric vehicle. That is incalculable. I think this is the last first electric car we'll ever see.

11:10I like the way you put it, Jack. Besties, that is why Ferrari can sell zero of this electric car and still have won the game. For our second story, Spotify needs its own talent agent. Spotify is on a new product rampage. Concert tickets, magazine articles, fan-made AI music, they all just got announced. These updates boosted Spotify stock, but they could turn the app accidentally into a slap. But Jack, pause the pod. Spotify needs its own Spotify wrapped. Just for the last week, because they announced so much in the last seven days. Okay, the annual investor day, they launched a partnership with Live Nation for concert tickets through Spotify.

11:52Artists can now reserve two tickets for the Spotify user who listens to the most minutes of their music if that concert is produced by Live Nation. Now, if that goes well, they'll expand it, and Spotify could actually become a ticketing app. Could Spotify become the next ticket master? Maybe. You heard it here first. Yesterday, Spotify also announced a deal with Condé Nast, audio long form articles. You know that 7 ,000 word expose in Vanity Fair that you have a separate tab open to and minimized on your computer and you're like, eventually I'm going to read this. I'm going to read it next weekend.

12:24I'm going to read it next month. I'm going to read it next year. I made a calendar invite. I'm doing it. Well, now that article is a, I don't know, 15 minute audio episode, like an audio book and you can listen on Spotify. Okay. I was never going to read it. But besties, what Jack and I have noticed is that the coolest new things are often the most controversial new things at first. And that would be Spotify's partnership with Universal Music Group for AI music remixes. Basically, AI art. So Jack, to explain this, let's start with some trivia. What is the greatest musical mashup of all time? That would be bittersweet dirt off your shoulder, which was launched right around when we went to college.

13:01Well, Spotify will now let you create remixes and mashups just like that using AI. basically turn you into a robo Dr. Dre. Or Noah Kahn, but less depressing. You could type that into Spotify and they'll produce that, but only if Noah Kahn opts into this program. Why so many songs about sticks, Noah? Write about branches, write about flowers. Come on, man. Now the launch date is TBD, and it's only going to be for premium subscribers who pay an additional add-on, like five bucks per month. And we should point out the artist must opt in for AI to remix all their music. And I don't think Noah Kahn's going to opt into this.

13:35But artists who don't opt in, they're going to miss out on new potential royalties from the new revenue pool from Spotify. So Bessie's Jack and I dove in T-boy starts at the financials. And our first thought, these new features could be huge for the stock. For years, the only trick Spotify has had to get their 400 million plus free users to upgrade to premium, the only value prop has been, you can avoid ads. Pay us more money and you'll hear less ads. And that's not that compelling. So there's still been 400 million free users, and Spotify just makes 30 cents a month on those free users through ads.

14:08That's right. If you don't pay for Spotify Premium, Spotify makes just 30 cents a month off you. So Spotify wants you to upgrade. That's why they launched new concert tickets and new AI music features only for premium subscribers. And here's where you get the... Getting one subscriber to upgrade to premium increases Spotify's revenue on that subscriber by 18x. Spotify goes from making 30 cents a month on ads through you to making 13 bucks a month from you. So Spotify stock has surged 25 % since the Investor Day announced all of that. Because it's putting cookies on the shelf that are worth reaching for.

14:43So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spotify? Is this symphony or is this slop? Besties, this week Spotify's co-CEOs were defending that move into AI music. They said that controlled AI music is going to be better than the unregulated slop that's already out there. But Jack, they also said that their AI tool would allow one song to become, as they put it, 10 ,000 songs. Can you imagine if the number of songs on Spotify grew by 10 ,000x? Can you imagine if when you type in Hey Jude on Spotify, you don't get the one version by the Beatles and like the one live version they did. You get 10 ,000 versions that are remixes by 10 ,000 different Spotify users.

15:26That sounds like a mess to me. No, my ears already hurt from that, but Jack, let me mess with you even more. Spotify also announced last week AI-generated personal podcasts for your morning commute. Daddy, Spotify has always done a really good job having one leg in tech and one leg in the creator-musician community. And they've managed that balance really well. But can Spotify be both pro-creator and pro-AI at the same time? Adding AI to the product will test both Spotify's relationship with its users and its relationship with artists and creators. Now, besties, if this goes well, it'll make Spotify a true AI media app.

15:58But if it goes badly, it'll make them a slop app. Or as we call it, a slap. Let us know what you think. Drop it in the comments, and we'll see you after the break. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Built, the intelligent finance platform that helps businesses scale with proven results. Look, Yeti's paying and getting paid. That is a pain for small and medium businesses out there. Did you send the invoice? Did they see it? Did you remember to remind them to remember to pay it. Oh, I totally forgot, Jack. Besties, if you drop the ball on any of those, you don't get paid and you're missing out on cash flow.

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17:01That is proven infrastructure you can actually trust. Talk with an expert at bill.com slash proven and get a$250 gift card as a thank you. That's bill.com slash proven. Terms and conditions apply. See offer page for details. Top hats, baseball hats, Von Dutch hats. We wear so many hats on this podcast. Honestly, we're not great at all of them. No, we've been avoiding hiring someone to wear those hats instead of us, especially the Von Dutch one, because hiring and training can take forever. Well, proud to say that we are hiring right now at T-Boy, and this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Because sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs.

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18:14For our third and final story, Shibumi has become such a viral beach accessory that it's getting banned. Here's how focusing on just one state got this new beach product into every state. Now to sprinkle on some context, the Shibumi is very simple to use beach canopy. It's one very large polyester sheet that you slide onto an arched shaped aluminum pole, kind of like a tent. You stick the two ends of the pole into the sand and the sheet blows sideways with the wind. And boom, you get a shady rectangular oasis from the sun as you lay down underneath what's basically a flag waving in the wind above you.

18:51Founded by three UNC Chapel Hill guys, they named the business after the apartment building they lived in as students. Shaboomi, which is also the Japanese word for effortless convenience. Very fortunate fit for a CPG brand, by the way. Not shamoony, not shamoony, not shabozy, shaboomy. Now they cost$255 each and they say that they've sold 500 ,000 of them, which would make$127 million in revenue so far. Biggest disruption to the umbrella since the sun. Founded in 2016, these guys had sales take off during the pandemic, and they ended up selling a majority stake to a venture capital firm. But here's the business side that Jack and I find fascinating.

19:29These Chapel Hill guys use growth hacks that have all come back to bite them. Beginning with the simplicity of the design. Right, like Jack, this thing weighs less than four pounds. It's basically a tarp and a pole. It should be a profit puppy. That simple design backfired with dupes. The company had to send cease and desist letters to nearly 200 competitors who copied their design. Okay, Jack, what about their one single color scheme? Like that should have been a growth hack. They built the brand recognition by only selling it in a two-tone blue color. The two-tone blue colors of North Carolina, but it backfired because Nick, when you're walking on the beach, you go for like a mile long walk, you try to spot where your spot is on the beach by like identifying your umbrella.

20:09Well, if every umbrella is the same shade of blue, uh-oh, kids are getting lost on the beach. Mom, dad, which shibumi are you at? The next growth hack that came back to bite them was their use of wind energy. Because wind, which is free, is the magic of the shibumi. It's what makes this canopy work. But it backfired because there's loads of videos that have gone viral of limp shibonis just sitting there looking pathetic because there's no wind. Now they have to sell wind assist packages for flaccid shibumis that are stretching that shibumi out like a tent. I was going to say this is the beach accessory equivalent to Viagra.

20:45Add it all off, besties, and shibumis also getting banned. Entire beach communities have banned the shibumi on their public beaches. They're noisy, they take up space, people aren't happy. Yeah, your uncle's manspreading with two shibumis. It takes up like half an acre. But pause the pod, besties, because you know from listening to our show that getting banned ain't a bad thing. Skateboards, Red Bull, Dungeons & Dragons, they all got banned and they boomed in part because of the ban. So Shibumi is now embracing the bans to boom the Shibumi. They even list the cities and communities on their website where they've been banned.

21:21Rehoboth, Myrtle Beach, the north part of the Jersey Shore, anti-Shibumi territory. If you show up to Manisquam with a Shibumi, they're going to be like, get the heck out of here. Karen would like to have a word. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Shibumi? It's the flyer flywheel. If you can influence tourists, you create a flywheel. Yetis, interestingly, being Carolina guys, the founders focused their sales locally. They wanted to own the north and south kakalaki shores. And Nick, because beach towns are transient, people would go to the Outer Banks for a week, see a shibumi and say, what is that?

21:56I need that. And Jack, that is why today you're seeing shibumis across the beaches along the East Coast. From people who originally saw them while traveling to vacation spots in the Carolinas. And this, besties, is where the flywheel starts turning. Because now you're getting tourists in Cape Cod who see the shibumi that that Cape Cod person originally purchased after seeing it in the Outer Banks during spring break. Oh, and if a town bans the shibumi, it just adds to the tourism flywheel. Because people ask, what got banned? Everything we just described is a whole bunch of free marketing. First from the tourists, then from the bannings.

22:29Convert the tourists, they bring it to their home beach, convert the tourists to that beach, it goes on and on and on. Yetis, for lifestyle products, if you convert the tourists, you create a flywheel. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Ferrari's electric car unveil, designed by the iPhone designer, was hated on in the comments. But that's the point. Yeah, it looks like a pizza bagel, but whatever, whatever. It's completely different than the OG Ferrari. For our second story, Spotify is letting you remix your own fan version of music, but only with a paid add-on and if the artist consents.

23:03Spotify could become the AI audio super app or the slop app. We'd call that a slap. And finally, it's Shaboomi. The divisive new form of sun protection has made$127 million in sales and is getting banned. But they're benefiting from the tourism flywheel. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the Pope's got some opinions. Pope Leo published a 42 ,000 word AI policy document for the world to read. The document was called an encyclical, which is like an open letter. It's not just for Catholics. It's meant for everyone to read and consume. And in it, he calls out AI's many potential harms and calls for policies to control those concerns.

23:43He also did 1 ,000 words on an economy that values dignity, not GDP. And if you're curious, want us to do a whole story on it? Drop it in the comments. Second, the S &P 500 surged past 7 ,500 points yesterday for the first time to a new all-time high. And the big reason was micro. Actually, literally, it was Micron. Micron, the AI chip stock, just became the latest$1 trillion market cap company. So right now, the stock market looks like a big bowl of nachos. It's all being driven by chips. And finally, the steroid Olympics happened this Sunday in Las Vegas. How did it go? Well, the stock fell 43%.

24:17It was actually a weak showing. In the enhanced games, it's like the Olympics, but there are no banned substances. Like, everyone is juicing. Everything is okay. Here's the twist, though. Despite the performance-enhancing drugs, only one world record was broken in the Enhanced Games. So viewers can watch clean athletes or less athletic athletes on steroids do not as well as the clean athletes, basically. That's why stock of the Enhanced Games fell by 43 % on Tuesday. Now time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Caroline Thomas from lovely Westchester, New York. Yesterday, we did a story on the surprise strategy that goes into the naming of pharmaceuticals.

24:52Here's the formula. They take a full sentence of what the drug does, and then they turn it into one made-up word that stands out on TV. Like Ozempic. That's inspired by the word Olympic. But Caroline wanted to share one of her favorites that we forgot to mention on the show. Yeah, the wildest drug name, according to her, is Skalaxin. Jack, what does Skalaxin do? Does it let you chillax with your skills? Pretty close, Jack. Skalaxin is intended to relax your skeleton. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are glowing, getting ready for the next three live shows going on ticket sales, man. San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle, September, October, and November.

25:30If we didn't hit your city this year, we're planning to come to you next year. We just haven't hit it yet. In the meantime, the tickets go on sale Friday, and we'll be reminding you every day because we can't wait to see you there.

25:45And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Christian Lichty, He's celebrating with some golf over in Scotland. Happy birthday to Mengxi Li-Ang, turning 30 years old in New York City. And Megan Soso's turning 40 in Chicago. Happy birthday to Sarabunia, also in Chicago. Both doing logistics. And Adam Ross up in Seattle's got a birthday and has been a fan of the pod for the year. Adam, can't wait to see you at the Seattle Live show. Happy birthday to Caleb Myers, a legendary Yeti of Dallas, Texas. Been listening for five years. And Scott Bailon in Oceanside, California, owns stock in Costco.

26:16Thanks for the full disclosure. Happy 51st birthday to Kevin Benjamin Pac-Man. Belated birthday down in San Mateo. And Luca Kiriopoulos is turning one years old with a big game of peekaboo in Florida. And happy birthday to Rye Willow, turning five years old, celebrating with a demogorgon in Wyoming. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

26:41This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify.

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