🥊 “Fight Club” — Paramount’s $7.7B UFC deal. Nvidia’s export tax. Fazit’s $40M face glitter. + Instant Ramen.

0:28This is Nick. RRWM on our TikTok. Check it out. In the meantime, Jack, three fantastic stories for today's T-Boy. For our first story, our two biggest chip makers, NVIDIA and AMD, just signed an unprecedented deal with the United States government. But what this news is really about is an AI tax. The first ever AI tax. For our second story, it's Fawzit. Fawzit's face glitter startup saw sales surge after Taylor Swift wore sparkles to a Chiefs game. The lesson from Fawzet, every brand needs a VEK, a virality emergency kit. And our third and final story, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is ending pay-per-views.

1:09It's all streamable now on Paramount+. And the octagon is huge. 100 million Americans are now fans of the UFC. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. Hang on a sec while I get ready with my five-step skincare. No, that's only on TikTok. That is yesterday we asked you the biggest trivia question in the universe, actually. Yeah, when astronauts are in outer space, what is the most popular dinner option that they eat? Is it hamburgers, peanut butter, pizza, or instant ramen? Well, the answer is, drum roll please, instant ramen. The Japanese noodle soup Most of you actually got that wrong, I want to point out It's specifically Cup Noodle Instant Ramen That's the brand that made ramen noodles go viral Get this, Americans, we now eat more instant ramen than we do McDonald's Happy Meals But Nick and I found the origin of ramen noodles And it's in the rubble of post-World War II Japan An enterprising young man named Momofuku invented the ramen noodle to feed his hungry nation But instant ramen is actually a deeply ironic subject for our weekly show.

2:20The best idea yet. Yeah, it is, Jack. Because this food has actually powered most businesses we cover on the show. Think about it. Nearly every startup at Point is so tight on cash that their co-founders eat ramen. It is the only meal that extends your cash runway by years. Instant ramen has fueled a thousand unicorns. And it's filled a million sophomore students' stomachs as well. And you can learn how Instant Ramen took over the planet on this week's TBIY. And you'll meet the Japanese visionary who turned it from a late night snack into a global food empire. So yetis, check out the best idea yet.

2:56We got a link, as always, in this episode description. But in the meantime, Jack, we got three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do you say we serve them up? Let's hit them. Eat them up, baby. 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, yeah, 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.

3:30Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:41Monarch. Yeah, it is. You know my first money lesson? It was where to put our lemonade stand. I was wondering, it was on the Upper East Side. Do we do it on Lexington Avenue or Park Avenue? Wait a second. New York City has lemonade stands on the sidewalk? They didn't. We were pioneers, Jack. Lexington Avenue is more commercial. Park is more residential. So what did we learn, Jack? Families are willing to pay more for lemonade. So you set it up on Park. Yeah, we did it on Park. Besties, no one gives you financial lessons in life. you end up figuring most of it out as you grow up. But we love Monarch because it's like a financial advisor in your pocket.

4:09Because every minute it's tracking your savings, spending, investments, and more. For instance, Monarch's goal tracking feature shows if you're on track for that summer trip to Santa Fe. And it tells you what percent of your income is going somewhere that's a surprise. I open Monarch all the time because it takes the mental load off tracking my finances. And whether you're single, you're in a family, or you're dinking it up, Monarch's the way. Our personal fave, the AI Weekly Recap. A once per week gut check on what you did with your money. Hey Nick, you've spent 96 bucks at kids' lemonade stands since July.

4:34because we pioneered it for him, Jack. Resties, write your own story with Monarch. Use code TBOY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just 50 bucks. It's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code TBOY. Indeed. Oh, we missed the deadline. My recording device is having issues. Our contractor pretended to be sick. I know he's watching the World Cup matches, Jack. Or how about this? Elon just tweeted something at 3 a.m. that completely changes the takeaway on our second story. We gotta re-record the show. So besties, when workplace chaos hits you, you need the right hire.

5:06And this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed Sponsored Jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. We produce a daily episode of this show, 250 episodes a year. Sometimes we need help, we need it fast. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this T-Boy show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast.

5:37Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this show. Indeed.com slash podcast and mention T-Boy. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is sponsored by HeyGen. Hey Jen turns a script, photo, or presentation into a polished video of you. In minutes, no camera or crew required. It's how real estate agents, financial advisors, attorneys, and creators show up consistently on every feed and build a brand that brings in clients without spending their whole week making content. Rated the number one AI video platform for small businesses on G2 with the most realistic AI avatars in the industry.

6:18Trusted by a community of over 30 million people and 85 % of the Fortune 100 and built to work in over 175 languages. so you can reach your audience in theirs. Here's the wild part. Record yourself for just 15 seconds, and HeyGen builds an AI avatar that makes professional videos for you on demand, so you can post everywhere your audience is, as yourself, without filming every time. Your first three videos are free at heygen.com slash pod. That's H-E-Y-G-E-N dot com slash P-O-D.

6:50For our first story, America's two biggest chip makers, NVIDIA and AMD, just agreed to an unprecedented export deal. 15 % of their China sales are going to go to the US government. We think this brand new type of tax could be training wheels for an even bigger brand new tax. An AI tax. But yetis, first, let's talk about NVIDIA and AMD, the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal of the chip industry. Or Aroo Jack. Also, I've heard some people refer to them as the Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie of the chip industry. Well, they're both pretty rich right now. These are the two largest and most advanced chip companies in America.

7:32And they're going to pay the U.S. government 15 % of whatever revenue they make in China. That's the headline, and that is huge. Now, critics call this another case of Trump extorting business. Companies can only do their thing in this economy if they do it Trump's way. You can only export your product to China if you give the government 15 % of your revenue. So why would NVIDIA agree to this? Well, China's a huge market. Huge. So the alternative is nothing. They're happy to pay 15 % in order to play there. They're paying to play. So to make this clear, it would be the first time a company has agreed to pay the government in exchange for permission to export their products abroad.

8:11It's the monetization of trade policy. Not based on rules, based on make me an offer and I'll decide. And now one thing we should point out about this huge new deal is the reason chip exports to China were restricted in the first place. What was it, Jack? National security. That's right. So this deal kind of ignores that initial reason. Actually, Nick, this deal still forbids Blackwell, NVIDIA's most advanced chip, but Trump said he's open to including that chip as well as part of a bigger U.S.-China trade deal. But besties, here's what we found fascinating about this story. Another way to look at this deal is that it's a brand new type of tax.

8:45And America has a really interesting track record when it comes to new taxes. In 1943, let's go back to FDR's Aaron Nick. Hit me, Jack. America's income tax became the envy of the developed world. Yeah, it was basically like a sneaky economic accelerator. Here's why. Taxes are necessary for every nation, but people universally hate and resist giving up their money to the government. Remember the Boston Tea Party? It began the Revolutionary War. But in 1943, Congress forced America's companies to withhold taxes before they even hit their employees' bank accounts. This is basically Psychonomics 101.

9:27Citizens are way less resistant to a tax if it was money they never got in the first place. The key was the withholding. That's what made taxes way more doable in America. Anyone can charge a tax. You have to withhold the tax. Now, similarly, this NVIDIA China deal is really a new form of tax, an export tax, something America and the world has never done before. Now, Yetis, if this export tax starts a trend, like withholding income taxes did back in the 1940s, then trade among nations will decline even more. But speaking of new taxes, Nick. Yes, Jack. We got a takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone affected by AI?

10:07This NVIDIA export tax is training wheels for an AI tax. Yeti's AI is coming fast and it is coming furious. There is huge opportunity, but also huge potential cost to jobs. American companies have pretty much stopped hiring the last few months. And AI definitely has something to do with that. So here's what we're thinking. If AI causes high unemployment, like some think it will, the government will have to do something to make up for it. Something big, probably. And one simple and appealing option would be to tax AI companies and distribute the revenue to citizens. Picture this. Imagine a 5 % tax on every dollar of revenue associated with AI to fund a universal basic income.

10:50UBI. Like, the government gives$2 ,000 a month to every American because the world of AI is so crazy. And the biggest companies benefiting from AI are the biggest 10 companies in the world. And we can't just let the biggest 10 companies in the world take all the spoils of AI. Well, this new corporate tax on NVIDIA, the number one company in AI, it could be the precursor to exactly this. This could be training wheels for the first ever AI tax.

11:20For our second story, phase it. These sparkling makeup patches had a Taylor Swift moment and sales surged to 40 million bucks. Phase It shows us why every brand today needs a VEK, a viral emergency kit. All right, Jack, how about we set the scene here? Yetis, you're 29 years old. You live in Florida, and you're doing a heated yoga class on a Monday night in a cold October. Cold in Florida. Poor scene setting, man. You know how soft those Floridians are, Jack. All right, she gets out of class, and there's 31 unread messages on her phone. Turn on the football game fast. Taylor Swift is wearing your business on her face.

12:01Shut up. Did you say Taylor Swift? Yeah. She was wearing my product on national TV? True story. Aliette is the co-founder of Phase It and this happened to her. She happens to make patches that you put on your face for glittery freckles. Phase It sparkle patches are now the star of every musical fest you're going to. Basically, they make your cheeks look like a Lisa Frank sticker book. They're adult facial flair. They're instant glam. Now to sprinkle on some context here, glitter is historically an engineering challenge because plastic glitter is very hard to clean off your face. As one stand-up comedian put it, glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.

12:38It's hard to get rid of. So instead, you'd apply Phase It kind of like a fake tattoo. It's easy to clean off or it falls off after three days. And the business model of Phase It, which makes these sparkling patches, is a lot like Starface, the pimple patch company we covered on the pod. That's right. But the use case isn't for acne. it's really for attending live events and looking glam. Actually, Phase It does cover patches for skin issues you're embarrassed about, like pimples too. That's true, which reminds us that suddenly this has become a booming category for teens. Sparkling things you put on your face.

13:08To cover up blemishes. I wish I had it when I had face acne. But besties, how about we go back to that viral moment we started the story with? Taylor Swift was wearing Phase It on her face to see her boyfriend's football game in Kansas City. The problem for Phase It is that there was no Phase It branding anywhere on the screen. So news articles showcasing Taylor Swift's sparkles didn't mention the brand she was wearing, Phase It. So the co-founders had to email each and every reporter. Actually, they didn't have to, but they did. They basically said, hi, it's us. We're the product. It's me. After the online articles and social media posts got updated with a Phase It mention, sales began sparkling.

13:47Get this. Within 48 hours of Taylor wearing them, sales surged 3 ,500 % past a million bucks for the first time. Phase It was tracking to hit$3 million of annual sales, but ended up with$10 million. Oh, and one year later, they're now on pace for$40 million in revenue. And now private equity is calling. They want to inject Wall Street money to this glitter business. Because nothing's more glamorous than a dude in a suit from Midtown Manhattan giving you a check. Talk about a culture clash. But so far, the two cool founders who own 97 % of this business, they ain't budging. They're going to bootstrap this puppy.

14:25Bootstrap it to the moon. And their perspective is that the rest of the beauty industry is just too serious. Yeah. SPF, chemical this and that, 42-step skincare routines. So instead of serious, they're doing sparkles. And that's their competitive advantage. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Phase It? Every brand needs a VEK, a viral emergency. kit. Now, Yetis, there is one detail we didn't tell you. Fazit actually spent six months targeting Taylor Swift before it went viral, hoping she would wear the sparkles. They knew it would blow up the business, so they sent samples to Sabrina Carpenter, who was Taylor's opening act.

15:02They sent samples to Chiefs football players Wags, their wives and girlfriends, and even to Taylor's longtime makeup artist. The key is that they only needed one to work, and eventually it did. Their hard work paid off. But what's more interesting to us, this should have been 15 seconds of fame for phase it. That is what we found fascinating. How did they get one moment to turn into a full year sales surge to 40 million bucks that hasn't even stopped? Here's how. They prepared for virality. When it happened, they didn't run out of materials. And they even had plans to catch the momentum and take it even further.

15:35For example, they jumped on their first opportunity of a collab. They did a version with Elf Beauty that got them even more awareness. And then they set up pop-up stores outside of the locations of the rest of the Ares tour to sell to the Swifties directly. Besties, virality doesn't matter if you can't capitalize on it. But FaZeit had a virality emergency kit. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Bill, the intelligent finance platform that helps businesses scale with proven results. Yet he's paying and getting paid? That is a pain for small and medium-sized businesses.

16:13Jack, did you send the invoice? Did they see the invoice? Did you remember to remind them to see to pay to remember to pay the invoice? If you drop the ball in any one of those steps, you don't get paid. Nope. And you're missing out on cash flow. You should not have to chase your customers. This isn't TAG. So powered by AI, build is all that, simply and automated so that you don't have to. ACH, credit card, check, international wire transfers. They probably do carrier pigeon and Bill pay, if that's how you want to get paid. Bill is the intelligent finance platform trusted by nearly half a million businesses and 98 of the top 100 U.S.

16:43accounting firms to manage, move, and maximize your money. They have securely processed over a trillion dollars in real transactions. That is proven infrastructure you can actually trust. So besties, talk to an expert at bill.com slash proven and get$150 gift card as a thank you. That's bill.com slash proven. Terms and conditions apply. See offer page for details. Built. Yeah, it is. Full disclosure. I used to own an apartment, but then my wife and I sold it, and now we're back to renting, baby. I'm owning, but we both suffer the same issue, Nick and me. Yeah, we do. We're not getting points on rent or mortgage payments right now.

17:16Yeah, that's why we were shocked and are now both seriously considering what we just heard from Bill. This is wild. Because paying for the roof over your head, it's our single biggest expense. Whether you rent or you own, that's the case. Well, Bill will pay your mortgage or your rent for you, so you get the points. Points can be redeemed toward your next flight, hotel, lift ride, Amazon.com purchase, and more. Personally, I'd use them in the Built travel portal or simply use them toward a future rent payment. And one unexpected benefit of Built is that every member gets access to its agentic neighborhood concierge in the Built app.

17:47First, you download the Built app. Second, you link your credit or debit card. And then you ask the Built neighborhood concierge to basically be your AI butler. Makes you feel fancy. So download the Built app and join the membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com slash tboy. That's J-O-Y-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash T-B-O-Y. Use our link, joinbuilt.com slash T-Boy, so they know Nick and Jack sent you. For our third and final story, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is ending pay-per-view forever. They're now streamable only on Paramount+. Trivia. UFC is now more valuable than one of the four major American sports.

18:25Which is it? I know the answer. I'm not proud of it. I'm not happy about it. But yetis, do you subscribe to Paramount Plus? Unless you're a Yellowstone super fan like my in-laws, the answer is probably no. Jack, can you sprinkle on some context as to why? Paramount just finished their merger with Skydance, and the whole company is now run by David Ellison, who is the son of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle and big-time billionaire. David Ellison paid$8 billion to acquire Paramount, and even for a Nepo baby. Yeah. That's a lot of money, Nick. At that level, you got to ask really nicely. Really nicely.

19:03And with Cable dying, he needed something big to turn his new company into a must-subscribe network. Yeah, that wasn't just for Dutton family members out West. Which led to the big announcement on Monday. David Ellison and Paramount are buying the rights to all UFC fights for the next seven years. The ultimate fighting championship. And honestly, besties, we could have predicted this, right, Jack? Ellison was seen in April sitting ringside with Donald Trump and the CEOs of UFC and their parent company, TKL. Hell, we think they weren't just talking about body slams over there. Paramount is now in the octagon, literally.

19:40Is Brad Pitt part of this deal, Jack, or is that a different fight club? Very nicely done. I see what you did there. But yet, here's what we find fascinating about this story. Paramount is paying$7.7 billion over seven years, pegging UFC's US TV rights at$1.1 billion a year. Compared to the other sports, that's not bad. This is more than the NHL's TV deal in both the United States and Canada. You didn't need to mention the Canada part, first of all. Second of all, hockey prices itself so that everyone can enjoy it. They're not trying to be jerks and overpriced. That's admirable. I just think this is a big moment for the UFC.

20:17They're on par with MLB's TV deal. Although we should point out this pales in comparison to pigskin, doesn't it, Jack? Yeah,$1.1 billion a year. That's one-twelfth of what the NFL commands. But still, UFC is getting Paramount's money. And Paramount is getting UFC's fans. Which UFC claims is 100 million Americans. Yeah, basically like a quarter of the country. Now, another big note is that this deal knocks out once and for all the pay-per-view business model. Yeah, we would say that pay-per-view's been put in a chokehold, but nope, they're not getting out of this thing. TKO, the parent company of both WWE and UFC, has signed deals in the last week with both ESPN and Paramount.

20:57Now, in the past, the biggest wrestling and MMA fights, they were pay-per-view. There was a huge price tag if you wanted to watch a single fight. But those are dead now. WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam, those are included at no extra charge on ESPN. And UFC's twice-per-year pay-per-view profit puppy, usually around$100 an event, now is included in Paramount+. So with the swoop of the pen fresh after the acquisition, Paramount owns UFC on television and killed pay-per-view. Sorry, they pinned pay-per-view into submission. And pay-per-view tapped out. So Jack, what's the first rule of Fight Club?

21:37Give us a takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Ultimate Fighting Championship? Paramount now has everything needed to win television, except the engineers. Yetis, let's get ready to rumble. Paramount, which remains publicly traded post-Skydance acquisition, they want to win. They're spending big, and they have most of the pieces in place. For example, Paramount owns CBS, a famous broadcast and cable channel. They also own Paramount, the famous studio with movies and television. And most interestingly, they also have just poached an 18-year veteran of Netflix to head their content.

22:14The mother of streaming, Cindy Holland. Cindy Holland is a legend. Her resume includes House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, The Crown, and Queen's Gamble. Like Netflix is huge in a big part, thanks to Cindy. But here's the key. To win in streaming, you don't just need great distribution and great content. You need great tech. You need the homepage of your app to be equally as engaging and as personalized as TikTok is. So besties, Paramount is in it to win it. But the last ingredient to media success is a big one. Engineers.

22:53Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? NVIDIA and AMD are paying a new type of tax, 15 % of whatever they sell to China. And this could be the precursor to an AI tax to fund universal basic income. For our second story, it's Phase It. It's on track to do$40 million in sales this year. The big moment was Taylor Swift wearing those sparkle patches. But they were ready for it. Phase It had a virality emergency kit. And our third and final story. Paramount Plus just got the TV rights to the UFC for seven years, and they're ending the pay-per-view model. Paramount. They got everything now to win in TV, except the engineers.

23:32But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Jack, what would you like on your tacos? Oh boy, I assume you're getting that. Because Trump just extended a pause on China tariffs for another 90 days. With Trump, some deadlines are actual deadlines. Others are just dates on a calendar. So we're all kind of learning it's best to ignore the deadlines. Just wait until or if things are actually effective. The whole world gave a sigh of relief yesterday as the U.S. and China, those tariffs are the most costly of all. And second, Ford still believes in electric vehicles.

24:06They just announced their biggest plan yet to build the next Model T. They're investing$2 billion for a new plant in Kentucky to build their lowest priced electric car yet. $30 ,000, which Ford says is the same price as the Model T, their very first car adjusted for inflation. And finally, Chapel Rhone's song that references Saskatchewan, that drove huge interest in traveling to Saskatchewan. No joke, this was Saskatchewan's viral moment up in Canada. 50 ,000 interactions on their social media pages that usually don't get many social media interactions. The Tourism Saskatchewan CEO said that being referenced in Chapel Rhone's song was like a gift from heaven.

24:46Hopefully they can harness the virality like Faizit. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Aaron McConnell from lovely Mission Viejo, California. Aaron remembers that story we did a few months back about Trader Joe's because each Trader Joe's has local paintings like hidden within the store. Well, it turns out Bass Pro Shops also has a side hustle in painted artwork as well. Each store features a unique mural that depicts the iconic local destinations of the region. Each Bass Pro Shops is basically hand-painted by local artists. Not basically, totally. Yeah, yeah. This is like the WPA of the New Deal, Jack, putting local artists to work for the public good.

25:26It's like the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps, showing off America's outdoors. Bass Pro Shops is the Sistine Chapel of catch and release. And you can literally catch a fish and release it in the store. It's a thing. It's a thing. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And if you are chowing down in some noodles that took you 60 seconds to heat up, we know what you should do while you enjoy them. Check out our full 45-minute episode on the untold origin story of instant ramen. There's a great story of the name Cup Noodle and why they let out the off or the of. And why they let out the S too. Yeah, yeah, true.

26:04They didn't make it a pull. But you'll have to hear that on the show. We got a link in the episode description to our other show, The Best Idea Yet. In the meantime, Jack and I got a jammy egg we got to cut open. We'll see you there.

26:18And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Derek Netto over in Queens, New York. And happy birthday to Bobby Nalestra in Palm Coast, Florida. And Rich Roll and Aaron Wall, happy first year wedding anniversary just outside Boston. Happy second anniversary to Laura and Nate in San Francisco. And to the Tennessee Electric Cooperatives, these 15 volunteer linemen just completed a project giving power to two remote villages in Guatemala. Paula, thank you so much for your work. And congratulations to Ada Siang and John Healy in Los Angeles on that big book launch today. They're breaking into new Hollywood.

26:54Literally, and that's the title of the book. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

27:04This is Jack. I own stock in Netflix and Ford. This is Hannah Berner, the co-host of Giggly Squad. We could all just stay in bed scrolling through other people's vacations forever But where is the fun in that? The best memories come from stepping outside of your little bubble and being open to the unexpected And what better way to be open to the unexpected than finally booking that trip to europe? You guys know i'm a delta girly Every time I go I get my delta headphones And when I fly to europe delta treats me like a queen and they'll treat you too I was always a little nervous about navigating a foreign country but then I realized it's so important to grow and see different cultures and to put yourself in different situations and Delta held my hand the whole time.

27:52Being away just helps you put life into perspective and your little worries are not so bad. Travel really is the best way to discover something new about yourself and grow from the experience. Step outside your comfort zone this summer, get some Delta headphones and fly with Delta Airlines. They truly are the best way to get to Europe and they just make the whole journey feel so comfortable and seamless. Go book your next chapter right now at Delta.com.