🦸‍♀️ “MAMA Stocks” — Zuck’s Ad/AI machine. Hilary Duff’s anti-Ozempic bet. Bill Ackman’s Influencer IPO. +Refresher surge

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, April 30th, and today's pod is the best one yet this one is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Well, happy National Justin Timberlake Day to all those who celebrate out there. Because today is the last day in April. Which means tomorrow it's gonna be May. Although I'm Team Brittany, so this is just so typically May. Either way, we are bringing three sexy stories back to the pod. Jack, what have we got on the T-boy? For our first story, it's the mama stocks. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet all reported earnings yesterday after hours.

0:39That's the quad squad of big tech, baby. And we're focused on one guy and one guy only. Zucky, zuck, zuck, zuck. For our second story, Hilary Duff is investing in Ladder, America's biggest, hottest strength training app. Because the next wellness trend is anti-Ozempic. Strong over skinny. And our third and final story is Bill Ackman. He has 2 million followers on X. He's the most outspoken man in finance. And he just IPO'd the first ever influencer hedge fund stock. Never thought we'd say those words. But yet he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, we told you it's the best mix we got yet, Justin.

1:12One new drink is dominating America from sea to thirsty sea. Behold the refresher. The flavored fruit drink with big, bright, beautiful color energy. Ah, the refresher. It's like an iced tea and a LaCroix had a baby. Raised by Jamba Juice in his sorority house. I'm sorry, are those chunks of strawberry in here? I almost choked on something. Yes, they are, and they're clogging your straw. Get this, Yetis. Last year, Starbucks actually sold$2 billion worth of refreshers. Darlene at Dunkin' says refreshers are now their growth driver up double digits in the last year. McDonald's is launching their first six refreshers next week.

1:48Because Taco Bell just promoted the refresher to the permanent menu. In this economy, the 2 p.m. mango dragon fruit refresher is your affordable splurge. So women 16 to 35 are pounding refreshers the most these days. Is that right? Well, my sister just shotgun one. She sent me a pick. But according to CNN, none of those beverage chains can decide what exactly a refresher is. Yeah, like here's the strategic problem. The refresher is a category defying drink. It's not an iced tea and it's not an iced coffee. No, but Jack, it's not a soda and it's not a juice, nor is it a seltzer. So what is a refresher?

2:21What is it, Jack? I don't know, like cronuts, emotions, a situation ship? The refresher cannot be defined. My best shot at defining a refresher? Yeah, Jack? It's for when you need an afternoon pick-me-up, but you don't want caffeine, so you need that dragon fruit energy. Jack, that's not a definition. That's a paragraph right there. We want to hear from you. What is a refresher? That which cannot be defined. Drop it in the comments and Jack wants to know three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm.

2:54Jack 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.

3:10Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:21Monarch. 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? Hey, 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.

3:51Until 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 at Monarch for half off just 50 bucks with promo code T-Boy. Use code T-B-O-Y 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.

4:28Make Mother's Day even more special at Whole Foods Market. Kick off brunch or dinner with quality cheese and charcuterie with no synthetic nitrates. Then go seafood. There's an abundance on sale at Whole Foods Market where it's all sustainable while caught or responsibly farmed. At the bakery, grab seasonal treats like their strawberry pretzel cream pie, and you can't go wrong with a ready-to-heat quiche Lorraine, deviled eggs, and fresh-cut fruits to go. Celebrate mom with Whole Foods Market.

5:02For our first story, Zuck just announced consumers, businesses, and Ray-Ban smart glasses wearers are using Meta more than ever. Things are so good right now. Zuck has an AI budget that could buy the Detroit big three car companies. But Yetis, let's start with the context here. $4 trillion tech companies all announced earnings yesterday at the same time, same day. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, the mama stocks. Ah, the mama stocks. You got to love them just like your mama. We actually prefer the quad squad. Yeah, that works well too. Mama, quad squad, or the Fantastic Four floppy disks. Take your pick, Yeti.

5:37But we honed in on Meta because this is the most profitable company in history that you've never paid a dollar to. Jack, I'm sorry. Can I pause the pod? You repeat that line because I kind of love that line. Meta is the most profitable company in history that you've never paid a dollar to. That's right. And they just announced Q1 earnings. That revenue rose 33%. That's the fastest pace since 2021. And profits hit$27 billion in just one quarter. Okay, Jack, 27 billion in profits in one quarter. That's bigger than... That's more profits in one quarter than McDonald's revenue for the whole year. And why is that?

6:09Because there is no limit to the amount of attention that we will give Zucks apps. That's right. The number of humans on Meta's apps is 3.6 billion, which is everyone with a phone, internet access, and no censorship, basically. Although users actually dipped for Meta last quarter. Super unusual. True. It's because of Iran. The internet blackout there meant the 90 million people in Iran didn't log in. Either way, in the last quarter, we all spent 19 % more time watching videos on Instagram than we did before. Meta is Metamaxing on itself. Well, Westies, that's the consumer side of Zuck's business.

6:44But again, we consumers, we don't actually pay for any of Meta's products. Which is where the advertisers come in. Aha. And the data here, ad impressions on Meta are up 17%, and the price per ad is up 19%. You see, Meta's business is basically one huge multiplication. Like, take three user metrics and three advertising metrics. Multiply them all together and you get the revenue growth rate, which last quarter was a whopping 33 % for Meta. And Meta did it all with fewer employees. Although they are paying one employee $100 million a year. Yeah, that would be Alexander Wang, the head of Meta's AI division.

7:19He's getting a little bit of that, if you know you now. Think of it this way, Eddies. OpenAI sells ChatGPT for 20 bucks a month. So you can ask it, what's this thing on my thigh without going to the doctor? Hey, Sam Allman, what is this thing on my thigh? Meta is using AI completely differently. They're using AI to help small businesses buy ads on Instagram. Yeah, for example, Yetis, let's say you're a dog-friendly Austin coffee shop and you want to grow your business. How would you use Meta, Jack? Well, you could let Meta's AI analyze your customers and then use Meta's AI to generate some scroll-stopping creative copy for your ad on Instagram.

7:53That's right. So Meta's AI would both target and create an ad for millennial cockapoo moms who are working from home within seven miles of Austin. It would do it. And boom, you just tripled foot traffic to your dog-friendly Austin coffee shop. You see, AI has now made these meta ads smarter and more likely to find customers interested in the ad. Yes, Zuck hopes that someday meta AI will be used by consumers, perhaps built into smart classes. But in the meantime, meta AI is being used right now by 15 million small and medium-sized businesses who buy ads on Instagram and Facebook and want those cockapoo mamas.

8:25So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Zuck with this insane earnings report. The most efficient ad machine ever is funding the most ambitious AI machine ever. Yetis, the question going into this earning season wasn't whether Meta was going to beat expectations, right, Jack? They've done that 14 quarters in a row, Nick. No, no, no, no, no. The question was whether Meta would increase their budget for CapEx capital expenditures. Basically, the treat-yourself budget. Oh, and Meta did that. Instead of sending profits to shareholders as dividends, Meta now reinvests all of their profits into their AI ambitions.

8:59Like Zucks buying chips and then filling data centers with those chips and then signing 20-year nuclear power deals to power those data centers with those chips. Exactly. And yesterday, Meta announced they plan to splurge $135 billion on AI data centers this year. Wow. $10 billion more than what they estimated just three months ago. Yeah, could you sprinkle on some context that gives me a nice, heavy visual to that number? With that$135 billion AI budget, they could instead acquire Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. The entire Detroit Big Three. Vesdy's here has met his 2026 business in a peanut shell.

9:35It's the most efficient ad machine ever, which is funding the most ambitious AI machine ever. For our second story, Hilary Duff is back and she's investing in Ladder, the strength training muscle app. But it's actually a really interesting Ozempic era bet that fitness goals will pivot from skinny to strong. But yet, he's a funny thing Jack and I noticed. The New York Times just released their list of the top 30 living American songwriters. And who's on it, Jack? Taylor Swift, Stevie Nicks, Missy Elliott. I'm sorry, Jack, how is Hilary Duff not on that list? The singer, songwriter, child actress, and crush of yours truly when I was 12.

10:18How was she not on this list? Snub, we got a snub here, Jack. Her Lizzie McGuire show on the Disney Channel made$100 million one year in merch sales alone. So the lunchboxes, tens of millions of dollars. Lunchboxes. Back in the year 2003, Lizzie McGuire was doing 2.3 million viewers per episode. No show was doing that today. Hilary Duff won a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award, not once, but twice. And that's better than an Emmy Award. Yes, it is. And based on our 20-year rule of nostalgia, Hilary Duff, she is back, baby. She's having a throwback millennial moment. The now mother of four is doing a worldwide concert tour, her first in two decades.

10:55Jack, toss on the Y2K. We got to whip out our bedazzled denim right now. You ready to go on this stuff? I'm not ready to go. No one's ready to go with bedazzled denim. You just jump, Jack. You just do it. But besties, funny timing, and this is what we find fascinating. Hilary Duff also announced her latest investment, a company called Ladder. Ladder is a strength training app. Yes, they basically pioneered the digital personal trainer trend. Like a coach reviews your form on your Romanian deadlift and then makes sure he won't bust a hammy the next time you do it. It's like Peloton and Equinox had a baby raised by a former Navy SEAL.

11:27Exactly. And the cap table of Ladder, their investors, it is jacked. Because they've raised$100 million in venture capital funding and they're now top 10 in the app store for fitness. They're also tossing up huge numbers on the financial rack, right Jack? $100 million in revenue. It's the highest grossing fitness app in America. Okay, but here's our surprise. Hilary Duff joined this weightlifting app because of Ozempic. Actually, she did it in opposition to Ozempic. Exactly, because her perspective is that stronger beats smaller. Here's the insight that I can't stop thinking about. With GLP-1s available for cheap now, it's easier than ever before to get thin.

12:06And so if everyone becomes thin, then that would no longer be aspirational. Here's the bet, that building muscle will be the new fitness aspiration because no pill can magically do that. So ladder is zagging to the current zig of the Ozempic trend. Ladder is trying to get you stronger, not smaller. But Jack and I think there's a broader takeaway here for any business in any industry. And I want to give Alex credit because Jack's wife, she called this Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Hillary Duff's ladder? If you want to understand business, understand physics. Ah, yet he's Newton's third law of motion.

12:41For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It's the same in business. For every trend, there is an equal and opposite anti-trend. For example, the rise in artificial intelligence, it's driving demand for human-made craft. Look at dating apps. After Tinder and Hinge, the pendulum swung back to in-person meetups. And now we're seeing it in wellness, from losing weight to gaining muscle. So Hilary Duff is the poster child for the new trend of fitness. The aspiration is to be strong, not just skinny. Because whenever you see a sudden trend in any industry, remember physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

13:18Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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14:15Talk 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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15:26For our third and final story, the newest stock that IPO'd yesterday, it fancies itself as the Berkshire Hathaway of the modern generation. Bill Ackman created the first ever influencer hedge fund stock. But will you buy it? That's the question. Ah, Pershing Square Capital. Named after a cool bridge right outside of Grand Central Station, this hedge fund was founded in 03 by Billy Ackman. We covered Bill and Pershing last month when he tried to acquire Universal Music, the record label that owns Bad Bunny's music. Big Bad Bunny fan, apparently. Well, now he wants you doing the buying. So he's doing something unprecedented.

16:03He's IPO-ing his hedge fund. That's right. He just took his hedge fund public. Bill Ackman says that Warren Buffett is his hero. So like Warren did, he's letting everyday investors get in on his stock picks directly. As Bill Ackman put it, he said, we're going to have investor days. We're going to have annual meetings. Berkshire Hathaway style where people come and they ask questions. Although unlike Berkshire, Pershing Square is taking a 2 % management fee for the honor of letting you invest in Bill Ackman's picks. It's the fine print. We just wanted to whip it up for you. But another reason why buying stock in Berkshire is actually very different than buying stock in Pershing Square.

16:40It's the ingredients. Yeah, it's the ingredients. Because besties, buying a fund like this is like buying a smoothie. But the ingredients of the smoothie are stocks and entire companies that you own a part of. Now, Berkshire Hathaway, started by Warren Buffett, that is a smoothie fit for like a 90-year-old diet, if you know what I mean. The ingredients are railroad companies, insurance companies, and oil companies, primarily. If they could have thrown silent films in there, they would have invested in those back in the day. The most exotic thing Warren Buffett bought for Berkshire Hathaway is Brooks Running Sneakers and Dairy Queen.

17:11That's right. But unlike Berkshire Hathaway, Pershing Square's top 10 ingredients in their smoothie, they taste like you. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Uber, companies you know and use. But this ain't just any financial smoothie. Bill Ackman's fund is an Erwan smoothie of stocks. Because Bill Ackman thinks he's as much of an influencer as Hailey Bieber. He really does. Bill Ackman is a prolific tweeter, isn't he, Jack? Big time. In between his buy and sell orders on Wall Street, he's tweeting out unsolicited advice on how to win the war in Iran. Yeah, he's also tweeting about wealth, taxes, and like best practices for your dating life.

17:46He does it all the time. So much so that they included his handle, at Bill Ackman, in the company's IPO paperwork. Yeah, you don't see that from a CEO every day. Because he thinks his two million followers and his opinionated tweets on every divisive issue are actually an asset to the stock. So Bessie's added all up. And what this really is, is the first ever influencer hedge fund IPO inspired by Warren Buffett. But after one day of trading, Pershing hasn't influenced anybody, have they, Nick? No, they haven't, Jack, because the stock was priced at 50 bucks when it started, but ended day number one down to 41 bucks, 18 % drop.

18:19In fact, Bill Ackman hoped to issue 25 billion of fresh stock two years ago when he originally wanted to IPO this. Good point. But yesterday, he only did something one-fifth as big. Jack, just don't tweet at him about Herbalife, you know what I mean? That's like the one that got away real bad. It's the one investment Billy doesn't want to talk about. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Pershing Square, the first ever influencer hedge fund IPO? An investment in Pershing is a bet that lightning will strike a fourth time. Yet he's the key to Bill Ackman's underlying pitch to investors here.

18:51It's that he's a genius investor. And of course, he kept the receipts. His fund has grown more than three times faster than the S &P since 2004. Now, we should point out his performance has not been as good lately, but Bill Ackman tries to time the market, and he succeeded when you look at the receipts. His pitch deck shows that he timed the market perfectly during the 08 financial crisis, during the 2020 COVID crisis, and in the 2022 market downturn caused by interest rates and inflation. Now, besties, as students of economics, we can tell you academic studies say that no hedge fund can beat the market.

19:23Nothing is harder than timing the market. The academic literature is super clear. A hedge fund cannot consistently beat the market, maybe once or twice, but not stretched out over 20 years. And yet Bill Ackman has beat the market for years and timed the market in three really big moments. Does that make him a genius or just three times he got really lucky? That's the$5 billion question of Pershing Square stock. So, basties, an investment in Pershing is a bet that lightning will strike a fourth time. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Meta is using AI to get more businesses to buy more ads and then reinvesting into more AI.

20:01It's the most efficient ad machine ever, funding the most ambitious AI machine ever. For our second story, Hilary Duff is investing in and working out with ladder to get stronger, not smaller. Remember physics in business, because for every trend in business, there's an equal and opposite anti-trend. And Bill Ackman thinks that Warren Buffett's grandson should invest in Pershing Square stock. It's an influencer hedge fund stock, but its success could depend on lightning striking a fourth time. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Jerry Powell just completed his final press conference as chairman of the Fed.

20:38First, he announced that the Fed is not changing interest rates. They're going to wait and see when it comes to Iran and AI. Second, he said he would stay on as a Fed governor, even as his term as the Fed chair ends on May 15th. Third, he defended the independence of the Fed, but fears that attacks from President Trump have battered the institution. And finally, he congratulated his replacement, Kevin Warsh, who will soon be confirmed by the Senate, to lead the central bank. Second, the most expensive home in American history just listed for$400 million in L.A. Not too shabby. Beverly Hills, baby.

21:10It's got multiple kitchens, a hamam bathhouse, and get this, an x-ray machine. To make sure your replaced hip is in the right socket. No, I think it's like a fun party trick, Jack. I think that's what it is. Or is it a security situation? It was actually owned by the Qatari Royals, who took 10 years and$350 million to build the place, so they're hoping to make 50 mil on this thing. And if it sells for$400 million, it will beat the previous record set by an Aspen, Colorado Ski Chalet. Yeah, this thing is bigger than three Planet Fitnesses. And finally, who wants to buy Venmo? Like the company Venmo.

21:44Yeah, it could be going up for sale. PayPal just separated Venmo into a standalone unit for the first time. Translation check? They just put it up for sale. Yeah, Venmo became a verb, but it never really capitalized on that. So who do you think should buy Venmo? Drop your answer in the comments. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti Maya Constantine from lovely Indiana. She's one of our big fans in marketing, and she's got some wild marketing facts. The wildest of which was the most expensive commercial ever, which is a Chanel ad that featured Nicole Kidman. The Chanel No.

22:165 perfume commercial was directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2004. Yeah, the guy who did Malouin Rouge, Elvis, Gatsby, like the big picture-y kind of stuff. It had a$33 million production budget, with nearly$4 million going directly to Nicole Kidman, the star of the ad. It was a two-minute ad, which cost$300 ,000 for every single second. And there wasn't even a CGI dragon. At that point, just making a movie. Yetis, you looked fantastic for the new Friday. Jack, you were glowing over there. What's going on? What are you thinking over here? We're out of the IndiePod. Here's the ask. We're trying to grow the YouTube page.

22:51So go to our YouTube channel at the best one yet and subscribe. Sorry, smash it. You got to smash it. That's the preferred verb. You could also dainily touch it. You could tap it. Tap, tap, tap, a rule. In the meantime, enjoy that refresher and Jack and I will see you for the real Friday.

23:12And before we go, a happy birthday to Shiva and Monica T, a couple that has the same birthday and has been married for 16 years in Atlanta. Guys, you got to go big on this. Three cakes, three cakes. Happy birthday to Eric Chung turning 35 in Brooklyn. And Katie LaCosta. Enjoy that birthday down in San Diego. Happy birthday to Cindy M, the Angeleno now living in New York. And Trace Wilson, enjoy the Salt Lake City birthday, baby. Happy birthday to Connor McKenna in New York City. And Sonny Connors, happy birthday all the way over in Amsterdam. Happy three years together to Maddie and Lindy in Denver.

23:46And Tony Apricarian is graduating from Umish Ross, just like Jack, also a Marine. Thank you for your service. And Sam, just like 10 minutes ago. You popped into the studio, interrupted the show, but you know we love saying hi to our fans. No, that was so great. Thank you so much for tapping on the window and saying hi and coming into the T-Boy studio. We love meeting you. Hey, shout out to Northwestern also for teaching T-Boy in the classroom. Go Purple Knights. Wildcats. Wildcats.

24:15This is Jack. I own stock at Disney, Ford, Amazon, and Berkshire Hathaway. And Nick and I both own ETFs of the S &P 500.

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