💫 “Menage-a-AI” — SpaceX’s frenemies. Steve Madden’s season-killer. Korea’s stock celibacy. +Air Protein

0:28This is Nick. to get that baby out of them. Should we preemptively congratulate them for having a baby? I mean, they said they're ordering the burger. That cheddar does wonders, Jack. That Wagyu doesn't miss, man. No, it does not. Sam and Cece, great to meet you. Thanks for saying hi. Thank you for being Yetis and early congratulations. But Jack, we got three fantastic stories on the show. What do we got on today's TV? For our first story, SpaceX just reported their first ever earnings as a public company. We'll guide you through them in four minutes. It's one small step for Elon, one giant leap for mankind.

0:59For our second story, Steve Madden shoe brand has never looked hotter with record revenues and an all-time high stock. Because Steve Madden killed fashion seasons. And our third and final story, why are South Koreans taking a vow of stock market celibacy? That is shocking. Why are they doing it, Jack? It's because the Korean stock market just became more volatile than Bitcoin. You're going to want to use protection. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Wonderful mix of stories. Love the mix on today's show, Jack. Great mix. Protein popcorn, protein cold brew lattes, Pop-Tart protein.

1:29Jack, can you wash them all down with an espresso proteini, please? Yetis, you already knew that the protein maxing was maxing. Yes, you did. But protein demand just got so huge, we're now pulling it out of thin air. Literally. According to MIT, there are 25 startups working to grow air protein right now. We're talking pulling protein out of air. Jack, that sounds like a magic trick, my friend. Not Air Jordan, air protein. but the idea actually started with NASA back in the 1960s. That idea? Let the astronauts sustain themselves up in space with some air protein. All you need is one tiny bacteria and a lot of air.

2:03It's kind of gross, Jack, but the bacteria, it's a life form that can be protein rich. And if you feed that bacteria the stuff that's included in air, oxygen, nitrogen, and CO2, voila, you got yourself some protein power as meaty as a mule. The company Air Protein just raised venture capital money to build an air farm in California. Their goal? Make air chicken soon. Finland Solar Foods already makes a salted caramel cold brew with 20 grams of air protein. And Denmark's Biosphere Foods just got a military contract to make protein bars that have been through someone's lungs and nostrils already.

2:37That is really gross. But in five years, your hamburger could come from someone else's birth. Maybe that will be peak protein, Jack? Yeah, I'm betting on carbs to make a comeback at that point. Hey, David Barr, Jack just sneezed. Can we turn that into a protein box, please? Jack, let's do that three stories. 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. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we ready to go.

3:12We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

3:18Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:28Zip Recruiter. All right, Yetis, you got to hear this. Jack, can you share that story about your wet bathing suit in Italy? So my hotel was so amazing. They came in to clean up my room one day, and they saw it had a wet bathing suit hanging from the shower head. And they were like, that's not kosher, Jack. We don't do it like that at this hotel. So they hung it very elegantly on a clothes hanger. And I was so impressed when I arrived back in the hotel room. It was like a pastry, besties. That works for the best hotel in Italy and for the best job candidates anywhere. So if you're hiring, great candidates go the extra step too.

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4:29That's ZipRecruiter.com slash tboy. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Monarch. 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.

4:58You 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. Because 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.

5:24Hey, Nick, you've spent 96 bucks at kids' lemonade stands since July. Because 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 T-Boy.

5:44For our first stories, SpaceX just announced its first quarterly earnings as a public company. And these earnings reveal that in AI, there are no friends, there are no enemies. There are only frenemies. It's only frenemies. But yeah, this funny thing is about to happen this morning, and it's funny because there are going to be no injuries. A SpaceX rocket is about to crash into our moon. Going 5 ,400 miles per hour, a blast equivalent to 15 ,000 sticks of dynamite. And this kind of scenario usually only happens in classrooms. Scientists were super pumped to estimate the crater size. 90 feet across, 16 feet deep.

6:22And out of sprinkle on some context, 60 pieces of leftover human space hardware have crashed into the moon before. But this is the biggest. It is. And it happens this morning, which leads to a big question. Is this giant 5 ,000 mile per hour space rocket ship crashing into the moon a metaphor for SpaceX's first earnings? Well, if it is, the crater in this analogy is Wall Street's wallet. That's right, because SpaceX took 110 billion bucks from investors over the last couple months. SpaceX raised$85 billion last quarter by selling stock in the IPO and then took$25 billion more borrowing money in the form of bonds.

6:57Okay, but then Jack, SpaceX acquired an AI lab called Cursor for$60 billion, not with cash, but with freshly printed stock. So SpaceX is left with$99 billion of cash as of June 30th, which is the final reporting day of last quarter. May the margin be with you, besties. That is the balance sheet, but here is the income statement. SpaceX revenues hit$7.8 billion last quarter, which beat expectations and is nearly up double from last year. And SpaceX's net loss of$541 million shrank by nearly half from last year. Nick and I listened to the earnings call. We got a bunch of musksplaining. How do you explain musksplaining, Jack?

7:33When the boss goes on a tangent about the future use cases that could happen to one of his products. Like basically, you know, in the future, every human is going to be using something that we make kind of a thing. The actual musksplaining quote is, In less than 10 years, Starlink could deliver the majority of the world's internet. That's what Elon said. Now, Vessie, if you've never connected to that Starlink Wi-Fi Jack just mentioned, The first time you do so will probably be on an airplane. Because American Airlines, Southwest, and United are all Starlink Airlines now. Get this, half of the things orbiting our Earth right now are Starlink satellites beam and internet right back down to us.

8:06And Starlink revenue grew 66 % last quarter, while profits in Starlink rose 79%. Starlink, it now has 12 million subscribers paying 66 bucks a month for that space-based Wi-Fi of a profit puppy. Starlink is SpaceX's fabulously profitable business. Yes, it is. $1.6 billion of profits in just three months. And that Wi-Fi business, it pays for the rocket business, which for SpaceX lost a lot of money again. Although SpaceX's president, Gwynne Shotwell, did say that the Starship is nearly operational, which is giving evil emperor. That is a very Star Wars-coded quote, is it not, Jack? All eyes now turn to Thursday, when nearly 1 billion employee-owned shares will unlock and be able to be sold for the first time since the IPO.

8:50So will SpaceX stock fall now that the number of eligible stock sellers more than doubles in just a couple days? We'll find out on Thursday. But Yetis, remember, Elon says that 93 % of the company's potential profits are in the AI division, which we haven't even talked about yet. And he's splurged 18 billion bucks on CapEx here on land, mostly on AI data centers. Data centers not used by SpaceX, but used by SpaceX's enemies. Take me to your Elon check. What's the takeaway for all our buddies over at SpaceX? In AI, there are only frenemies. Yeti, SpaceX has an AI lab. Their model is named Grok.

9:28And Grok 4.5 got released back in July. And a reminder, all the investment banks who IPO'd SpaceX had to buy subscriptions to Elon's Grok AI. But the vast majority of SpaceX's AI revenue actually has nothing to do with Grok. It has everything to do with Gemini and Claude, though. Because SpaceX is a neocloud. Ah, a neocloud. They rent out their extra data center capacity to competing AI labs. It's not just them. Bloomberg reported last month that Meta is also becoming a neocloud. Zuck has got some extra compute and he's renting it out these days. Just like SpaceX. Oh, by the way, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, they rent out their data centers to the competition as well.

10:06I mean, Jack, it's like every AI lab is roommates these days and they're sleeping in each other's bed sometimes. The only exception to this menage AI situation is SpaceX and OpenAI. They hate each other and they will never hook up. But every other player in AI, they're competing and cooperating at the same time. Because Yeti's every AI company wants to keep the AI hype cycle going. So they're happy to do business with each other, even though they're supposed to be competing. In AI, there's only frenemies. For our second story, shoe designer Steve Madden has pulled off a crazy comeback from prison to profits.

10:43Because unlike the maple tree in your backyard, Steve Madden footwear has no seasons. Now, Yetis, Jack and I happen to have a list of the best stock market ticker symbols out there. Jack, you want to whip out the whiteboard and tell us the list? Hog for Harley Davidson. Yeah, yeah, who else we got? Cake for Cheesecake Factory. But we saved the best for last because our favorite ticker right now is SHOO. S-H-O-O. That would be the ticker symbol of Steve Madden, the creator of your mall's favorite footwear chain. The creator of the$75 Jimmy Choo dupe. And the man that this$4 billion shoe company is named after has actually done time.

11:16Because Steve Madden's stock was at the center of the plot of the Wolf of Wall Street movie. Yeah, the stock scheme that DiCaprio was pushing is based on a true story. Turns out Steve was childhood friends from Long Island with Jonah Hill's character in Wolf of Wall Street. And when Steve IPO'd his company in 1993, he got in on a pump and dump stock scheme and got caught by the authorities. Yada, yada, yada, convicted of fraud, sentenced to 41 months in prison, and forced to resign as CEO of his own company. 33 years later, Steve Madden the man and his shoe business have cleaned up their lives, haven't they, Nick?

11:46Now, both of them are at all-time highs, baby. Because despite Steve's wrongdoings back then, the company Steve Madden was and still is selling some pretty darn good shoes. And get this, last quarter, revenue for Steve Madden jumped 19 % to$662 million. In the last six months, profit 40X'd to$99 million. And in the last year, the stock of Steve Madden has doubled. Now to sprinkle on some context yetis, one year ago, we covered Steve Madden for the viral podcast interview that the founder did. Basically, it was a post-prison reflection. He admitted that his brand is all about dupes. But they're not hiding it, are they, Jack?

12:23In fact, they've embraced it. Steve Madden asked the question, are the Beatles cheats because they were influenced by Elvis and Motown? No, of course they're not. So the dupes, they're working right now because Google searches for Steve Madden, they rose 71 % last quarter in this economy. Which is why the stock is standing on high heels right now. But here's what Jack and I find fascinating. Winter schminter. Another key to Steve's success. We discovered it in his earnings. Steve Madden just killed seasons. Steve Madden is blending styles across seasons, even if they don't make like fashionable or seasonal sense right now.

12:56And yet it's working in the sales. For instance, boots usually sell in the winter, but Steve Madden has started selling boots year-round. Summer schmummer. Suede, the soft leather material good for chilly weather, suede now sells year-round according to Steve Madden. Fall schmull. Analysts now describe Steve Madden's business as seasonless. The only item not selling all year round is sandals for open-toed reasons. Yet he's the rest of the fashion industry works on a collective calendar, right Jack? Spring collection, summer wardrobe, fall collection, winter wardrobe. But Steve Madden is breaking that fundamental rule of his industry.

13:33Labor Day kills white pants, so Steve Madden fired Labor Day. Spring schming. Look, Steve, if you drop a fur-lined thong sandal in November, Jack and I want to hear it first. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Steve Madden. Sell beans, not bananas. Yeti's the most costly product to hold onto is the product that has an expiration date. Grocery stores lose$50 billion of annual profit because of food that spoils. And fashion brands don't throw away spoiled sandals, but they do discount them instead. End of season markdowns are a profit crusher for the fashion industry, and they can erode your pricing power for the rest of the brand.

14:08Discounting death spiral of death. But that is why Steve Madden's seasonless strategy is a clever double dip. Because previously, unsold winter boots would have to be put on sale in the spring. But instead, Steve Madden is selling them at full price year-round, and we are buying them at full price. Now, it is a fine balance. The fashion industry must be on trend. You can't hold onto that boot forever if it doesn't sell. But the end of seasonality means the end of spoiled sandals every spring. Steve Madden found a way to turn fragile bananas into calendar-proof beans. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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15:17Built. 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. Yeah, that's why we were shocked and are now both seriously considering what we just heard from Built. 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, Built will pay your mortgage or your rent for you, so you get the points. Points can be redeemed toward your next flight, hotel, Lyft ride, Amazon.com purchase, and more.

15:50Personally, 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. First, 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-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash T-B-O-Y. Use our link joinbuilt.com slash tboy so they know Nick and Jack sent you.

16:25For our third and final story, South Korea's stock market has caused a cultural backlash so extreme. People are pledging stock celibacy. Instead of vowing to never invest again, we suggest using protection. The besties is the way, Jack, and I see it. The 2020s have been the South Korea era, have they not, Jack? Because our whole economy is now bib-bam-bapping. It's now a verb. Movies, 2020, Parasite wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and then you get K-pop Demon Hunters. On the TV, Squid Game became Netflix's most-watched show ever. Oh, Music 2022, BTS's album Go Super Platinum made K-pop the world's top music genre.

17:03When it comes to the stock market, Wall Street is still the biggest by far, but Korea is getting the most attention right now. Don't even get us started on that Korean Botox. Basties, you have heard people say that the U.S. economy is one big bet on AI, right? That's an exaggeration, but what's not an exaggeration is that South Korea is one big bet on AI. Where two AI companies are now half of the stock market. So when South Korea's SK Hynix fell 47 % last month and Samsung fell 35%, it caused a full-on crisis to the South Korean economy. Because Korea's benchmark index fell 44 % from June 19th to late July.

17:40That's basically their S &P 500, falling by almost half. Jack, 44 % stock market drop? That did happen to us in America from 2007 to 2009. But it happened over the course of two years, Nick, not over two months. South Korea, it's more volatile right now than Bitcoin. And the result is this Eurostat. 1.2 million South Koreans just got the worst kind of call, a margin call from their brokerage. We're talking 3.4 % of the entire adult population of Korea got a margin call. Now, the reason so many investors in Korea are acting so risky, it's this context. Yeah, it's prickled on. In May, single stock ETFs were created in Korea for the first time to let Koreans buy Samsung on steroids.

18:23We're talking a 2X leveraged Samsung ETF. Jack, what exactly does that mean? That's an ETF that matches the price movement of Samsung stock, but by 2X, either up or down. And that, Yetis, is why we told you earlier this week, leverage is dangerous, reminds us of Fast and the Furious. It's like the nitrous oxide button. It'll make you go really fast, but it could make you crash. So these leveraged financial products, Yetis, they are a tempting get-rich-quick scheme. And millions of South Koreans tried to get rich quick by buying Samsung 2x levered, and they lost a ton of money when Samsung went down.

18:57Like one 40-year-old interviewed by Bloomberg who took out a$35 ,000 loan using his apartment as collateral to trade stocks. The country has turned into a casino, said one person. It's a common feeling right now. There's a lot of anger over the lack of regulation over the situation. Now, a margin call is when you borrowed money to invest in stocks. The stocks you bought become collateral for the loan you took out. But the problem with a margin call is that if the stocks drop below a certain threshold, the bank has a right to sell your stocks to repay themselves. And that's what happened last week to 1.2 million Koreans.

19:28Besties, remember on Monday, we talked about the danger of leverage to hedge funds with that boy genius named Leopold? This story shows that leverage and margin investing can be even more dangerous to regular investors. Because retail investors in South Korea lost 39 billion bucks. That's like six lifts right there. And the country is dealing with it like a literal funeral right now. There are wreaths being laid out at makeshift memorials in public squares because of financial losses. And that 40-year-old who put his apartment up as collateral, it's probably gotten seized by the brokerage who lent him the money to buy the stocks.

19:58Besties, the losses feel so heavy that many Koreans have now pledged an unprecedented stock celibacy. After their first experience being so bad, they pledged to never invest again. Like a priest, they are out. But stock celibacy would be an overcorrection. Instead, we suggest using protection. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking at Korea's casino economy? The Koreans didn't own the wrong stocks. They just owned them the wrong way. Yetis, that 44 % crash, it was survivable. But what wasn't survivable was the leverage. Margin loans and 2x ETFs, they turned a recoverable dip into a forced sale right at the worst time, the bottom.

20:39Which leads to rule number one. Unless you got experience and understand the risk, don't invest with borrowed money. Rule number two, diversify so that no single bet can crush you. Rule number three, time in the markets beats leverage in the markets. Nick, those two Korean stocks we mentioned, they're still up 100 % year to date. Not too shabby, man. If only the South Korean investors could have ridden out the volatility, they would have been fine. So besties, you don't have to quit stocks. You can quit borrowing money to buy stocks and betting it all on one single stock. The Koreans didn't own the wrong stocks.

21:11They owned them the wrong way. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? SpaceX stock fell 7%. As Starlink crushed it, rocket launches lost money, and AI is selling to enemies. Because in the AI industry, there are no friends, there are no enemies, there are only frenemies. For our second story, Steve Madden's shoe business is rocking all-time highs thanks to seasonless sales. Steve Madden turned easily bruised bananas into calendar-proof can of beans. And our third and final story, South Korea had a stock market crisis that affected millions of regular investors. It's a casino economy because of leverage.

21:46Don't quit stocks, just do it safe next time. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, congrats to Spotify, which joins Netflix in the old 300 mil club. Spotify announced yesterday they had 300 million paid subscribers, a milestone only Netflix has ever hit before. This is the most interesting quote we found from the CEO. Spotify now lives across your whole day. The commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table, and sleep. It helps that they only compete against Apple Music, which Apple forgot they even had. I think we all did, Jack. And second, product placements are now in reverse.

22:20Get this, cars are promoting movies, not movies promoting cars. If you own a BMW, you might've noticed a Spider-Man promotion as you start your car on that little infotainment screen. That's right. There are viral clips on X of Beamer drivers turning on their car and then being prompted to watch a Spider-Man trailer on the screen. Tom Holland, so hot right now, he's driving your X5. And finally, MySpace is flirting with a comeback. Yeah, that MySpace, the 2003 one is making a comeback. Now some context for Jed Alf is out there. MySpace was the first social media. It got disrupted by Facebook, but MySpace, you basically just created like a website for yourself.

22:57You set theme music for your page. Well, MySpace was acquired in 2011 and now the brothers who own MySpace wanna bring it back. The pitch? A social network with no algorithm to make it less addictive. Besties, if you want a story on MySpace, comment, poke. Jack and I will look into it. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because we almost did this as an intro, but we saved it for the best fact yet. This one's good. What do we got? Well, it's about a new trend, helicopter parents. Yeah, helicopter parents at work. Jack, what's the hero stat? A survey of 1 ,000 Gen Zers found that 20 % had their parent attend one of their job interviews with them.

23:33Sit down, stand up, and tap your parents again. One out of five people under 30 in America had a mom or dad sit shotgun in an interview room. Seriously, Yetis, if you work in HR and you've seen this happen, leave a comment and tell us the story. I'm really fascinated to know how this works. I guess the problem here is you end up hiring the parent and not the kid applicant. They're giving the answer. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, you are glowing. And if you've got a buddy who bought SpaceX stock, is wearing Steve Madden's shoes, and just went to vacation in Korea, text him today's pod, drop it in the group chat.

24:07HYHTVOY. Have you had the best one yet? That's how we grow the show. We love when you do it. And Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow.

24:17And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie Jeffrey Rodriguez, who drove from Baltimore to San Diego listening to T-Boy and the best idea yet with their schnauzer. The Sesame Street episode had both of them in tears. Me too. And Michael Pease, the ultimate entrepreneur, is celebrating the big birthday down in New York. Happy 51st to Augusto Perez celebrating in Puerto Rico. And Alexandria Olerson is turning 10 years old in California. Thanks for being with us. Congratulations to Cliff Anderson on one year anniversary of becoming a certified Rizzler in Jakarta, Indonesia. I don't know what that is either, Jack, but I love it.

24:49And Caleb Myers and Laurel. I've got a week-long wedding celebration down in Mexico. It's gonna be a blast. Congratulations, guys. Big shout-out to Ruth Vithanki, who wants us to do a live show in Indianapolis. You know I'm a big IndyCar fan. And congratulations to Jack Raines on the book launch of his new title, Young Money. Congratulations, man. We're both alums of Robin Hood Snacks, and we're proud of what he's written. And to anybody else who celebrated something today, making a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify.

25:22We both own ETFs for the S &P 500 and some Bitcoin. And I own one share of SpaceX and Nick owns more than one. Nature raised farms. Yetis, you walk into the grocery store, excited to cross off your list. That empty shopping cart is an ocean of opportunity. Then you get to aisle six and it hits you. Oh boy. Choice paralysis. Yes, we whipped up takeaways about this on the pod. Too many options. It's like a game of chicken. Do I go with that chicken or that chicken? Yeah, the irony of having so many chickens to choose from, you cannot choose. This one's raised on a farm. This one's raised on a prairie.

25:51Is this range-free or cage-free? Choice paralysis of all these options. It makes us feel dumber. So Nature Raised Farms is built on the simple belief that food shouldn't be complicated. Especially chicken. Definitely shouldn't be complicated. But the freezer aisle, it makes it that way. Too many options, too many additives, a lot of random compromises. But Nature Raised Farms chicken is free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Made with no seed oils or artificial ingredients, you know what you're getting. So you can make a simple decision. Get on with your day without stressing about the chicken parm recipe.

26:16Because that recipe is really simple and so should be your chicken. Nature is farms. It's built on a simple belief. Food shouldn't be complicated.