🏨 “Spreadsheets to Bedsheets” — Goldman’s Greek hotel. Amazon’s dark factory. FedEx’s black jack bet.

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, July 7th, and today's pod is the best one yet, and this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. All right, Jack, we all want to know, did you end up putting that pickle relish, the fancy pickle relish, on your hot dogs over the weekend? Pickle spears. I took full spears, sliced them long-wise into eight pieces. Perfect condiment for a hot dog. Besties, hope you're taking notes. By the way, Jack, I found the only lobster roll on Nantucket that cost less than 40 bucks. No, you didn't. I don't think that was lobster in there, to be honest.

0:36After tip, it was 50 bucks. May have been crawfish. Jack, three stories for today's team boy. What do we got on the show? For our first story, every luxury brand wants to be in hospitality right now, including Goldman Sachs. Goldman tried to build its own hotel brand in Greece, but Zeus just struck it down. For our second story, it's Amazon. Because Amazon is this close to employ more robots than humans in their factories. And that's led to an insane new thing. The dark factory. Think about it. You don't need lights on if it's just robots in there. Freaky. And our third and final story. FedEx's founder, Fred Smith, recently passed away.

1:18But he was actually the craziest dude Nick and I have ever read about. Because he once saved the company by betting his final dollars on a game of blackjack in Las Vegas. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. It's insane. Jack, love the mix of stories today. We are announcing the surprise guest for our live show in Chicago. That's right. She's behind the buzziest brand in the buzziest industry. Yetis, there's a lot of talk right now about electric cars, aren't there? You got Tesla, Rivian, Ford, China. They're launching 100 new car brands every single week. But the disruptor of the disruptors?

1:52is Slate Auto. Slate, the$25 ,000 electric truck startup that launched just two months ago. We covered their launch on the pod. They've raised over$700 million to make the first truly affordable American electric car. And they're backed by Jeff Bezos. Yeah, Amazon Bezos. And they're selling an electric vehicle that doesn't even come with a radio. It's that innovative. It's that crazy. And here's the news. The CEO of that company, Chris Barman, is the guest for our live show in Chicago. Chris Barman, she's the Athena of the auto industry. And we'll have her on stage with us for an interview segment in our Chicago show.

2:33Because Jack and I gotta know, can she create the most affordable EV in history? How on earth can she sell a pickup truck for 18 grand after incentives? What's it like raising money from Bezos while taking on Elon Musk? So snag your tickets to our live show in Chicago on July 23rd. Like, did Jeff have one of these pickup EVs on his yacht for the wedding or what? We got a link in the episode description for you to snag your ticket. I guess he could fit it on the yacht, but wouldn't need an invite to be a guest. We got the buzziest new car CEO on earth. Besties, grab your tickets. See you in Chicago.

3:07Jack, let's hit our 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. 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.

3:34Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:45Another Nine. Yetis, we've all heard of side hustles. You find a way to make extra income on the side of your day job. But what if your side hustle was more of a side leisure? And what if it involved hitting golf balls every minute of the day? That's called a hobby. Actually, no, this is the real idea behind launching a franchise of Another Nine, the ultimate indoor golf experience. Another Nine is a network of golf simulators open 24-7. The business is built around private simulator suites that guest book by the hour. And it's powered by the same track man technology used by the PGA Tour. Now, Bessies, we're not talking about playing golf here.

4:20We're talking about a franchise opportunity to open up one of these things and run it, and it'd be semi-passive income. There's no staff needed on site, so there's some management required while the golfers are swinging woods, but not so much management that you'd need to commit to this fully. Actually, Another Nine was started by a couple of guys with young kids who just wanted to play more golf anytime they wanted. Now they've got 70 locations and want to add more. You could be number 71 by launching Another Nine Franchise near you. So head to www.franchise.anothernine.com to run one of your own.

4:48That's www.franchise.anothernine.com. 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. You end up figuring most of it out as you grow up.

5:18But 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.

5:43Hey, 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 T-Boy 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. For our first story, Goldman Sachs just canceled plans to build three beachfront hotels in Greece. Wait one sec, Jack. Goldman launching a hotel brand? That's right. America's top investment bank tried to launch a Greek seaside hotel. And the whole story is actually a Greek tragedy. Ah, Yetis, Jack and I have been tracking a trend.

6:26The luxury industry, It really wants in on hospitality. Gucci has coffee shops. Louis Vuitton has a luxury train ride through Europe that looks amazing. It does look fantastic. And Tiffany has a restaurant so you can have breakfast at Tiffany's. Well, Jack, let's add one more to the list. Goldman Sachs Hotels? Goldman's stock is up 50 % so far this year to an all-time high, so they're feeling very confident. And remember yet, Goldman Sachs' brand of banking is the equivalent of a Harvard-educated Rolex. And a slight issue for Goldman, their clients want even more Rolexes. Yeah, so funny detail here, but part of Goldman's business is doing basically private equity.

7:03They offer their clients access to investment opportunities that regular people don't have access to, like high-end Greek real estate development. Which is precisely why in 2022, Goldman bought three lovely seaside resorts in Greece for 100 million euro, the Athenian Riviera. They were fixer uppers because the resorts were actually closed. Goldman was going to fix them up and then flip them. Okay, here are the blueprint plans. Buy them cheap, renovate, and then reopen under the Goldman brand and then sell them for double. Collect bonuses, wash, rinse, repeat. They're going from spreadsheets to bedsheets.

7:38That was the plan. Call it the Ritz-Carlton-Sags, Jack. Because you can't spell Goldman without a mom. True. Oh, by the way, I mean, a lot of Wall Street theme potential for the spa menu at this hotel, right? Like what? The M &A massage? The financial facial? Jack, I think you may be signing up for an investment banking bikini wax or two if I know. Again, with those kinds of names, you can charge a higher price for sure. Well, here's the news, Yetis. All of what we just said didn't work out that way at all. Yeah, Goldman just canceled the whole project. They sold all their properties and they barely broke even on the sale.

8:15It got struck down like Zeus from Olympus on high. Now, this is slightly surprising because Goldman has the smartest brains on Wall Street, but Goldman couldn't beat Marriott at their own game. You know, the Greek economy is strong. The travel industry is stronger. What exactly went wrong, Jack? Here was Goldman's mistake. Their hotel team they assigned to this project had never run a hotel. Here's how the Wall Street Journal put it. Goldman chose their own management team to oversee rather than choose a hotel experienced firm. These people didn't know the difference between room service and broom service.

8:49What's going on? Their team of 10 people had zero hospitality experience. Goldman thought it would cost$100 million to renovate the place, but it actually is going to cost five times that. They got to drain the pool. They got to gut the carpet. The new doors, way more expensive than they anticipated. You know, they're like those thick hotel doors, the ones that like slam shut, right? They're bankers, not interior designers. Well, this Greek hotel project, it's now being called a shipwreck over in Greece. It's a Greek tragedy. Side note, if Goldman had taken that 100 million euros and just put it in the stock market instead, they would have gained 70 % or 70 million euros of profit.

9:26Instead, nothing. No bonus for you. No spanakopana. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Goldman? Like Icarus, Goldman flew too close to the sun. Yeah. Remind us of a Greek mythology. Yetis, plenty of financial firms out there are in the hospitality industry. Blackstone, They own a dozen hotels in Greece alone. And it makes sense why they want to, because Wall Street is a volatile business. A lot of ups and a lot of downs. Having a hotel business as a side hustle gives them some reliable cash flow. So the issue here wasn't Goldman's vision of a hotel. It was the hubris in execution.

10:03The hubris. Goldman insisted on doing the job themselves, despite lacking the right hotel experience. They could have brought on a strategic partner, a hospitality consultant, maybe even an existing hotel company. But instead, Goldman Sachs went solo like Julia Roberts and Eat Pray Love. I love that pizza. Just like the Greek myth of Icarus, who crafted his wings of wax but flew too close to the sun. Overwhelmed by their own self-confidence, Goldman and Icarus melted.

10:34For our second story, under the radar, Amazon has nearly as many robots working in its warehouses as humans. And that's led to a wild new thing. They're called dark factories. Dark factories. No lights, just bots. Yetis, the whizzes over at Amazon headquarters in Seattle, they have devoted their lives in the pursuit of not love, but of efficiency. True. And here's a stat they love to brag about. The average number of human workers at each distribution center is down 17 % from 10 years ago. Well, here's a hero stat we love to tell you about. Over the same period, the number of packages shipped per an employee is up by 22X.

11:20So how does Amazon ship way more packages from each factory with way fewer workers? The answer, robots. Nearly a million of them. A million. Yeah, it is. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon factories are on the cusp of having more robots than humans. In other words, they have nearly 1 million people working in their distribution centers and nearly one million robots too. And here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. It all happened in secret. Because unlike every other tech and gadget company, Amazon doesn't show off their robots. They basically keep them a secret. Yeah, they don't scream it.

11:55They whisper it. Like take, for example, Boston Dynamics, you know, their robot dogs that you've seen. You've seen them. It could do like a backflip. Well, they treat them like celebrities and give them a press tour every time that robot dog learns a new trick. But Amazon's robots aren't for us. They're not for bragging. They're for them. These are back office bots that nobody ever sees. Well, Jack, what do you say? We bring them on out and meet the team of robots over at Amazon. All right. The powerhouse of this factory is these giant robotic arms, which can grab and sort huge packages because there's a really powerful suction cup at the end of the arm.

12:30Jack, those were cool, but I thought these were maybe cooler. They have these Roomba-like moving pallets that whiz around the floor. They're like five feet wide, carrying giant loads, like entire floors of this. The newest robot, though, is called the Vulcan. That's scary, but tell me more. Because this has hands that can sense how delicate or how firm a package is, and then squeeze that package appropriately like a human being. It does an awkward poking thing that HR wouldn't like, but it's a robot, so it can get away with it. Next up, though, we should point out, they're adding humanoid robots that look like us.

13:05Why do they have to make them look like us? It's an AI-powered bot, the shape of you. It's got two feet, two arms, and a head, and maybe even a nose. Might not make them like insects. Give them six legs. The nose is unnecessary. But besties, Jack and I haven't even told you the wildest part yet. Your next Amazon package may be boxed up in the dark. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon? In China, they're already here. Dark factories. Yetis, Jack and I read Thomas Friedman, the New York Times opinion writer, who compares China to the U.S. That's like what he does. Yeah. And in China, he has visited a factory that was dark inside.

13:45Yeah, dark. It wasn't dark inside because it was out of business. It was dark inside because the factory is so roboticized, so automated, that it doesn't require any humans. Let that sink in. Because guess what? When there are no humans in the factory, there's no need for lights. It's a waste of electricity. So in China, they have factories right now running 24-7 in the darkness. That cute top you got off Timu may have been made in the darkness of a factory. In these factories, there are no lights. There's no need to heat the building. It's just the production of stuff. Yeah, like the humans show up once a day to check in.

14:21Everything's going fine, and that's it. When we heard about these dark factories, we were shocked. Yeah, it is exciting. And scary at the same time, but mostly scary. To me, it's more scary than exciting. Yeah, I agree with you. We'll round up on that one. And it's important for you to know about these dark factories because they're probably the future of U.S. factories too. Basties in China, they're already here. Prepare for the dark factory. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. 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.

14:57Then 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. Is 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.

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16:21For our third and final story, the founder of FedEx passed away last month, but his life story is giving action hero energy. Spoiler, the entire FedEx business was once saved by a blackjack game the CEO played in Las Vegas. This is insane. Yeti's grades matter. Stay in school, work hard, do all that stuff, definitely. But if you're a C student, you can become a billionaire. Because Yale senior Fred Smith wrote his term paper about overnight package delivery. Nerd alert. He ended up getting a C on the paper. The professor said his plan was not feasible. Because you see, at the time, the 1960s, overnight delivery was considered insane.

17:05But he had a novel idea, an integrated air to ground delivery system, but nobody bought his idea. Fred went on to do four years of service in Vietnam as a Marine, and he learned a thing or two about logistics. So when he got back to the States, he turned that senior term paper into Federal Express. Yeah. Funnily, he chose the name Federal Express because it sounded bigger than like a tiny little startup that it was. Federal Express sounds like an institution, not a one-man startup, which is what it initially was. Well, Jack, that strategic name worked. He went on to raise $91 million, the largest startup amount in U.S.

17:42history at that point. That's a huge fundraise. He also convinced investors that he was serious by putting his life savings and inheritance into the company. Then he bought 14 jets and set up the business in Memphis. Memphis, a place with good weather, a centralized location, and a pretty much sleepy airport at the time. Well, here's the problem, Yetis. The first day, Federal Express only got six packages. Pretty soon, FedEx was losing a million dollars a month. Yeah. By 1974, he had just$5 ,000 left in the company bank account. Now pause the pot because that is when Fred pulled off the craziest bet in business history.

18:22He flew to Las Vegas to save the company. Literally. This company, it was about to shut down. Investors had given up on FedEx. So Fred took an unsolicited trip to Las Vegas and put down the company's final $5 ,000 onto the blackjack table. That's right. The final five grand. He put on a blackjack game and he won. He turned five grand into 27 grand and had the wisdom to leave the casino because that money got FedEx through their toughest moment in company history. After that Vegas trip, by 1983, FedEx became the fastest U.S. company ever to reach a billion dollars in revenue without a merger or acquisition.

19:03Now, I don't think the SEC would approve of a company gambling the company's final five grand, but this story ends well. Oh, yes, it does. Honestly, this story should win an Oscar and Fred's innovations should win a lifetime achievement award when you hear what he did after that. FedEx was an early pioneer of the barcode. They were the first to scan packages for speed. Fred put both a Republican and Democrat former politician on his board to have balance for FedEx. And during the 2009 Great Recession, he had a no layoffs rule. That's right. Instead, Fred took a 20 % pay cut to get through the recession.

19:36George W. Bush asked Fred Smith twice to be the Secretary of Defense. He declined, prioritizing his family and his company. Which leads to our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Fred at FedEx? What was the real thesis of Fred's original term paper? It was that time is money. Yeti's, Fred's Yale term paper was about the company's core innovation years later, hub and spoke. Here was his insight. Don't send a package directly from Buffalo to New York. If you did, you need a million direct flights between cities. Instead, send the package through Memphis first. With a central hub, only with a central hub could you possibly connect the entire country overnight.

20:18Here was the context at the time. There was no guaranteed time of delivery when you shipped a package. Thank you for the context, Jack. But Fred's model is what let a package arrive at a chosen time as quickly as the next day. The hub and spoke model that all the airlines use today, it was Fred Smith's idea. He basically invented the shipping menu. Like you could now choose the day of arrival like it was a sandwich at a restaurant. Because what the late Fred Smith of FedEx realized 50 years ago was that people would pay for time.

20:52Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Goldman Sachs owned three Greek hotels, but just sold them. Like Icarus, Goldman flew too close to the sun. For our second story, Amazon is on the cusp of having more robots than humans in their fulfillment centers. Besties, get ready for the dark factory. They're in China, and they're probably coming here. And our third and final story. Fred X's Fed Smith got a C on his paper and gambled the company's last dollars to huge success. His hub and smoke logistics model worked because people will pay for time. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.

21:30Here's what else you need to know today. First, markets could be in for a doozy this week because tomorrow is a big tariff deadline. Mark the cows. Yeah, remember on April 9th when Trump relieved the whole world by delaying his reciprocal tariffs by 90 days? That's right. We marked our calendars for it. Well, that expires tomorrow. It does. And only three countries have reached some kind of a deal with the U.S. So we expect Trump to extend the delay again, kind of like the TikTok ban, kick the negotiating down the road. But who knows? Nobody knows. And second, Zuck announced his super intelligence team at Meta last week And he is treating and paying them like top athletes He listed the names of about a dozen AI dragons that he has poached from other AI companies to join Meta Many of them he poached from OpenAI And according to reporting, many of them are getting$300 million contracts for four years of work With$100 million in year one That's like LeBron James money Sam Altman's response?

22:28Missionaries will beat mercenaries in the battle for AI. And finally, Chuck E. Cheese is launching a new concept, arcades for adults. Yeah, it's a new spinoff branded Chuck's Arcade with arcade games, air hockey, skee-ball. You win tickets, you redeem prizes just like when you were like three. We covered Chuck E. Cheese's revival last year. They're renovating 500 different locations. Chuck is recognizing that in this economy, millennials will pay up for a taste and a smell and a lick of nostalgia. No. Yes, I eat the pizza, Jack. I'm sorry. I had to say it. We're editing that out. Now time for the best fact yet, which, because it's Monday, is time for some T-Boy trivia.

23:09Here's the question. What toy was originally not a toy at all, but it was just the packaging of another product? Now today, 300 million of these toys have been sold. But the first version wasn't sold at all. It was the packaging for a baked good that was about to get thrown away. One person's trash became another person's best idea yet. Here's a hint. College students in the Northeast were the very first to turn this packaging into a fun game. Another hint? This product was initially known as the Pluto Platter. And now it's one of the top-selling toys of all time. Drop your answer in the comments and Jack and I will reveal it tomorrow.

23:48Yetis, you look fantastic today. Especially if you just bought tickets to see us in Chicago with the CEO of Slate. We got links in the episode description. Our shows are a, we'll tell you more about the show later, but you're going to want to be there. You're going to love it. It's going to be fantastic. And Jack and I, we'll see you there.

24:10And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Bria Naylor in Huntington Beach, California, the events manager extraordinaire at the Viv Hotel of lovely Anaheim. And happy birthday to Jet Catabug of Irvine, California, who's celebrating on the beautiful island of Kauai. And congratulations to Valeska and her daughter Maria from Manliest, New York, who just saw Hamilton on Broadway. Perfect timing with our weekly episode on Hamilton. Valeska and Maria, my favorite song was Dear Theodosia. Makes me cry every time. And if you want to get a shout out on the pod for a birthday, a buddy's day, an anniversary, bar mitzvah, you name it, we've got a link in the episode description.

24:48We'll get you on the show. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. to celebrate the wins.

24:57This is Jack. I own stock of Ford and Amazon, and Nick and I both own ETFs of the S &P 500. Gusto. Yetis, there's nothing more satisfying on a Friday evening than celebrating the wins of our company from that week. Like how we triumphantly completed payroll paperwork right before the tax deadline. Just kidding, that's not a win to celebrate. But it is an annoying thing that we did have to do. Yeah, we did. Because if you're an entrepreneur, you're the HR team, the benefits team, the payroll department, And you have to be all those things before your morning coffee. Double-digit latte. But you could be doing it all with Gusto.

25:27Gusto is an online payroll and benefit software built for small businesses. It's all-in-one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use, so you can pay higher onboard and support your team from anywhere. So save time with built-in automated tools like offer letters, onboarding documents, direct deposit, and more. And it's super simple to switch to Gusto. You can just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast and don't even have to pay a penny until you run your first payroll. Because you're not toasting a Negroni on Friday to celebrate that paperwork. Nope. So, Bastius, try Gusto today at gusto.com slash tboy and get three months free when you run your first payroll.

25:57That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash tboy. One more time, gusto.com slash tboy.