🇺🇸 “Team Polo” — Ralph Lauren’s Olympic win. Jennifer Garner’s baby IPO. Snap’s glasses revenge. +Black History’s founder.

0:28This is Nick. craziness going on from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to Hollywood. Jack, three fantastic stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, the winner of the Olympics opening ceremony wasn't Andrea Bocelli. Nope. It was Ralph Lauren. Ralph's stock is near an all-time high because he doesn't sell fashion. Ralph sells fantasy. For our second story, Evan Spiegel's 10-Year Revenge. Snap's new brand built to beat Zuckerberg. Snapchat's CEO is turning their spectacles into a separate company, but we'll suck, suck them again. And our third and final story is Jennifer Garner.

1:03She's famous for winning a Golden Globe, marrying Ben Affleck, and now IPO-ing a company. Her once upon a farm baby food brand has found the ultimate customer. First time moms. But yet is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix to kick off the week. Dow hits 50 ,000. We got three fantastic stories. I mean, it's perfect check. I want to do a birthday shout out, but Nick, Can we promote this one to the top of the pod? Because besties, we've got a 100-year birthday for Black History Month. Black History Month. Can we go into the history of Black History Month, Nick? Dive in T-boy style.

1:37Where did it all begin, man? It started with Carter G. Woodson, the son of illiterate parents who had been enslaved. But that didn't stop Woodson from getting a BA from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Harvard. The second black American ever to get a PhD, actually. And the first business he founded, what was it, Jack? The Journal of Negro History, a magazine launched in 1916. Then he launched a publishing house for black authors. He didn't want black Americans. He wanted black Americans to be proud of their heritage and their history. But then he went full founder mode in 1926. 100 years ago, he launched Negro History Week.

2:12Negro History Week, right between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthday, strategic. And he paid for the promotion of Negro History Week with all the educational products that he had already shipped. Boom, Negro History Week. It later expanded to become the whole Black History Month. Carter G. Woodson. This man taught himself how to read and write. Then he taught the nation how to celebrate his people's overlooked history. Yetis, just like every year, we're celebrating Black History Month with your best facts yet. We got a link in the episode description, send them our way, and we'll get them on the pod.

2:44Jack, let's hit our three stars. 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, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

3:12Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:15Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs. So yet he's Jack's instituted a new business model for his Airbnb hosting. And Jack, what is it? Here it is. Host equals guest. Yes. I funnel all my revenue from being a host on Airbnb into one bank account and use that same bank account to book travel for myself. And basically it's Jack's host guest bank account for when he hosts and when he's a guest somewhere else. When I lived in the city, Nick, every time my apartment was available on Airbnb, it would get booked like that. I mean, think about how often are you away from home? You got the bridesmaid, you got the shower, you got the bachelorette, you got the wedding.

4:50That's three weekends away just for one wedding right there. Plus, you got to visit your mother. Naturally, well, that's a lot of potential hosting that you could be doing on Airbnb. Let someone else stay at your place while you're away. Take that host money and spend it when you're a guest somewhere else have a business model like me. If you want to travel more, hosting more is a great way to make it happen financially. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

5:17For our first story, Ralph Lauren already won Christmas. Now he's winning the Olympics because Ralph Lauren does two things, cozy and classic. That's Ralph's American dream. Yetis, by Jack's and my fashion calculations, 2014 was like peak polo shirt, right, Jack? Yeah, my popped collars had popped collars, Nick. After 12 years, Ralph Lauren just announced they have returned to those 2014 peak polo shirt revenue levels. Ralph Lauren's got all-time high revenues. And that's interesting because what Abercrombie & Fitch stock was in 2023 and 2024, Nick, Ralph Lauren became in 2025. I know what you're saying.

5:59The nostalgic brand that we millennials wore as kids, we're now wearing it again, but as adults. Yeah, we are. Ralph announced 12 % revenue growth over the holiday quarter, and the stock hit an all-time high last month. It's all-time high. In fact, the Ralph Lauren teddy bear, it has become the unofficial mascot of Christmas. But the biggest shocker, sales in China rose by 30 % last quarter for the second quarter in a row. I'm sorry, Jack, pause the pod, but we're in the middle of a trade war right now, and the Chinese still want to wear what Team USA is wearing? I know. You'd think that's where they'd protest against America, by not buying Ralph Lauren.

6:30Turns out Yetis polo shirts rise above geopolitics. Apparently nothing transcends a tariff quite like pleated khakis. But Yetis, this is a very important moment because we could be on the verge of Ralph's greatest quarter ever. Because we're in the Olympics. And every Olympics since 2008, Ralph Lauren has outfit Team USA with their outfits for the opening and closing ceremonies. Straight up Americana. Friday night's opening ceremony included 232 Americans dressed in what we're calling cozy cabin chic. Turtleneck sweaters underneath emblazoned with a flag, white wool overcoat with heritage style wooden toggles to button that thing up on top.

7:10You could smell the pecan colored corduroy through the TV screen on this stuff. As if the opening ceremony wasn't enough publicity for Ralph Lauren, Taylor Swift grabbed her camera and selfie video messaged Team USA wishing them good luck in a Ralph Lauren teddy bear sweater. Marketing's what you pay for. Publicity is what you pray for. Besties, all of this bodes very well for this quarter's sales at Ralph Lauren, right, Jack? I think this 2026 year is going to break 2014 for Ralph Lauren's best year ever. Because if you walk into the Ralph Lauren store down in Soho, you're going to get pounded with the same patriotic preppy looks you've been seeing on TV during the Olympics.

7:46Whether it's Ralph Lauren's holiday catalog or Ralph's Olympic collection, this brand owns a crucial category, cozy classic. Now, besties, we've said fashion is a risky industry. It's one of the three Fs of fads. But Ralph Lauren doesn't sell fashion. The way we see it, he sells fantasy, which leads to our takeaways. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ralph Lauren? The fantasy Ralph Lauren is selling is the American dream because he's lived it. Yetis, the man this company is named after, was CEO of it for 44 years, all the way up until 2015. He's still the chairman of the board, so he's the guy who can hire and fire the CEO.

8:22So he's very much still involved. But you may not realize that Ralph actually began as a Jewish kid from the Bronx. When he was 16, he and his brother actually changed their last name from Lifshitz to Lauren because they were getting bullied in high school. And now he's lived a cowboy-like American dream. He is a bootstrapped billionaire. And that, that is the fantasy he's selling. The look hasn't changed. They're still doing polo shirts and prep like they've always done to Ralph Lauren. Ralph owns the holidays, he owns the Olympics, and he owns Americana. And those things don't go out of style.

8:53Besties, Ralph Lauren avoids the cyclicality of fashion by selling a timeless fantasy, the American dream. He knows it well because he's lived it. for our second story. Every idea that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has had, Mark Zuckerberg has stolen, but Snapchat will not give up. That's why they just created a new company, Spex, to beat Zuck at his own game. But yet he's first to kick off the story. Evan, if you're listening and we know you are, Jack prefers if we say Spiegel. He was a German major, so we actually insist that we say Spiegel. Dude, Spiegel means mirror in German. Also, Also, since we know you're listening, Evan, you are a capitalist poet.

9:34We love reading your shareholder letters. But honestly, the latest one that you wrote was concerning. It kind of freaked us out a bit. You described the company as being squeezed between the tech giants and smaller competitors. On the verge of greatness, we find ourselves in a crucible moment. Sounds a little scary, like the plot of a Lord of the Rings movie. But Evan Spiegel is a super CEO, is he not, Jack? Yes, he owns super shares of the company, which means he has 51 % voting control in whatever happens. So he's literally a super CEO. But his core business, Snapchat, it's one-eighth the size of Meta in terms of number of daily active users.

10:07And it's one-fifth the size of Meta in terms of how much revenue they make per daily user. So Jack, if we add up those two disturbing numbers, what do we get? Meta makes 30 times as much money as Snapchat does. Oh, that hurts, but that's not even the most painful part, is it, Jack? No, it's not. As we've covered many times on this show. Yes, we've documented it. So many of Meta's most successful features were Snapchat features that Zuckerberg ordered his engineers to copy. Besties, this was the OG zucking. This was the level five zucking. The grand theft zucking. But Nick, Evan Spiegel still has full voting control of Snapchat.

10:47Yes. He has a wife who's a literal supermodel. Literally. He's still got$2 billion in net worth and the vigor of a 35-year-old. So Evan Spiegel will not give up. In fact, he just announced last week a new company within Snap to beat Zuck at his own game. It's called Specs Inc. And they're making augmented reality glasses that will beat Zuckerberg's Meta Ray-Bans. Evan actually said that Meta's glasses are what we built 10 years ago. And they were, Jack. It's another Zucking from Mark Zuckerberg of a Snap idea. And reminder, besties, in 2016, Snapchat launched Spectacle sunglasses with a built-in camera.

11:24And Snap has long been a leader in augmented reality, using your phone or your camera to add digital elements to the real world. Because, interestingly, according to Spiegel, people spend seven hours a day looking down at their phones. You know who you are. We are. And according to his shareholder letter, he wants us to keep our heads up all the time in the future with a computing device built right in. Ironically, Evan thinks that the solution to screen time isn't no tech, it's actually new tech. Augmented reality glasses. Lenses with screens. And honestly, he's been preaching that for about 10 years now.

11:57He will not give up on this. He's kind of like Frodo, Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Evan over at Snapchat? For Snap's eucatastrophe to happen, he's going to need some help. I'm sorry, Jack. Pause the pod for a sec. Can you please define that word eucatastrophe that none of us have ever heard before? I can't believe we've never said this on the podcast yet, but eucatastrophe is a term coined by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's used in every action and adventure movie ever since. That's right, besties. This term, eucatastrophe, comes from Lord of the Rings. It's the sudden, unexpected, and joyous turn in a story that saves the protagonist from impending absolute catastrophe.

12:38Impending absolute catastrophe. Nick, doesn't that sound like what's about to happen to Snap? I mean, Jack, it does sound like Snap because their stock is down 94 % from their all-time high. And they got fresh competition from TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit, YouTube. To compete against those big tech giants, Spiegel needs some big reinforcements. Financial reinforcements. Which is why Evan has established Spex, Inc., this new company that can take money from outside investors. Alphabet actually set up Waymo the same way. A separate company that can accept outside money to pay for the huge capex.

13:12So if Evan Spiegel is Frodo and Zuckerberg is Sauron, then maybe Masayoshi Son can be the Gandalf in this story, Jack. And Jack Dorsey and the Winklevoss twins can be Gondor and Rohan, Nick. Besties, for Snaps, you catastrophe to happen. It's going to need a fellowship. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. NetSuite by Oracle. Yetis, on our show, you know, we love to sprinkle on some context. Because news doesn't mean anything if you don't have a sense of history, the competitive situation, etc. Yada, yada, yada. Well, it's the same with AI. If your AI tool doesn't know anything about your biz, then it's not going to be the best one yet.

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15:30Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code tboy at monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code tboy. For our third and final story, once upon a farm, Jennifer Garner's baby food business surged 20 % on its first day post IPO because once upon a farm found the ultimate growth hack customer, first time moms. Oh, yetis. Let's read them off. Catch me if you can. 13 going on 30. Don't forget the last thing he told me. Season two is premiering next month, I think.

16:10I mean, Jack, Jennifer Gardner's two greatest accomplishments, winning a Golden Globe, divorcing Ben Affleck. Dude, divorcing Affleck is an accomplishment. But add this to the list. She just rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange because she IPO'd a company. That's right. Once Upon a Farm Baby Food. It's basically Gerber, but make it goop. It's a celebrity-backed farm-to-placement business. Yeah, basically baby food that graduated from Erwan. Full Full disclosure, Jack, we got a bunch in our fridge. It's kind of like if a farmer's market and a Pixar movie had a baby and then pureed it at sweet green.

16:43Yeah, it's Oakley's favorite pouch. So besties Jack and I dove in T-boy style. The business founded 11 years ago by Jennifer Garner and her co-founder, and they just went public. They're now worth$1 billion because millennial parents, as Nick and I just evidenced, will pay. Yeah, revenue hit 157 million bucks last year. That's up 67 % from 2024. for. Still not profitable, but interestingly, they did not go the direct-to-consumer route. No, they didn't go D to C. What did they do, Jack? Instead, they sell through 2 ,800 grocery stores to meet your mass audience. Now, when it comes to Jennifer, the actress is making$1 million last year.

17:18She'll make$2 million from the business this year, and she's also got stock options. With those options, she probably makes more as a spokesperson for her company than she makes as an actress in Hollywood. Forget the red carpet, stick to the root vegetables. That's where the money is. Now, Nick and I jumped in T-boy style to the S1, the document every company must file if they're going to IPO. Yes, we did. And what we discovered is that once upon a farm serves babies, but their growth strategy is reading at a 12th grade level. Yes, it is. The reason this is the fastest growing baby food brand, it's not how awesome their squeeze pouches are.

17:52It's that they chose range in the products they sell. Range. They call it their all aisle strategy. Basically, putting different products of the brand throughout the store so you can't miss them while you're shopping. You'll see their frozen meals in the freezer, their pouches in the fridge, their bars in the snack aisle, their oats in the breakfast aisle. You can't get away from Once Upon a Farm. And Jack, why is that such a clever strategy, the all aisle strategy? The product range acts like an advertisement scattered throughout the store. And it works. As a result, 40 % who buy a pouch end up buying bars once their kids grow teeth.

18:25And that way, Once Upon a Farm can grow with their customer. The pouch for the newborn, the snack for the toddler, the oats for the big kids. But besties, here's the real fascinating thing Jack and I discovered in that IPO paperwork. They mentioned the word mom five times. They mentioned the word dad zero times. Okay, Jack and I were a little offended by that one, but specifically they mentioned first-time moms in the IPO paperwork, who, and I quote, exhibit heightened information-seeking behavior before purchases. Get this, besties. First-time moms are 35 % more likely to seek information on any purchase related to their kids than other moms are.

19:03Than second or third or fourth or fifth-time moms, basically. Basically, why can't I pronounce this ingredient? I got to figure out what it is. The carrots are organic, but the pears are not. Is that a problem? The pears are organic, but the oranges are not. Is that a problem? Yeah, we've been there. We've been there. We're living it right now. Like, Jack and I look at the food ingredients we give our kids, but Alex and Molly, oh, they would track down the farmer if they don't know what that ingredient is. They would become customers of Palantir to figure out where this food came from if necessary.

19:31Like, sorry, Sherlock, but the greatest investigator of all time is a first-time mom. So first-time moms, they're the most discerning type of customer, which is a risk, but they're also the most powerful customer, which is a business opportunity. And that's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy, Jennifer Garner, and Once Upon a Farm baby food. First-time moms are first-time superfans because they evangelize. Yeti's Once Upon a Farm reveals that there is no more discerning, no more researching, and yet no more committed customer than the first-time mom. And if you win her trust, she's the greatest growth hack of all because she'll tell all her first-time parent friends.

20:09That's right. 55 % of first-time parents depend on word of mouth to steer their purchase decisions. And those first-time moms are most likely to ask for a referral and they're most likely to make a referral. Yes, they give the product the most scrutiny, but if it passes, oh, they will market it. They will promote it on blogs and text chains post Pilates class. And this extends to full-time dads too. Yes, it does. When I find any healthy-ish snack that my kid will actually eat, looking at you, Wilder, by the way, I'm looking at you. I tell every dad I know about it. I told you, you got to get the pods on some of those Dyno bars.

20:43I love those Dyno bars. I actually bought like a 13 package. I'm old for 13. Besties, if you can top that threshold and win the first time mom or dad, they will become your biggest promoter. First time moms, hard to get, but if you can get them, you'll get a lot of them. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways to kick off the week? Ralph Lauren just had their best quarter ever thanks to Christmas and probably will again thanks to the Olympics. Because Ralph ain't selling fashion, he's selling fantasy. The American dream. He knows it because he's lived it. For our second story, Snap's Evan Spiegel set up Spex Inc.

21:19and is launching their fifth version of AR glasses this year. For Snap's eucatastrophe to happen, it's gonna need help. Like Lord of the Rings, it's gonna need a fellowship. And our third and final story, Once Upon a Farm is now a publicly traded stock worth$1 billion, which is six times their sales. Because Jennifer Garner realized the best growth hack is first-time moms. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, last week had the worst two days for tech stocks since April. The huge drop in Bitcoin seemed to be the driver of it all, as well as, of course, AI nervousness.

21:54In fact, tech stocks lost a trillion bucks in market cap just in the last five days of trading. But Friday's stocks took a breather, with the Dow ending at 50K for the first time ever. Dow 50 ,000, it just rolls off the tongue. And second, say goodbye to your Game Boy and sayonara to the PlayStation Jack. Because the Nintendo Switch just became the best-selling console in history. The handheld Nintendo Switch. It's basically Gen Z's Game Boy. They just hit a record 155 million units sold. Meanwhile, its replacement, the Switch 2, just became the fastest-selling console for Nintendo ever. Things are looking good in Super Mario World, especially if you still got your Wii device.

22:31And finally, happy Super 6 Sunday to all those who celebrate by not working. An estimated 26.2 million people are expected to call in sick today, take PTO, or get to work late the day after the Super Bowl. Yeah, if your Amazon's not working today, it's probably because the entire city of Seattle is celebrating a super sick Monday. And if your Duncan is a little late, yeah, same reason. Your secret's safe with us. Now time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Yeti Daniella Place, but we're not going to tell you where she's from because it's the answer to the T-Boy trivia. Nick, can you ask this question?

23:07Because I don't know this answer either. Okay, here's the T-Boy trivia to kick off the week. The Olympics just began on Friday, but what American city has sent the most athletes to these Olympic games? I'm going to go with Minneapolis, final answer. Well, besties, drop your answers in the comments now and we'll reveal it on tomorrow's pod. Yetis, you're looking fantastic today. And we know how you could look even more fantastic. If you didn't buy tickets this weekend, you should today. March 11th, Arlington, Virginia April 8th, New York, New York The Best One Yet Live Our IPO in-person offering I mean, people are saying Like if you missed the Super Bowl And couldn't go to that game You should come to our live show Because it's basically The Super Bowl of business podcasting People are saying The crowd surfing Oh, the crowd surfing Yeah, it is Snag your tickets The link's in the episode description Jack and I We'll see you tomorrow

24:00And before we go A happy 17th birthday to legendary Yeti Keeve Curling from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, crushing that art portfolio. And this is our fifth shout out, I think, for Keeve on this pod, Jack. Happy birthday to Jaden and Janelle Van Eckout from North Dakota, but celebrating the birthday on the slopes of Whistler. Not too shabby. And Sean Joyce, enjoy the best birthday yet in the Garden State. Happy birthday to Sam Barber turning 24 in Royal Oak, Michigan. And Erica Warner, a happy birthday in New York City. the Fruit Hoops team is going to win the championship this year. Happy birthday to Ruby the Wiener Dog in Dallas, Texas.

24:36And a happy birthday to Andrew Martin from Cincinnati, but celebrating at the St. John's game over New York City. Happy anniversary to HO and KO celebrating in Texas. And Neil Duvet has got a one-year anniversary of his New York City bachelor party. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

24:58This is Jack. I own stock of Reddit and Nick and I both own some Bitcoin. Over 90 of the top 100 U.S. accounting firms trust Bill to handle bill pay processes. Why? Because our tools are built on over a trillion dollars of secure payments. We're not just moving money. We're powering financial workflows for half a million customers. That's a level of expertise you just can't fake. Ready to talk with an expert? Visit bill.com slash proven to get started and grab a$250 gift card as a thank you. Terms and conditions apply. See offer page for details.