🏃 “We Met on Strava” — Strava’s $2B run app. Nuclear’s hot streak. Nespresso’s Frappu-pivot.
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This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, May 28th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is the T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, I'm looking at the numbers. Stocks jumped 2% yesterday. The Dow was up 700 points.

Here's the news. The U.S. and the European Union are talking a trade deal instead of trade tariffs. If you want to know why I was in Paris, France over the weekend, it may or may not have been with this. You know, Jack, you know, eating escargot, crushing crepes. Yeah, we were on the diplomatic channels all weekend. Just trying to end the trade war in between espressos.

and ice cream. But Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the team, boy? For our first story, it's Strava. The fitness app just hit a $2.2 billion valuation because running apps are the new social media. For our second story, nuclear energy stocks surged 40% in the last few days on two executive orders. To quote both Mugatu and Oppenheimer, nuclear, so hot right

And our third and final story is Nespresso. Nespresso is pivoting from hot to cold coffee. But here's the key. Don't yell it. Whisper it. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix of stories. No one else is doing that mix yet. Every summer, there is one question that somebody asks at every American barbecue. And no one knows the answer. Why does it say 57 varieties on the Heinz ketchup bottle? I mean, Jack, this is America's top condo.

Heinz ketchup. Why the 57? Well, Nick and I did a deep dive 45 minute episode on Heinz to find out the answer. Jack, is it the 57th Heinz product? No, it is not. Okay. Is it like WD-40, which is the 40th attempt at

Nope. This was not the 57th attempt at ketchup. In fact, all Heinz products say 57 varieties on it. Okay, does the 57 mean there are 57 ingredients? Nope. Does it take 57 years to make? Nope. Was Heinz born in 1957? No to all of those guesses. The answer is that Heinz just made it up. Get it?

this, besties. Mr. Hines was once on a train in New York City and saw a billboard ad for a shoe business. The shoe business advertised that they had 21 different styles of shoes. And that is when Mr. Hines realized that specificity sells. It's psychology. Yeah. Specific numbers sound deliberate, reliable, trustworthy, magnificent. So, Hines took his lucky number, which is the number five, and his wife's lucky number, which is the number seven, and then just put 50

57 varieties on the bottle. So there aren't 57 varieties at all. No. It's just they're two lucky numbers. But the FTC couldn't sue him for false advertising because the FTC didn't exist yet. So the reason the number 57 is on every Heinz ketchup bottle, it's because it's a made-up lucky number inspired by a shoe bill.

It's basically an inside joke between the founder and his wife, and they got the last laugh. Because the rest of the Heinz story is even wilder. And it involves a family bankruptcy, exploding ketchup bottles, and an intervention by President Teddy Roosevelt. And that is the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Tap the link in the episode description to listen to our TBIY episode on Heinz. But Jack, today's episode of T-Boy is fantastic. So how about we say our three stories?

15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a 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. Start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

This podcast is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual. Yeah, these lots of financial companies want to talk to you, but Northwestern Mutual wants to listen to you. Some companies say they have all the answers, but Northwestern Mutual has better questions. Yeah, the financial pros, they are going to ask you questions about your financial situation that honestly, you never asked yourself. A big one?

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Airbnb. Nick, can you share that wonderful quote about hospitality we heard recently? Jack, I think I read this in the Danny Meyer book, but he said something like hospitality is anticipating someone's needs beyond expectations. I love that quote. When I have a guest booked to stay at my place, I try to meet that hospitality standard, and I do so by letting them know ahead of time events happening in the area. Pro tip, your favorite jam band is playing at your favorite burger place Wednesday night.

Probably let your guests know about that one. I also completed a full travel guide within my Airbnb listing, sharing my personal favorite recommendations and secret spots. What kind of stuff's in that travel guide, Jack? That swimming hole is so remote, you can definitely swim in the nude and you won't get any issues. Yeah, I know George Costanza shrinkage that we know of. Yetis, your actual house, your apartment, your condo is just one part of the Airbnb hosting experience.

I've really enjoyed the soft parts of hospitality, anticipating my guests' needs beyond their expectations. If this sounds your style and you enjoy a naked jump into a stream, you can become an Airbnb host too, as long as you got a place. I'm proud of my 4.92 rating, and my wife is proud of the revenue we're generating with that rating. Yeah, it is. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

For our first story, Strava, the running app. It just hit a $2.2 billion valuation because hobby apps are the new social networks.

Yetis, if you didn't track your run route on a map app, did you even burn a calorie? Odds are you're posting all your activities on Strava. That's right. Google Maps meets Instagram meets the digital high five. That is what this running app Strava is. I have like three followers on Strava. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And each of them congratulate me every time I burn a calorie. I know when you run your routes on Saturdays, it starts to spell out a word. I feel like you're sending me a message via strategy app. Yeah.

But yetis, the funny thing about Strava is it's an app that now tracks 40 different sports. 40? Yeah, 40. Like hiking, biking, and anything that ends in I-N-G, ing. Well, the Wall Street Journal just did an exclusive interview with Strava and determined that there are 150

million people using Strava to track their fitness. That's up 50% in the last year. That's right, Strava just hit a personal record. It also is a personal record that's twice as many users as Tinder and four times as many users as Duolingo. And that's on the user side. On the financial side, Strava is now approaching 500 million bucks in recurring annual revenue, which is twice the recurring annual revenue of Allbirds, which you wear while you're running.

On the Strava app. Well, here's the news. Strava just hit a $2.2 billion private valuation. That's right. Unicorns, they don't fly. They gallop on Strava. Strava also announced that they're now using AI to identify cheaters. Yeah, a little side note here, but Strava can now tell if you ran up that hill or if you took an electric bike up that hill. Don't cheat to try to become an illegitimate comm.

Looking at you, buddy Timmy. Yeah. Looking at you. Yeah, we know what you did. Now, we can't believe that a fitness app is still growing so fast, like five years after the pandemic. Like Jack's the only one using the Peloton app these days. No one else is. So we had to ask, why is Strava surging right now? And we think we know why. Well, Strava's become a dating app. Yeah, you're meeting Mr. Right because he has the same running route as you. People have Tinder fatigue they have for years. So they're meeting on alternative dating apps like Yelp, LinkedIn, or Strava.

because it's more authentic to connect with someone who also runs the Central Park Reservoir every Saturday morning at 7 a.m. But not everyone on Strava is looking for love. Although, Jack, a sub-seven-minute mile is a green flag. Another reason Strava's users are still surging is Run Club.

That's right. We did a whole story on Nike last year missing out on run clubs, and local run clubs have hit record high enrollment. You're not doing happy hour at the bar. You're hitting a 5K after work with 23 random strangers. But the latest reason Strava's growing, what is it, Jack? They're more acquisitive than Napoleon. That's right. Along with the fundraise news, Strava also announced they're buying a cycling app and a British running app. In the last three years, they've acquired four companies,

and gobbled up all those user bases. Honestly, side note here, maybe Nike should acquire Strava. That's what Jack and I are thinking. I like the hot take, although Under Armour, remember a decade ago, they acquired Map My Run, and that did not work out. That's true, that's true. But Nike, you know, they could use it. They got $10 billion in cash, and right now, they're kind of just sitting down. They're not running anywhere, Jack.

But that's not our takeaway. This is. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Strava? The new social networks are hobby networks.

Yet is 15 years ago, social media pioneered a new behavior, sharing and connecting with friends online about anything. But the novelty of posting for the whole world to see is gone. Yeah. People are barely doing it these days. Instead, people are socializing on online networks that are activity-based like Strava. It's not just Strava. Goodreads.

the book reading app, has 150 million users too. This is what we should do a story on. One of the fastest growing apps right now is Palm Street, which is a social community for selling and nurturing plants. Plant daddies. Yeah, proud plant daddies right here. Frankly, general post about anything social networks, they are shrinking. The new social networks are activity-based. They're hobby networks.

For our second story, nuclear stocks are going nuclear after two epic executive orders. But the best way to promote nuclear energy in America...

It's to ban people from watching Chernobyl on HBO. Yeah. We'll explain. We'll explain. But before we explain, Jack, can you please sprinkle on some context now that I have my hazmat suit on? Trump's first 100 days in office were all about oil and all against wind and solar. That's right. President Trump was canceling government-supported wind and solar energy and incentivizing fossil fuels instead.

But something he did Friday could create more clean energy than in the history of America. We may have to just repeat that one, Jack. President Trump may be about to create more clean energy than anyone else in history. Because nuclear is clean energy. The biggest source of carbon-free electricity by far. And President Trump just issued two executive orders on it. Wall Street thinks those EOs are legit, by the way.

way. Yeah, they do. They do. Stocks of the four leading nuclear companies jumped 35% since that announcement. Again, to quote Mugatu and Robert Oppenheimer, great combo. Plutonium, so hot right now.

Jack, we should also point out Trump has signed 200 executive orders. They've been all over the place. They've covered a whole bunch of things. Some are just symbolic and don't have substance, but these nuclear ones are the most legit that we've read thus far. We actually organized these nuclear executive orders into five key areas of focus. They're focused on speed, space, incentives, a scoreboard,

and safety. - Yeah, we almost got five S's there. We were so close, Jack. - I went with incentives, Nick, which is kind of an S. First, the speed. Regulators must approve or deny an application for a new nuclear power plant within 18 months. - Hurry up already. - Second is space.

they're opening federal land and military bases as sites for potential nuclear power plants. Fort Knox could get nuclear power. That's right. And then we have incentives. The government is telling the Department of Energy to give loans to nuclear developers up to $400 billion worth of loans. We've said it before. The United States government

is history's greatest venture capitalist of all time. All right, Jack, then we have number four, the scoreboard. The government is setting 2050 as the goal to quadruple the amount of nuclear energy in America. And finally, safety. These executive orders set a lower acceptability threshold

for radiation. Yetis, we know that's a little scary at first, you know, lower safety and nuclear power plants. But right now, nuclear power plants are actually too safe. Like they're more safe than necessary, right? Yeah, they are too safe. And if you want proof,

nobody has ever died in America from nuclear anything. Yeah, it's true. No hedges, no caveats, full stop. Nobody's died in America from nuclear anything. We can't even find evidence that someone sprained an ankle in a nuclear power plant. On the other hand, with climate change killing people every day-

We think we need to loosen requirements and get more nukes. - The only time someone's died in a nuclear power plant is probably 'cause they choked on chicken. Like it wasn't related to the nuclear bits. - It was a DoorDash delivery man's accident. - Yeah, they stubbed their toe and then they choked on the chicken. - But when it comes to safety,

to loosen regulations too much because it's nuclear. That's right, Jack, which leads to our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in nuclear? The reason that nuclear is frozen in America, it's psychology. It's called the availability heuristic. The availability heuristic.

Besties, if you look at the numbers, it is clear that airplanes are way safer than cars. And it's the same with nuclear power. It's way safer than oil, gas, or coal. In fact, more people die every day from the health impacts of fossil fuel than in the history of nuclear energy. And yet, we are more afraid of nuclear because we can picture what death by nuclear looks like. But we can't picture death by natural gas.

which has to do with like air pollution causing lung issues. And that distinction, that is why after the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear scare, America went 44 years without building a new nuclear power plant. Even though nobody died in that Three Mile Island incident.

Death by nuclear power plant entered our minds. And it's the same with an airplane. Like, your mind knows what death by airplane looks like, and it is freaky, it is scary. So you're more scared of a plane than you are of a car, even though you're 100,000 times more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash. That is why Jack and I think the best way to promote nuclear in America, it's

to ban people from watching Chernobyl, the show on HBO. Although I should point out, Nick and I both watched Chernobyl. Great show. Scary show. Yes. We're still pro-nuclear. But we watched it alone, like our wives wouldn't watch it with us. It was a solo late night experience. So if you want to understand why nuclear is so behind in America, look at the availability heuristic. We don't fear what's statistically most likely. We fear what we can picture. Sorry, I got my laugh. But

The Yoda move at the end. We're going to keep your laugh in there. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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The best one yet is sponsored by BetterHelp. All right, Jack, let me set the scene for you. My birthday dinner, we did a pizza party. I rented out a whole spot called the Dough Room in San Francisco. You mess with the pizza dough while you make it. I know. And then what comes next is the most San Francisco thing ever. Basically, group therapy over dinner. So all three people on my side of the table were in therapy, and all of us were talking about each other's therapy. You know, like one person was saying how their therapist helped them through a coworker battle. Another was talking about like the future of

fatherhood with their therapist. They're stressed about becoming a dad. It's not just San Francisco. Society's views on therapy have changed across the world. True. It's evolved to the point where you had a birthday dinner learning from each other's therapy session. Well, BetterHelp is an easy way to take that leap and find the therapist for you. Because BetterHelp has over 10 years of experience matching people like your friends with therapists. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. I

Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash T-Boy. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash T-Boy. For our third and final story, Nespresso is shifting its entire marketing strategy. Less George Clooney, more The Weeknd. It's treating customers like frogs in a pot of water, but it's freezing the water, not boiling it. All right, Jack, I'm going to read off a list of names here, and you tell me what brings them all together.

Nespresso, Nescafe, Nestea, Nesquik. What do they have in common? Ness. Yeah, that's it. They're all brands of Nestle, which is actually the world's biggest food company.

Of brands. Did you hear they're launching Nest Burger? If you can add Ness as a suffix, you may as well put it in a grocery store. Well, in 1986, Nestle invented the world's, and I quote, portioned coffee system. A portioned coffee system which has 17 patents for it. Portioned coffee system, by the way, is a sophisticated European way of saying coffee pods. That's right. Nestle basically invented the technology for the coffee pod machine.

The goal is to let non-baristas brew an espresso at home at a low price. Pre-ground beans precisely portioned for one cup espresso. Keurig did the same thing with K-Cups. But yet, Nespresso is bigger than you think. Oh, way bigger. They're doing $7 billion a year in annual revenue, which is more than American Airlines does. Nespresso, they sold 50%.

billion pods last year. That's enough for two espressos per human being. And now that they're recyclable, Nespresso's guilt has been absolved. But Nestle's espresso division, aka Nespresso, is an elder millennial. It needs to chase Gen Z. And so we were fascinated with this plant.

Despite being the market leader in at-home espressos, Nestle just pulled off the biggest pivot yet to the Nespresso brand. Nespresso is going from hot George Clooney to the cold weekend. Literally. Yet, as in 2015, Nespresso came to the United States with George Clooney in commercials sipping a steamy mug of brown stuff. Clooney, Lake Como, espresso. It was a vibe.

Here's the problem. When Gen Z pictures coffee, it's neither steamy nor brown nor served in a mug. Get this. Of Gen Z drinkers, first tasted coffee, not as like the hot stuff you grew up with. But as iced coffee. Yeah. Or a frappuccino or something cold with ice cubes. So George Clooney, who is the two-time

time world's sexiest man. 1997 and 2006. But people don't want hot anymore. Pro tip from Nespresso, by the way, to brew iced espresso drinks, simply tap twice for ice. Apparently the extra concentrated portion of coffee holds up better as it gets diluted with the melted ice. But Nespresso is not just telling people to tap twice for ice, are they, Nick? No, they're not, Jack. Instead, they're telling people to tap

The Weeknd. Nespresso is the lead sponsor of The Weeknd, the musical artist, and his coming concert tour. And guess what, Yetis? We're seeing the results. What Nespresso's doing with this pivot is working. Sales grew at Nespresso twice as fast as sales growth at the rest of Nestle last year to $7 billion. Driven by double-digit growth of Nespresso in the United States. George Clooney? George who?

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nespresso? To add new customers and not lose old ones, do it like a frog in a pot of water.

So yetis, the suits over at Nestle Corp in Switzerland know that iced coffee is not a fad. Iced coffee is now 75% of Starbucks sales. The future is iced, but a majority of Nespresso sales are still to older, hot coffee lovers. So to ensure that Nespresso doesn't lose that loving relationship to their George Clooney fans, Nespresso is pivoting subtly. They're not shouting their transition to cold Nespresso's,

they're whispering it. For example, in their latest George Clooney Nespresso ad, George is holding an iced coffee, but honestly, you can barely tell. It's subtle. Frogs who like it cold will like Nespresso more. Frogs who like it hot won't even notice the icing. So besties, Nespresso is pivoting from hot to cold subtly and slowly, like a frog in a pot of boiling water. But it's getting colder, not hotter.

Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Savice Wednesday? Strava just announced two new acquisitions the same day they announced a $2.2 billion valuation. Because hobby networks are the new social networks, which means Jack wants you to follow him on Strava. I really don't. But if you want to stalk my runs, go right ahead. Now you don't want us to follow you, Jack. Can you just make up your mind over there?

For our second story, nuclear power stocks are up 35% since Friday on two executive orders to accelerate nuclear. The reason we stopped making nukes in 1979? The availability heuristic. We fear what we can picture. For our third and final story, Nespresso is pivoting from hot coffee drinks and George Clooney to cold coffee drinks in the weekend. To add new customers and not lose old ones, do it like a frog in a pot of water. Subtly and slowly.

But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, McDonald's is officially closing their craziest idea yet, Cosmic. Last year, we covered Cosmic. It's a wild beverage spinoff chain themed on outer space and aliens. Yeah, it was basically like a mixed Starbucks making funky, drinky concoctions for Gen Z, but apparently they're not going to do it anymore.

They're closing all five locations. They might put a couple of the items on the full regular McDonald's menu. And second, with Bitcoin at an all-time high, Square is finally letting you pay with Bitcoin through Bitcoin payments. Instead of paying with a credit card, you can tap your phone to pay with a crypto wallet.

Starting in Las Vegas right now. Square terminals will convert US dollars to Bitcoin in real time and let you pay with your crypto balance. It's rolling out to most of the country later this year. So you can buy a hamburger with Bitcoin today and then regret it immensely in five years when you could have bought a house with that money instead.

And finally, we've got even more details leaked on the OpenAI secret Johnny Ive device. Jack, what's the scoop? Sam Altman and Johnny Ive imagine a third device that's not supposed to replace your smartphone and laptop, but it's supposed to complement them.

Yeah, they also want to sell and ship 100 million of them faster than any company ever has in history starting next year. What is this third device going to look like? Well, they're not glasses and they won't have a screen. They did say that. Yeah, it kind of looks like maybe a Pocky puck, maybe, or like it could fit in your pocket. We don't know. We're just making stuff up as we go along. Yeah, they haven't told us. I think they want Twitter to like crowdsource design ideas for them. Yeah, like you say your ideas and then Johnny Ives is going to be like, oh yeah, that's a good idea. Sam, let's make that. Let's make that.

Now time for the best fact yet. This one, Jack, whipped up by me in the 16th arrondissement of Paris over the weekend. You ready for this one? I don't think you're going to stop, so go ahead. This one from a very, very kind patisserie. All right, here you go. There is a law in France that defines what a traditional baguette can be, part of the 1993 regulation known as décret parisien.

The bread decree. Yeah, that's it. Good translation. Your Duolingo's working, man. All right, these are the legal definitions of a baguette. First, made on premises where it is sold. Second, it cannot have been frozen at any point in its journey. Third, it must be made only with wheat flour, water, salt, and yeast. And finally, if there were any additives or preservatives added to the bread, then it is not a baguette. It is a badette. Badette.

Okay, that was fine. So every piece of bread in France is like incredibly local and delicious. Long story short, there's legal bread and you got to follow four rules. Is that over-regulation or just the right amount of regulation?

Yetis, you look fantastic for Ceviche Wednesday. After this show, go and check out The Best Idea Yet. It is all about the story of Heinz Ketchup. His name is Heinrich Heinz. He was a German immigrant to Pittsburgh, and it's a wild story. He basically invented the FDA. Because of the exploding ketchup bottles. Jack and I will see you later.

And before we go, a congratulations to our buddy Corporate Natalie, who just got engaged to the legendary Matt, celebrating big. Side shout out to Matt's dad, who Nick once went on a canoe ride with. And Corporate Bro and Rebecca also have a new baby boy. Congratulations, guys. Corporate baby.

is already hitting his sales target. Promoted. And congratulations to Teddy and Lauren Kramer on their baby, beautifully named Eloise. The 10th grandchild in the Kramer fam. We're all very proud. And a happy birthday to Yeti Nicole Lawson, the golden birthday of 28 celebrating down in St. Louis Blues. Happy birthday to Ezequiel Hernandez in Jurupa Valley, the best basketball handler.

for any fourth grader. And Caleb Myers down in Dallas is flying up for our Chicago show. Caleb, can't wait to see you at the Chicago Live, T-boy. Happy birthday to Kevin Benjamin Pacman, who's 50 years old from San Mateo and listening to our show for seven years. Oh, and finally, a fantastic early birthday shout out to Brett Taylor from lovely Rye, New Hampshire. Jack, what does Brett have in store? Your girlfriend is taking you to Boston for a Red Sox game.

to celebrate your birthday. That's right, you're from just outside Boston, so you're gonna celebrate just inside Boston. Yawkey Way is on the way.

This is Jack. Nick owns stock of Nike and Block. And Nick and I both own a Bitcoin named Ben. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.

Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop?

From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of Catastrophe.

Cats. Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.