Nick Martell

Big companies outsource innovation to startups.

Yetis, that's a quote we just love.

It's from the Shark Tank judge, Rohan Oza, and it's about CPG brands, consumer packaged goods.

Conglomerates know that they can't move as fast to innovate as startups can.

So it's easier, cheaper, and faster to just let a startup create something new and then buy that something new once the product has proven viable.

All right, besties, another way to think about this, M&A beats R&D.

Merging and acquiring beats research and development.

It's just like how Pepsi bought poppy to get into healthy soda.

Unilever is dropping 1.2 billion bucks on three-year-old groons.

And Unilever also acquired Nutrafol, Liquid IV, and Oli, another vitamin gummy company, in just the last few years.

Unilever actually has a $2 billion budget each year just to buy startups.

But Nick, there is an asterisk.

Yeah, yeah.

The corporate outsourcing of innovation to startups, it's mainly only happening in the CPG space.

Good point, Jack.

Like you pointed out to me, like this doesn't happen in the car industry from your experience, right, man?

No, the competition in cars is so intense.

Ford must make their car better every year with R&D or 20 other car brands will eat their lunch.

But besties, when it comes to food, beauty, and health, M&A beats R&D.

And that's a big deal because the NFL is bigger than music and movies in America.