The Best One Yet
🏡 “She’s Zexting Me” — Zillow’s gossip pop. David’s $725M protein bar. Circle’s stablecoin IPO.
Mon, 02 Jun 2025
Zillow stock has surged 70% in the last year… because house gossip is good.David is a very high-protein protein bar… worth $725M. Because every business needs 3 moats.Circle is going public in an IPO… so we’ll tell ya what the heck a stablecoin is.Plus, the greatest internship story ever? Sprite turned an intern project into a real product.$Z $K $CRCLWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Heinz Ketchup 🍅Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the current state of Zillow's stock?
Every bar downtown is filled with new suits and pencil skirts. I remember my first suit. Joseph A. Bank lured me in with one of their buy three suits, get one free deal. And I remember your first suit. Not one of them actually fit. I was swimming in that thing. So to inspire all the interns out there, Jack and I have found the most valuable intern of all time. The MVI.
We found the best intern story yet. Get this, yetis. Sprite's newest soda was invented by interns. That's right. Coke's senior creative director just said so in an interview with Ad Age. Their interns invented the soda. Here's the context. Last week, Coca-Cola launched Sprite plus tea, a soda plus tea combo. Which is begging to be spiked with some kind of alcohol, by the way, Jack. It really is.
But Sprite actually got the idea six years ago from their summer intern cohort. That's right. Sprite's summer interns of 2019 pitched Sprite Plus T in their final intern presentation. Now, at the time, the executives gave the interns the old slap on the back and said, nice work, youngsters. Email us the PowerPoint. Have fun in school this fall, kiddos.
I love the energy those kids brought to the office. Good kids, good kids. Let's not pay them. But... Sprite just turned that intern project into a product. Yes, they did. And we know what Sprite should do next, don't we, Jack? Pay those interns. Uh, hey, Coca-Cola, why not send those interns a cut of the Sprite tea sales? Track down that 2019 internship class on LinkedIn.
Yeah.
Send them some checks. A big fat check. They already go down as intern royalty. True. Send them actual royalty checks. Good luck to all the interns out there. Jack, let's hit our three stories. Don't go to Joseph A. Bank.
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.
I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. Listen to Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky wherever you get your podcasts.
For our first story, the housing market is down, but one housing business is shockingly up, Zillow. Zillow stock has gone through a full renovation because gossip when it comes to houses is good. Yetis, here's the reality. One industry has been hit harder than any other in the last three years because of high interest rates and who is it, Jack? Real estate. That's right, NBB. Nobody is buying.
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Chapter 2: Why is David Bar valued at $725 million?
It has radiant heat on the first floor and the basement, and it's on three acres of land. Honey, you gotta see this. Oh, my God. But unlike that Peloton ride you used to do, Zillow scrolling is a habit that actually stayed. And... It changed how we talk about real estate. Because before real estate listings were on the internet, talking about house prices was a taboo subject.
But now, Jack, the most recent selling price is published for all homes, for sale or not. Even if you're just visiting your buddy for dinner, you can see what they paid. Yeah, if you want to, like, stalk the new friends you're thinking about befriending, you can find the price of their home on Zillow. And when that neighbor's house goes for sale, it becomes like page six.
The whole neighborhood is judging that place. The whole neighborhood starts going full Nate Berkus on that house on the corner that's for sale. Are they asking $1.2 million? That is crazy. And I'm sure, Jack, you go through the same thing as me. Molly is constantly zexting me about homes. Yeah, she zexed me like five times a week. No, Alex does for me too. I'm like, Alex, we're not in the market.
She says it's about dreaming and manifesting for the future. I know, I know. Molly will zex me five houses. They're all out of our budget. But hey, I look at that living room layout and I'm like, that's pretty hot choice of marble, man. Because of Zillow. Everyone in town knows what everyone's house is worth, and they know what the inside of the house looks like.
But that wasn't a thing 20 years ago. Neither of those were a thing 20 years ago. Which leads to our takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Zillow? Gordon Gekko once said, greed is good. It turns out gossip is good too. Yeti's Stanford professor, Michelle Gelfand, thinks that zillification of real estate is actually good for society.
We dove into her research about gossip, and she says that ultimately, gossip is about information and knowledge. Interestingly, her research found that the more information a community has about each other, the closer they work together. If you know about how people take care of their homes and what the inside of their home looks like, you know more about that person.
It's a transparency thing, actually. Basically, gossip has evolved to help neighbors work together. This is a good dating example here, right, Jack? Well, if you Zillow stock your date's house before you go on that first date with them... you might be less skeptical of the unknowns of that person and potentially be more relaxed and open during the date.
And Jack, who among us has not soft-launched a relationship by sexting him a link to your future starter home? So, Yetis, Zillow changed what we scroll on our phone and how we talk about real estate. And that neighborhood transparency, that gossip about each other's most valuable assets, their homes, may be good.
For our second story, David, the extremely high protein protein bar, just hit a wild $725 million valuation. Their secret protein ingredient shows why a business doesn't need one moat. They need three. Now, yetis, Jack and I have noticed that for fellow millennials, the candy aisle has been replaced by the protein bar aisle. I haven't bought a candy bar outside of Halloween in like 10 years.
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Chapter 3: What makes a stablecoin like Circle important?
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For our third and final story, Circle. A 12-year-old stablecoin company is going public on the New York Stock Exchange. It's another example of disrupting finance joining mainstream finance. Yes, it is. But Nick, what the heck is a stablecoin? We shall explain.
But in order to do that, Jack, let's go back to 2013, when Jeremy Allaire, a liberal arts grad, thought that Bitcoin was a little bit weird. Too bad, because Bitcoin was $100 back then, and it's $100,000 today. But Jeremy loved the blockchain infrastructure that Bitcoin was built on, so he tried to modernize the money. And he did so by founding Circle 12 years ago.
It was to become the leader of stablecoins. All right, so now we should sprinkle on that context, Jack. You know, stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are backed one-to-one by a fiat currency. So for each stablecoin, there's normal government-issued money behind it, like a dollar, a yen, a euro, whatever.
Now, Bessies, you've heard of stablecoins, but you may be wondering, what exactly is a stablecoin? So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to Circle's S1 IPO paperwork. First of all, Circle is profitable. They're targeting a $7 billion valuation when they hit the New York Stock Exchange later this month. That's right. They're about the same size as Lyft. And the goal of Circle is simple.
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Chapter 5: How does gossip influence real estate?
Chapter 6: Why do millennials prefer protein bars over candy?
They're trying to digitize our existing US dollars with stable coins. Because the crypto that could actually be currency is ironically the US dollar coin. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, legendary Yeti Taylor Swift finally owns her music again, thanks to the Heiress Tour.
Remember Taylor got in a fight with the media executive who owned the rights to her music? And then Jack, didn't she start republishing albums? That was the Taylor's version to take back control. She's done like 10 of them, but now she doesn't need to do her final couple of albums. because she owns all of her music again. Congratulations, Taylor.
And second trade war update, keeping up with the tariff dashians. Because China won't send us rare earth metals, we won't let them attend our universities. That's according to Axios reporting. And that's key, by the way, because Chinese students typically pay full freight to attend our universities. And here's another update. Trump jacked up tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to 50% on Friday.
So court rulings aside, the trade war definitely escalated last week. And finally, Haribo just recalled their European gummies because they accidentally sprinkled some cannabis in there. Yeah, Haribo's gummy bears. Parents and kids in the Netherlands felt queasy after eating some of their soda-flavored fizz gummies. Apropos that it happened in the Netherlands, by the way.
Yeah, well, they tested the gummy bears, and it turns out somehow cannabis got in the gummies. Ralph, we told you to be careful. Everyone is okay, by the way, although these Haribo gummies did accidentally become edibles. Now time for the best fact yet, which, because it's Monday, means T-boy trivia. What do we got, Jack? Which of the following fashion brands is not named after a real person?
Okay, which of the following brands in fashion is not a real person? All right, who we got? First is Ralph Lauren. Second is Liz Claiborne. Third, Kenneth Cole. And fourth, Tommy Bahama. Okay, Yetis, drop your answer in the comments. Which was not a real person? Which fashion brand? Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Kenneth Cole, Tommy Bahama. Three of those are real people.
One of them is completely made up. And we'll tell you the answer on tomorrow's pod. Yetis, you look fantastic out there. Jack, you whittled so many good takeaways today.
Just really just impressive stuff.
Besties, if you're interning this summer, tell a buddy in your internship class to HYH TBOI. Have you had the best one yet? That's how we grow the show. And then drop down to give us five stars and a rating. We love reading your reviews. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Remember Sprite. Jack and I will see you tomorrow.
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Chapter 7: What role do internships play in product development?
Chapter 8: How has Zillow changed the way we discuss real estate?
Or the two-day delay you get for purchasing a stock and waiting for it to be settled? Or after brunch, when you try to transfer your Venmo balance to your bank account? Yeah. That takes five business days. And it's because our dollars are slow by design. Right, Jack? The government must have the ability to sanction bad guys and freeze their money.
The result is that the pipes our money flows through were created back in the 70s and the 1980s. That's why you're still waiting for your paycheck to clear, even though you know it should be in your account already.
You're like,
where is the money? Yeah, where's my money? So the point of a stablecoin is to honor the regulatory and compliance rules of money, but also to speed up money for the consumer. And theoretically, if they achieve that, there could be big macroeconomic benefits. Right, because faster money means more spending, and more spending is good for the economy. Well, back to Circle's business model.
Yes, Jack. You're not the client of Circle. The financial institutions are. Exactly. What Circle really does is sell a bank a digital layer on top of their existing system, in order to let the money move faster. And how would they do it? They'd do it with blockchain, a Bitcoin invention. Hey, get this. We noticed that Circle mentioned the term Bitcoin just nine times in their IPO paperwork.
But they mentioned blockchain 316 times. I mean, as we're saying this, Jack, I think this is the analogy. With stable coins, it's like Netflix. Fiat money is the DVDs Netflix used to send. But a stablecoin is the streaming that Netflix now instantaneously does. So the DVD is like the physical $100 bill. Yes, Jack. But the movie's availability on Netflix.com is the stablecoin. Exactly.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Circle? The crypto that could finally be a currency isn't Bitcoin. It's ironically the US dollar. Yetis, the reality is that cryptocurrencies aren't currencies. They're speculative assets like gold or stock. The reason I bought Bitcoin, I hoped the price would go up so I could sell it for more someday. Well, that's not a currency.
You know, that's an asset. But Circle's flagship cryptocurrency, their stablecoin, is the USDC, the US dollar coin. Because everything Circle offers is one-to-one backed by fiat currency. aka paper money issued by the government. Circle simply creates one token for each dollar and then lets it move as quickly on the internet as a text message. Now, Circle is openly lobbying for U.S.
stablecoin legislation to go through Congress. That's crucial for them. But Circle shows us how the crypto that could actually function like a currency isn't Bitcoin. It's the U.S. dollar. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Zillow stock is up 70% this year. It's profitable despite the housing market being ice cold. Why?
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