The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Wed, 29 Jan 2025
Space stocks surged as Trump pledged to reach Mars… so we’re introducing the 4 Final Frontiers.X announced a Venmo-like deal with Visa… but it all comes down to the Beyonce of Banking.Royal Caribbean is up 8x since 2022… because cruises are the value meals of vacation.Plus, if you’re sick, Progressive Soup just invented the first chicken noodle cough drop…$RCL $V $RDWWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Red Bull ⚡Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.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 are the top business news stories today?
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Salute Jay Wednesday, January 29th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Well, Jack, we're back, baby. Stocks rebounded Tuesday after freaking out on Monday. Yeah, the panic from China's DeepSeek AI app has eased a bit.
Now, Yeti's Nvidia stock is still down 10%, but the rest of the market thinks a low-cost AI provider, even from China... is a potential good thing. Just like we said in yesterday's pod, actually. But in the meantime, Jack and I found three fantastic stories for you. Jack, what's on today's T-boy? For our first story, Twitter just turned into a financial firm.
Yes, they did.
Because X is partnering with Visa. But there is one golden anchor that everyone in finance really wants. And X doesn't have it yet.
No, they don't. No, they don't.
For our second story, there's one stock beating Bitcoin since the pandemic, and it's Royal Caribbean Cruises. A Americans are going gaga for cruises because the cruise is the value meal of vacations. And our third and final story is the biggest winner of the Trump presidency so far, the space industry. Space.
Trump has started a new space race, so we need to tell you about the four final frontiers. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. How's that for alliteration? We got three Fs in that final one, Jack. Not too shabby. Could we buy a consonant? But Nick, right now, every family I know has at least one sick person in it. Well, Jack, it makes sense. It is peak runny nose season.
Schools are teaming up with tissues these days. So chances are you could use a bowl of soup or maybe a cough drop right now. But yetis, if that's the case, Jack and I have some fantastic practical news for you. And what is it, Jack? Progressive Soup Company just invented soup drops. Get this. It's not a cough drop and it's not a soup. It's a soup drop. Let's explain. It's a lentil lozenge.
It's a corn chowder cough drop. It's a matzo ball of menthol. We'll take two more. Now, Progressive is selling these things starting with their chicken noodle flavor. But you open up the aluminum can of soup with a can opener, and instead of soup, you got two dozen candies in there. They're a little like cough drop-y kind of candies, but it's soup.
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Chapter 2: Is X becoming the next financial giant?
Yeah, you got to bring a huge grain of salt the size of the Atlantic to this thing. Because Elon said back in 2022 that he would have payments on X by 2023. And with Tesla, everything he announces ends up being five years later. Like the cyber car. So it wouldn't be a surprise if X money launches way later than this year.
Also, we should point out that Visa didn't actually say anything about this new deal at all either. And the entire announcement from X was just one tweet by the CEO, Linda Iaccarino. 61 words total. We were looking for a press release. We couldn't find one. Finally, Jack, when you look at what this product is, what is X actually launching here?
They're just launching a copycat of Venmo, which has been around for 16 years already. We would call this Venmo 2.0, but it kind of is just Venmo 1.0. Yeah, 16 years after Venmo. So this news doesn't really make X the everything app, kind of makes X the like maybe something, anything more app. We'll see. But we've said that Elon practices roundup marketing.
When he's not quite done with a product, he always just rounds it up. Well, the new Venmo version of X is the perfect example of it. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in finance? The real measure of success in finance is direct deposit. Ah, yetis. For X to really become the everything app or a finance app, it has got to get your direct deposit, your weekly paycheck.
The ultimate anchor product in banking is where your paycheck goes. Yeah, that's the direct deposit. Basically, if all your financial things, products, and accounts are destiny's child, then the direct deposit is the Beyonce. You see what I'm saying, Jack? Basically, whatever bank account gets your direct deposit, that's where you link your credit cards.
That's where you make most of your transactions. If you request a loan, it's probably from that bank. It's the anchor of your financial existence. The fintech industry is so desperate to get your customer direct deposit that they offer bonuses just to move it over there. And when we worked at Robinhood, a fintech company, it was a key internal goal.
They were always asking, how can we get people to send their paychecks to their Robinhood account? So yeah, it is this Visa announcement. It could be the start of a respectable financial business for the social media platform X. But the real measure of success in finance and payments It's direct deposit. Because if finance is destiny's child, then direct deposit is the Beyonce. Okay.
That's pretty good. It's pretty good.
It's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 3: Why is Royal Caribbean considered the value meal of vacations?
Jack, aren't you reading like a little kid's space book to the pod sun right now? Yeah, I'm reading a National Geographic book about space. Are you learning anything? I'm learning more than the kids are. Get this. One day on Mars is almost exactly equal to one day on planet Earth. Can I explain? Hit me. What do we got? Earth takes 24 hours to spin around, i.e. one day.
Mars takes 24 hours as well, plus 37 minutes. Yeah. What are the chances we have the same day length with Mars? Those Martians are the same age as us. We really are similar. Yeah. But yet, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Donald Trump's JFK-style race to Mars mission, it's actually brought the attention of Wall Street to space. We found six pure play outer space stocks.
that are all up double digits so far this year. Yeah, to quote the movie Wicked, all these space docks are defying gravity right now. Intuitive Machines, for example. They're making vehicles that can drive on the moon and on Mars. They're up double digits. Or Jack Rocket Labs. They provide rocket launch services to NASA and other space groups. How about this company called Redwire?
They're developing infrastructure that we would need if we wanted to live on Mars or the moon, including space farming. Besties, there are like four or five other satellite building companies we found too, publicly traded, all up double digits so far this year. Oh, in the startup scene, they're buzzing too. That's true. Last week, two space startups filed to IPO, Voyager and Carmen. That's big.
Chapter 4: How did the pandemic affect the cruise industry?
We haven't had IPOs in so long. If SpaceX IPO'd, that'd be like the wildest IPO of the decade. And now, Houston, we do have a problem we should point out, shouldn't we, Jack? All those companies and all those stocks Nick and I just mentioned, they are very risky investments. After all, they depend on Earth colonizing Mars, something that's not exactly guaranteed to happen.
And that's why in the last two years, there's kind of been a black hole in the space industry. All the stocks have been down, sucked away, and only now are they reemerging. One small step for my portfolio, one giant leap for my risk profile. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in the space industry? We are entering the final four frontiers.
Yetis, most people think that everything has been discovered, that the days of exploration are over behind us. But there are four frontiers ripe for exploration still in our lifetimes. space, the deep seas, the Arctic, and artificial intelligence. Yetis, those four frontiers are the new Wild West. They are the new world that are still open for us to explore. They're the new new world.
Yeah, they are, Jack, because no one nation fully controls any of them, nor does any nation fully understand their potential. And yet, each is filled with economic opportunity and resources. And power. And with a power-loving president in the United States and the disruption of global norms and alliances, there is a new land rush literally into this 21st century.
Space, the Arctic, the deep seas, and the unknowns of artificial intelligence. Those, Yetis, those are the four final frontiers. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? X just announced X money with 61 words and a tweet. It's a partnership with Visa. It's basically Venmo. But the real measure of success in finance is getting your direct deposit, the Beyonce of banking.
For our second story, it's Royal Caribbean. Their stock hit an all-time high yesterday on record earnings and an expansion to rivers. Because cruises have always been the value meal of vacations. And our third and final story. The space industry is buzzing after Trump's goal to put an American flag on Mars. Space. It's one of the four final frontiers. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
Here's what else you need to know today. First, we got an update on DeepSeek. On Tuesday, we told you how China's AI app did AI at a fraction of the cost. It wasn't just chip stocks that fell as a result of that news. A bunch of big energy stocks fell over 20% too. Big energy companies expected a surge in demand on electricity because of AI's electricity needs.
But China's app shows they may not need that. DeepSeek showed that AI doesn't require expensive chips, and it doesn't require lots of energy either. Also, quick correction to yesterday's show, we said that DeepSeek does AI without NVIDIA chips. However, three eddies pointed out DeepSeek does have NVIDIA chips, just their older, less advanced chips.
DeepSeek bought NVIDIA's H800 chips before export restrictions kicked in. Second, Google is changing the name Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America in Google Maps. Google said they will follow the U.S. government's lead when it comes to the naming of places. To users in Mexico, it will still be called the Gulf of Mexico. And finally, Starbucks earnings are out, and the theme was back to barista.
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