Ep. 239 - Boys Club LIVE: Phia is a good product actually, Obsession and Backrooms, Peptides Event, Victoria's Secret Stock Bump, Kalshi Knicks Bar Bet, Partiful bugs and NY Tech Week Events with guest Ana Bhoyrul

[00:29] Here's this week's show. [00:31] you [00:33] Hi! How's it going? It's so great to be with you in the studio. Oh, hello. We're here, this is Voice Live, [00:42] Welcome to the show. Live from Williamsburg. [00:45] Brooklyn. Yeah. [00:46] We are. We are. We are indeed. Before we get into it, we want to thank the lovely... [00:53] Partners who make this show possible. [00:55] Let's start with Vercel. [00:58] Shall we? Let's shall. Do you want to talk about herself? I do. Yeah. Um, [01:02] Love Vercel. If you're a startup building with agents, look no further than Vercel. Their agentic infrastructure gives you and your agents everything you need to ship, [01:11] And if you are supported by one of their hundreds of VC or accelerator partners, you have access to exclusive discounts and benefits. [01:20] deploy faster, scale globally, and ship world-class AI products. You can check out the platform thousands of companies use to [01:28] Go from day zero to IPO at forsell.com backslash startups. [01:33] And they are also a... [01:37] partner of Show Me Your Stack. [01:39] which is the network show that we're doing with beautiful Julia Rosenberg. [01:44] And episode three dropped last week. That features Guillermo Rauch, who is the CEO of herself. [01:52] Great episode. He walks us through his... [01:54] Stack. [01:55] It's on YouTube. [01:57] Check it out. We're going to talk about YouTube today. We're going to talk about YouTube. Give it a like and subscribe. If you're interested in

[02:03] Um, [02:04] The life of a CEO. You might be interested in that. I'm trying to think of what it's it's a lot about like the tools that he uses on a day to day basis, which is the premise of the show more generally. [02:15] And his is very interesting being the CEO of Resell and like an insider look at how he uses his agents and how he sort of organizes his day around business. [02:27] His fleet of agents is a fascinating look. So go give that a watch. Some hot takes on to-do lists. So... [02:35] Yeah, what's your take on that? For those listening, his take is... [02:39] If I need to remember it, [02:41] I will. If it's important enough for me to remember, I'll remember. I don't need to write it down. I don't need to write it down. [02:46] I think I experienced too much joy. [02:51] in the cross-off. Yeah, there's something really nice about, I think I, I don't think I need a to-do list to remember to do all the things I need to do. I don't feel like that's what I'm using it for. I think it's a nice end of day, like, oh, [03:03] Yeah, that's what I did today. I accomplished these things today. And that's really useful. Yeah. And also when there's something that keeps rolling over, confronting the avoidance of that thing. Clocked, yeah. Yeah, clocked. Yeah. That was really happening quite a bit during tax season. That one stayed on the TV list. Oh, my God. We filed an extension anyway. But it's been paid. [03:29] Great. My tax bill has been paid. Congratulations. [03:32] I'm still in negotiations with my accountant about his fee.

[03:38] He hasn't gotten back to me. I need to follow up, actually. That's on the to-do list. That one's still there. That one's still, that's rolling over. Okay. We have a lot of fun things to talk about today. I want to start... [03:48] with this is not on the run of show but i want to start with the event we went to last night yes um we went to an event about peptides yes um and put on by the lovely tori yes um [04:00] Bone can... [04:01] Bone Condor. Bone Condor? I don't know. At Bone Condor? There's... [04:06] It's not that. [04:07] It's wrong. That's wrong. But if you know, you know, and really interesting event. [04:13] Well, that's... [04:14] Yeah, so it was probably, I'd say, 80 people, 100 people in a beautiful venue in the financial district, actually, that I've never been to nor heard of before. It was very art gecko and gorgeous and really well produced event. [04:31] And it was a panel conversation, probably four to five minutes ago. [04:36] Tory moderating, did an expert job moderating, and this guy, Cremieux, [04:43] Also wrong, but close enough. Cremieux. He is a big account on Twitter. I didn't follow him. I don't know much about him, but apparently he's a doctor, he said in his introduction. So I... [04:57] And then there was a researcher, a guy who did seemingly, he was like a... The middle guy? The middle guy was like an expert on...

[05:08] mouse longevity research. I think like that's really what I took from. Well, he talked a lot about it. I don't know that he would say that that's his specialization, but he kept referring to mouse longevity. [05:21] It's testing. Yeah. Yeah. And I think he's a primarily a researcher. It's like what longevity researcher, but very like credentialed and was definitely in the weeds with terminology in ways that seem to point to him being his expertise. Yeah. A credible person. [05:35] In that domain. And then the last guy was Max Marchione. That's probably not his last name, but he is, I believe, the CEO of Superpower. [05:47] And Superpower is a blood testing system. [05:52] There it is. Platform, basically, yeah. And no, I want to come back to that because there was something he said that I was like, oh, nod to Elizabeth Holmes. Yeah, I talked to the same comment. So I want to get back to that. But Superpower... [06:05] Its competitor is Function Health, which I subscribed to earlier this year. How much is it? [06:11] Um, [06:12] I want to say like, [06:14] 300 bucks. You get two blood tests a year. [06:17] A year. Okay. [06:20] And... [06:21] two blood panels. It was very easy to do. You just go to like a lab core and you do it. And, and then they send it into function and yeah, [06:29] You got... [06:30] your results back it wasn't like particularly actionable for me i don't know i feel like maybe other people could have had [06:36] more actionable results from it. But anyway, that's an aside.

[06:39] Um, [06:41] And it was really interesting. And basically the panel was speaking on the peptides, like cultural trends. [06:49] movement more generally and how that's great because even if it's like, [06:55] a little bit inaccurate to categorize all these different [06:59] therapies together that it gives the whole thing a sense of momentum and like cultural energy that then [07:06] like that is upstream of like funding and products and development and stuff like that. So they're like, that's like net positive for, [07:14] even though it's like a little bit wrong because like all these things aren't, [07:18] really like they're all peptides [07:20] Yes, but they're so different in terms of what they can do. Being grouped together is inaccurate. And that being grouped together is a little bit strange, but that's fine. [07:27] it brings more attention to... [07:30] Yeah, like sort of [07:32] I don't know, proactive healthcare as a category more generally. I don't think, I don't know that they use that word, but that's kind of what we're speaking to. Like the difference between healthcare, [07:42] I'm sick and I need to go to the doctor and I want to enhance or optimize my life and like moving towards. [07:52] the second whenever we can um talked a lot about like preventative care and about how the um [07:59] incentives for insurance companies like that that that preventative care is like [08:06] If it's expensive, it doesn't make sense for an insurance company to pay for that because the average, which was like a total backfill for me, but the average average.

[08:14] amount of time that an American spends on their insurance plan is 3.5 years. So, yeah, [08:22] for a disease that's going to develop in five years. [08:26] that insurer doesn't have any incentive to pay for that. Yeah. Because by the time... [08:32] you develop that disease, you'll be off their plan anyway. So the incentive structure around preventative care being all out of whack, it was honestly pretty neutral on peptides. Like [08:45] Half the panel seemingly didn't take, I know that, [08:48] Two of those people do, but two of the others didn't. It was pretty measured on peptide use. It was less, it was more about sort of, I don't know, kind of the trends around it than it was around specific peptides and stuff like that. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, I think my three takeaways were... [09:05] One, misaligned incentives with insurance companies. That was the most interesting part of the discussion for me and how that relates to healthcare and... [09:15] care for both sick and [09:18] individuals and people who are trying to be proactive about their health and how they [09:23] fucked up the system is which we know but like yeah how how deeply ingrained that is from like [09:30] Toe to top of head is pretty crazy. And then second thing that that was interesting to me is the rise of sort of like consumer health care being really rooted in the. [09:44] GLP-1 movement. Oh, yeah. And how both insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and

[09:51] basically never believed that people would inject themselves, that consumers would inject themselves. And that has been proven to be [09:58] not true and that people are comfortable doing that more comfortable doing that than [10:01] They... [10:03] would have guessed or studies would have shown earlier and that that movement has meant that [10:09] one third of all GLP-1 [10:13] usage and purchases are happening direct to consumer, which is [10:17] wild like no they've not seen anything like that in the world of pharmaceutical pharmaceutical [10:22] development, which is interesting. And they had some like net positive, I think, takes on what that could mean. And then the third being that, yeah, most people were, it was pretty neutral, but [10:34] A take that I have around that is I think people who are interested in, [10:38] in peptides or [10:41] in that room. [10:43] even if they aren't using peptides or... [10:45] or pro [10:47] Like I think most people who are interested in peptides are, are very much like personal agency, believe in people's personal agency. Yeah. And so I think even if you are like really excited about what's happening with [11:00] these [11:01] different injectables, you have a belief that people should do what they want with their own bodies. And so someone saying like, oh, I'm not using these. I don't like them. Like, [11:08] still aligns with the values of someone who is interested in them. Because they're like, yeah, you should do whatever you want with your, you have your own personal agency to decide how you're going to care for your body. Yeah. And so I think because of that, there was not a lot of like negative sentiment in the room. Totally. I would be really interested in a conversation that is very important.

[11:25] combative. It was not a combative conversation. Everybody was very much sort of on the same page. Yeah. I'd be interested to hear from someone who [11:32] is deeply credible and very anti. Yeah. Um, and that was definitely not, there was no, none of that really in the room that I felt from the crowd. Um, really great event. Great job, Tori. Um, huge props. We know what it takes to put on something like that and it's no small feat. Yeah, totally. Really well done. Really fun. Um, okay. [11:51] Should we get into some topics? First, let's do a little shout out to Polygon. [11:59] So going to pull that up here. [12:03] Every company moving money globally hits the same walls. Legacy rails are slow, expensive, and built for a pre-internet world. [12:11] Stablecoin rails are fast, but they're fragmented across vendors that don't talk to each other. [12:16] The plumbing to deliver on the promise of stable coins hasn't existed. [12:20] Polygon's open money stack is fixing that. One unified stack that puts global money movement onto proven rails that move at the speed of the internet. [12:27] And why Polygon? Because they've been moving money. You can check out the link in the chat to learn more. And we love you, Polygon. Thank you so much. I love when you're in town and you get to do the ad reads because you know I can't. [12:39] I can't read publicly. I can't actually read. I'm illiterate. I enjoy it. [12:43] There's I like it. I know that there's a lot of anxiety that people have around them, reading them and getting them wrong or right. But I kind of like it. You and Quasimatt. [12:53] Love to do it. I love a script. If it's laid out. Tell me what to say. Totally. Okay. What do you want to talk about first? Okay. Well, we have a guest coming on who's going to talk about Tech Week. She had a little viral moment, Anna, who we'll introduce when she gets here, but she had a

[13:09] A really funny, interesting viral moment around New York Tech Week and Portiful and events more generally that we'll get into with her. So I think let's save Tech Week stuff. Great. [13:19] Um, do you, would you want to talk about new Hollywood? Yeah. New Hollywood. Okay. New Hollywood segment here. Roll, roll tape. Kate, that was for you for clips. Um, okay. To, uh, [13:32] Movies right now. Sweeping. [13:35] The box office. Okay. [13:37] Obsession and Backrooms. Horror movies. Two horror movies. Okay. Came out around the same time. Can you tell me? Okay. And our people... [13:46] They're dominating. Mm-hmm. [13:48] in movie theater box office right now. So first we're going to talk about backrooms. So [13:55] What is very exciting about this is it's directed by a young man named Kane Parsons. [14:01] He is 20 years old. Wow. Yes. And he got his start when he was 16 doing YouTube videos. Wow. Cool. And he started this web series that then is the like, [14:12] the, [14:13] lore text the of the film and he started this in um 2022 and the series was based off of actually a fictional location that was invented in 2019 on fortune so that's like the by him or by the i don't believe by him i think it was sort of like in a 4chan sort of thing okay he took that very much made it his own into this youtube series when he was 16 years old that then got

[14:43] by A24 and became the movie that is 20, 2016, Backrooms. [14:49] and had an absolutely bonkers opening weekend, one for a horror movie and two for a 20-year-old director. [14:56] $118 million worldwide opening weekend. The biggest opening in A24's history. So crazy stuff. It's starring the woman Renata Renza, whom I love. Yep. And production for the... [15:12] film was $10 million. Okay. So good margins. Some money that's back in the bank. I went and saw it this weekend. I will save my thoughts till the end. Okay. Obsession. Are you a horror movie person? I like horror movies. Oh, okay. I like any movie that makes you feel something. Okay. And I like to be like shocked in the theater. Okay. And I... [15:34] I like to see horror movies in theater. I don't really have, I like the communal experience of it. I don't have an interest in really like sitting at home and watching something scary unless I'm like with a group of people. Okay. Like, um, [15:46] Obsession is another film that came out directed by Curry Barker. [15:53] Age 26, also got his start on YouTube, started making YouTube videos when he was a teenager, primarily sketch comedy. [16:01] videos and then had his first... [16:06] horror, scary, [16:09] series or horror video that he produced with a friend, I believe, called The Chair. And that got over 9 million views. That's sort of what set him up to be able to then sell the movie that he made called Obsession. That had a tiny budget, less than a million dollars, $750,000, tiny budget, $750,000.

[16:28] And so far has done 148 million in the box office. [16:32] Which is crazy. The other crazy thing about it, that like each of these- How did it go from- [16:37] Like, how did it... [16:39] How did he go from YouTuber to just recently like that? So the chair, that video doing really well. I think it's Lionsgate bought this. And so I think he leveraged that into a very small purchase or very small budget and relationship with Lionsgate. And then what's crazy about this is that. [17:00] from first weekend to second weekend a 40 increase in the second weekend which is like unheard of in movies like you really never have like a following weekend that does numbers like that okay and so it's really scary like what like i think the sentiment is that it's [17:16] The acting is really great. So this woman who is the main actress, it's like Oscar buzz around her. Her name is... [17:22] I have it somewhere here. Indy Narverett. I'm saying that wrong, but she, she's supposed to be phenomenal in it. It's supposed to be very, very scary. And it like builds. So I think there's just like something of the experience and again, seeing it in movie theaters together with other people. And then I think the story around him being a YouTuber, him having a tiny budget for the film has like really rallied a community and like online sort of frenzy around the movie. [17:52] main takeaways are essentially young directors, [17:55] starting on YouTube, very young, 2620, starting on YouTube, and then not only being able to sell in

[18:03] with like very historied and very prestigious production companies, but also that they, [18:11] these movies are geared towards very young Gen Z audience who are back in movie theaters. Okay. And so like huge box office is... [18:18] Huge box office debuts is a big part of the story where it's like, wow, not only these young directors, but also they're getting their audiences to come to the theater. Yeah. Which there was this whole belief that like that was not that was going to stop happening. I see. So very cool. Yeah. I love it. It's a very positive story. I think it's really interesting. Can I tell you part of the story that I don't love? Okay. Keep going. That being said. Okay. Back rooms. Yeah. Went this weekend. Uh-huh. [18:40] Could not have hated it more. Okay. I think it's actually a bad movie. Okay. Legitimately, like, people are having, like... [18:46] group psychosis around this movie being good. It's terrible. That's [18:51] Fine. I'm looking off camera to get. Have you seen it? Have you seen it? Okay. Okay. Like it's incoherent. It's it's I saw it and I was like, yeah, this is an eight. [19:00] eight minute youtube video that's funny and interesting or not funny but like weird and scary and shocking and dystopian or or like disturbing okay it's not a feature-length film okay okay what's it it's like the premise of the story is no spoilers but no spoilers the premise of the story is that it's about uh [19:20] A man. [19:21] who works in a furniture store, [19:23] And he finds a back room in this furniture store. I see. And then the story unfolds there and his therapist is involved and his clerk or clerk.

[19:33] What show that had a similar... [19:36] There's like a, it's not Nathan Filder, it's the other sort of like weirdo, absurdist comedian. The chair? [19:43] Which is not the chair that... Yeah, it's like the chair company or something. Yeah, the chair company. [19:49] Tim Robinson. Men love him. I watched, it's like not that, but it's not, it's not that. I don't know. I think it's scarier. Okay, horror. It's horror. It's horror, yeah. Anyway, I'm so excited for this young man. I'm excited to see people going into the theater. I'm very happy to have spent the $20 to have had that experience. I will never watch that movie again, and I don't think it's good. I'm going to save session this weekend, so we'll report back. Okay. [20:19] with new Hollywood. That's really cool. There's part of the story that I don't... [20:24] well there what i saw the discourse around it that i saw was [20:30] this new... [20:31] trend or race to sign YouTube talent for, you know, [20:38] major distribution, yes, into theaters, but also bringing YouTube talent onto streaming platforms as well. And I take major issue with that because I will tell you what's happening at the lower end of the market. [20:51] is, and this is sort of adjacent to the story around these movies, but... [20:56] Um, [20:57] It's on Rick. My kids are home and we have been just trying to fill time. And last time we talked about them digging a hole in the backyard. So I'm aware of how desperate we are. In the backyard and turning to streaming platforms more than I would probably like.

[21:13] And what I found recently is that, [21:16] It used to be that like, [21:18] Stuff that's on Disney Plus is going to be generally fine. Stuff that's on Netflix is going to be fine. [21:24] is okay. Fine meaning appropriate for young people, like children, quality, quality bar. Yeah. Cause like there's some, I don't let them watch YouTube because the brain rot, the quality bar is like, [21:37] below the floor. Yeah. Um, [21:40] And, but so I've always been like, we can kind of like pick and choose on the streamers because a lot of this, it's curated. It's like a platform that's been curated by these platforms. [21:49] And like it has a higher bar. [21:53] it has had a higher bar. But what these streamers are now doing is buying... [21:59] cheap presumably YouTube shows. [22:02] that are terrible. Okay. And are just like, and then pushing them onto the streaming platforms, pushing them, bringing them onto Netflix. Okay. Or Amazon prime is a big culprit of this to you. [22:13] video and prime video. And the result is like, I've been coming to the room and I'm like, what? [22:20] is this an earth? And the kids are like, it's on Netflix or it's on Amazon Prime. And I'm like, [22:24] Okay. But these guys are just like... The strategy is going to have to change. Yeah, the strategy has to change. Internally for the Burke household. And Disney Plus is like still okay. But like they're now like, I don't want to watch Disney Plus because... [22:36] The fun stuff is on. Yeah. Totally. The like YouTuber guys who are like, when I hear the YouTuber teenage boy voice, I'm

[22:45] it, [22:45] is such a trigger. Can I tell you something? We sat next to [22:50] at dinner last night at Sugarfish, two men that fit into that category. And we were both like, [22:56] So we can't, we must actually wrap this meal up due to the fact that this is so, so upsetting. Yeah. Like losing brain cells, truly. [23:07] Yeah. There's a way of speaking. There's... [23:14] a frenetic pace that all these shows have. Yeah. [23:19] And just the stuff they're doing is so stupid. And I'm like, I can't. We can't. So anyway, that's a second order consequence of this other thing. Broader business trend of people buying products. [23:33] IP from YouTube and bringing it over to the streamers. Okay. I don't support it now. After your take. I mean, I'm like, I love to see creators, like, getting their bag. Yeah, but, like, create a show, right? Yeah, and, like, have a bar. Yeah, totally. Of excellence. [23:49] Um, [23:50] Okay, do we want to do one more hit or do we want to? [23:56] What's the Victoria's Secret stock price story? Wow, what a story. Okay, a huge week for Victoria's Secret. Shares of Victoria's Secret closed 47% higher after a blowout earnings report on June 2nd. [24:12] 47% higher. Yes, right. [24:14] Yesterday. So two things happened. Earnings report was...

[24:18] Very good. Okay. Earnings report with Q1 sales jumping 15% year over year. Okay. And in-store sales jumping 13%. I'm shocked by that. Some things that I will say around the shock of it. Well, first of all, that happens. So good earnings report. But the other thing that happened, which is making... [24:37] The internet. [24:38] Go. [24:39] bananas is that they changed their ticker. [24:42] to look like very sexy, basically. Like it was like VSCO. And then they changed it to, let's see what exactly it is. Get that ticker. Okay. VSCO. [24:53] X, Y, Z. [24:55] So very sexy. Yeah. And that's definitely a part of what happens here. Okay, so it's a meme stock game that they're playing. It's a combination of meme stock and good earnings report that has, I mean, you should open, like, the... [25:08] The chart is... [25:11] Let's get the chart. Let's get the chart. Meme coin status. Okay. Hold on. Let me pull it up onto the stage here. Like, woo! That kind of thing. Yeah. And then people, there's a lot of people doing the meme of, like, throwing out the investors, the book, the, like... [25:29] Sound investor or whatever. So people are, that's what's happening. This is my take. [25:35] Yeah, there it is. There it is. And... [25:39] My take on this is that... [25:43] Oh, excuse me. [25:47] Boobs are back. I've been saying this. It's Trump's America. I've been saying this for two years now and they're back and I'm happy for off campus.

[25:54] If you're not watching that shout out off campus, I'm legitimately distracted by what's happening on that show. Good for her. I'm happy. I'm happy for all you guys. Yeah. Yeah. I am curious. Two things that I think will happen from an economic perspective on three things, actually. Okay. One, one, [26:14] Victoria's Secret stock price. Uh-huh. And other... Can I ask, like, is this following, like, a particularly good... Like, don't they do the fashion show in Q1? Like, is there something... [26:25] No. [26:26] There wasn't, there wasn't, I mean, they do do that, but I don't think they did it this year. They did a weird thing that was like... [26:33] last quarter or something. They changed the date. And so, um, [26:37] That is one thing I think stock prices of [26:41] What's the American Eagle? Okay. One, Ariel. [26:46] okay ariel or whatever skims like i'm like if i was [26:51] I'd be buying some of those right now because people are going to start wearing bras again and wearing push-up bras. One. Two. Three. [26:58] Recession indicator, push-up brass? [27:00] potentially. Okay. Two, um, [27:04] I would get into plastic surgery if I was... [27:08] a young person as a doctor, I'd be going into cosmetics right now. I see. Yeah. They're going to be cleaning up. Yeah. Like that's going to be back. Fake boobs are so back. Uh-huh. [27:18] Um, [27:19] The third I'll take, I'll just... No. Now we need to know it. I just think that there's going to be like a rise of...

[27:28] in the same vein of young [27:31] like of Trump's America, I think we're going to see a resurgence in a major way of AIDS gap relationships again. Very young women, fake tits, older men. Wow. I know, I know why you shied away from that take. You heard it here first, I think. So anyway, I just think like those are downstream consequences of Trump being in office. Yeah. Wow. A lot to unpack there. But we can take the ticker, [28:01] Just bringing it back to Victoria's Eve for a second. [28:03] Um, it's so interesting that this is, [28:06] they're there. Like if genuinely like earnings report showed 15% year on year growth, [28:12] That's the most shocking part of it. The meme stock stuff I get and like the boobs and all of that, I understand conceptually. Yeah. But Victoria's Secret sales being up 15% year on year. Yeah. I can't square because... [28:26] Malls are dead. Where are people? They're shopping online. Well, a big part of this was that a big part of the story is that 13% of it was online shopping. And I will say we have another story that we are going to get into about Pia, the new Chrome plugin. Pia. Pia, sorry, Pia for online shopping. And I have been on a bathing suit search journey. Journey. We've all heard. Everybody in the studio is aware. And spending, clocking literally hours online shopping, trying to unlock something. [28:56] And the Holy Grail. Exactly. And I have been fed so much Victoria's Secret bathing suits and like every single search. And I'm like, not, they have some cracked growth. Something happened. Yeah. I think I would have loved to dig into that a little bit more around like growth marketing. That makes sense. Because man.

[29:17] You walk past a virtual secret in the mall and it's like, [29:21] It's a graveyard. Yeah. Remember when we went to Mecca, i.e. the Skim store in Green Hills Mall? I do remember that. Great retail experience. Fantastic. Merchandising in store might have been a Nashville thing, but they have a great job. I think it was appropriate merchandising for where we were. Yeah. Not for us. We were kind of like lost in the... [29:41] Yeah, but Skims does a great job. Victoria's Secret, on the other hand, I don't know, but... I think it's an increase in merchandising online and then... [29:54] I think some growth marketing that they're doing that's really working. Yes. Because I'm nowhere. I'm in like a totally different land of bathing suit. Yeah. And to be keep getting fed back is very strange. Wait, wait, wait. What about this? Yeah, yeah. Man, I used to hit the five. It was at the time. I will be aging myself. But I think it was like five for 25. [30:12] Yeah. Underwear. [30:14] So totally in the bins, you're like, ew, yeah, through the bins. I Victoria's super gross. Yeah. But I, for me, I was like, that was so that was, well, what's incredible to me is what, whatever it is, 10 years, 15 years later. Yeah. Skims. [30:28] Five for $35. Right. Still a pretty good deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know I'm a skin supporter. I know you are. I really should have some. And then the last thing I'll say about Victoria's Secret... You should. You should buy some stock in skin. I should. Yes. You should put your money where your mouth is. Last thing I'll say about Victoria's Secret is... [30:44] Um, [30:46] The...

[30:49] Bra sizing. [30:51] Trauma. Trauma. That has happened in those dressing rooms. Tears. Like, yeah, they're. [30:58] It's so unpleasant. [31:01] It's so... [31:04] Hold on there. I'm getting, I'm getting an off, uh, offstage signal here. Um, [31:09] I love the way that that's happening. I keep going. Just being like... [31:15] 15 years old. [31:17] not having any sense of your own body. Yeah. Zero. Having boobs and like not having any sense of what they are and like having so much weird like. [31:31] just like them being new and you being like, I don't know. And like, [31:35] Someone like thrusting you into a Victoria's Secret dressing room and being like, figure it out. Then a stranger comes in, you're tuffles. Yeah. Stranger comes in with their thing and it's like hastily like putting it around places and like you're moving and you're like, I don't know. And then them giving you some arbitrary, honestly, size. They're like, maybe this. The whole thing, I just like, I have so much trauma around it and... [32:01] I, they were always pushing it. And I was always like, they were always trying to get you measured. I like can't think of anything I want to do less. And then we were in the skin store and they're like, she was like, can we measure it? [32:14] I was like, did you ask? Yeah, no, I didn't ask. I was basically like,

[32:20] I need to be a grown-up woman. I should buy a bra. And I was like, we're here. I'm in store. I don't have to do, like, order six and return all of them. And then this sweet young woman who was an untrained young lady was in the Skims store. [32:38] store yeah and you guys want to be measured and i was like we're here let's do it she measured us both and i can't tell you the just she didn't know what she was doing and i was like okay yeah we came out with the same size okay she was like the same size and i was like those who have eyes to see i was like uh and we were both just like went into the dressing room and [33:05] They were wrong. They didn't work. They didn't work. Anyway. Oh my God. Okay. New York Tech Week. [33:12] Why don't you come on out? [33:14] We have a really fun guest to chat about Tech Week. Hi, I'm Dina. [33:19] Nice to meet you too. Hi, I'm Natasha. Thank you for coming. Okay, you're just going to want to pull that mic in. Okay, Anna or Anna? Anna. Anna, okay. Boy roll? Okay, great. Thank you so much for coming by. So you had a little viral moment this week related to New York Tech Week. Yes, with my tweet. [33:43] Oh, do we have a... [33:44] Okay, great. I'm going to pull it up here, but give us a little voiceover on what you built, what happened, the viral moment, tell us everything. Yeah, so I built an event directory which shows you all the New York Tech Week events, but with like actual... Oh, oh, oh. Yeah.

[34:07] Do I look this way? [34:08] you can look at us yeah yeah [34:18] Thank you. [34:19] Thank you. [34:20] Yeah. [34:24] Thank you. [34:24] Are we sounding good? [34:26] Okay, how do we sound? [34:29] Thumbs up. Okay, great. We're good to go. Okay, so tell us what happened. So I built an events directory, which shows you all the New York Tech Week event pages from PartyPoll. [34:38] but with like actually helpful filters. So neighborhood, people, time, sword by popularity, et cetera. And like a chatbot that you can just ask about anything, and it'll just give you a few events to go to. [34:51] I'm obsessed because if for people who don't know navigating the New York tech week, [34:55] website. It's insufferable. It's impossible. Like it literally just doesn't work basically. And you're like, okay, there's all that, that website does. [35:03] to me is show that there's a lot of events happening right and there's 1600 as i can see on your um page here yeah there are so many events and the website is just so hard to navigate i scrolled it for a few minutes to try to find a few events and i just couldn't so i just went to claude and immediately just gave it context about me and it found me really cool events and i just thought okay i can't be the only one who has this problem yeah how did you build um this tool um so [35:33] On Claude. Yeah. Nice. That's awesome. So then you tweeted about it.

[35:37] And then it kind of went off. [35:39] Is that what happened? Okay. I think it went off because of the party full RSVP data that I exposed using it. So when I was scraping all the party full event pages of New York Tech Week, [35:49] I saw that like to party for uses a JSON app. So and it's like source page. You can see all the guest count pending, approved, et cetera. And you can't see that on the actual app. So I thought I'd use that to actually tell people. Yeah. Nice. Where they should go. That's awesome. What's already booked? I feel like this could live in a category of, you know, when, you know, when, you know, [36:13] like the meme of a girl talking to her friends and not knowing anything about a guy she's like i can't find him and the girlfriends being like just give me his name and then going so deep like i feel like it's gonna be in the same category of like we're gonna find every partiful every event he's at we will know i'm like okay you could create a vibe coding app around that i think was partiful like a partner for near tech week is there a reason all these are on partiful yeah [36:43] That makes sense. Got it. That makes sense. And New York Tech Week is put on by... [36:47] Or like the creator of New York Tech Week is 16. I didn't know that. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah, they're the... [36:56] That's their propaganda machine. The daddy. Okay. [37:01] And I think that this tweet is what I saw, which was why I wanted to reach out to you, which was about...

[37:08] Uh, [37:09] you were able to see RSVPs relative to confirmed cases, [37:14] uh attendance and so then we're able to filter by which events are the most exclusive which i thought was a great hack do you know off the top of your head which one was the most exclusive yes the speed one one the speed one pitch composition okay by a16z so i know the like official program only accepts 0.4 percent of people and their pitch composition which i guess is like [37:36] speed running kind of [37:38] to interview, accepts 0.8% of people. Okay, wow. Okay. Yeah. But I mean, presumably this is like a one-on-one pitch. So that would make sense that people are like, [37:48] It's not like an event. Like, you're not going in. I know, but I checked the party full event questionnaire, and it's pretty short. You kind of answer three questions, and they... [37:58] only pigs your point eight percent of people yeah i'm not sure how they do it but um interesting they'll probably show some good time um and then the anthropic event was also anthropic event is on there yeah okay um and yeah it's it would be really interesting to see you had a take that was like i want to see the rooms [38:15] Oh, yeah. Okay. There's another tweet from a friend of the pod, Sarum. [38:20] who was saying that New York Tech Week is just like a humiliation ritual. And it was like all of these different people tweeting about how oversubscribed their events are. [38:28] Um, and, uh, [38:30] Saying like... [38:32] Either this is how you get in or this is crazy or blah, blah, blah. And like sort of saying that this is, yeah, humiliating. And I think that's funny take. I also think.

[38:46] Like, I'm, [38:48] Two things. [38:50] Additionally, our other friend of the pod, Quasi Matt, showed this hack that you can do on Facebook. [38:55] party full where you as the host can go in say that someone is actually going to attend and then give them plus nine so you sort of like make your fluff your numbers wait your numbers inflate your numbers to make it look like there's hundreds of people going to these events or whatever he's a shit coaster so i think he was just doing that for a bit but yes i do think it's possible to do yeah i did see this bug there's another bug that i found where if you're an event host and you can see the toggles interested pending approved you can so if someone says they're interested in your [39:25] can change that to going. So they don't want to go to your event, but you can tell them, hey, exactly. They're actually going. It's exactly that. And then you can add plus ones, up to nine plus ones. So you can say that there are so many, endless amount of people who are interested. And my, yeah, my take is like, [39:41] just show me the rooms. Like, are people actually showing up to these places? Are they actually interested? Like, I'm fully disinterested in a tweet that says there were 600 people who said that they were going to come to my event. I'm totally interested in a picture of a full room, which the peptide event last night, totally full room. So I think that not to say that people are not showing up to these places. I think that people are. But my recommendation to you as a marketer, [40:04] listening for your tech week event just wait and be like look how many people showed up yes show don't tell yeah don't tell i think it's important with events um you are you a career vibe coder or tell us more about what you're up to technically i'm a startup lawyer okay i work in an ai native law firm okay and i host tech events in the city okay cool

[40:23] So you're in the event game is very much yours. Yes, I'm hosting one tomorrow with 14 founders and one imposter. [40:29] It's a table with 15 people. Oh, that's so fun. Yeah. Okay. Wait, say more. So there's a table with 15 people and it's dinner and 14 of them are real Seed and Series A founders and one of them is just a liar. Oh. [40:40] I'm obsessed with that. That is so funny. And [40:44] Is everybody trying to figure out who's lying and who's... Exactly. Okay, that's such a great idea. So, it's a small dinner, but with a little bit of spice to it. You can ask my hands questions, and it's okay, because you're really just trying to figure out who's LARPing. Wow, that's so fun. That is really funny. I really love that. Do you know who the... I do. Okay, did you go out and handpicked? I posted a tweet asking who's really good at LARPing, and a lot of people DMed me in the... [41:06] person. [41:07] is exceptionally good at LARPing. Okay. So, yes. [41:10] Next time you do this, let me know, because I have quite a few recommendations. [41:18] That's really fun. OK, so you work. You're a lawyer. Yes. OK. And. [41:23] Tell us about working as a lawyer in AI. I feel like it's a really interesting time to be doing that. Yeah, it's great because I work in an AI native law firm. So we build all our legal tech products ourselves. Okay. And we use it to draft contracts. We do contracts. There's the human and lube thing where we review them on our own. But that means we can cut costs for our clients. So we charge like one third the fee of big law, but like our entire law firm is just ex-big law. Okay. So it's really great for our clients. Cool. That's awesome.

[41:53] presumably spent a ton of money in getting a law degree and seeing AI like consume parts of that industry? Not at all, just because like, [41:59] the way society's structured, it's like the law just can't ever go. Like, of course it's not going away. Yeah. The American Bar Association is just not going away. [42:06] they will always order lawyers to just end up, you know, like, [42:10] review a contract instead of us. So, [42:13] Yeah. As a way it's structured, lawyers just can't go away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You might as well just price competitively. [42:20] Yeah, it's like... [42:21] Podcast hosts can't, can't be. We're always going to be safe. Job security. We're not setting this. [42:28] Okay. What tech week events are you going to? Or ones that you've been eyeing that you think are interesting? I went to an event by Flybridge. They rented out a bodega and they were just giving out free bacon and cheese. It's anyone who wanted to pitch. I went to the 11 labs pop-up. I was going to ask. Okay. Yeah. I was just making you coffee. [42:47] Maybe we could go to that before. Just Wednesday as well. Yeah, nice. [42:51] um any other highlights yes uh there's a plus one party hosted by vega on friday you bring a plus one and at the end you have to leave with a date a roommate or a really good fan or something you just have to leave with someone's plus one yeah wow people are getting pretty innovative over here on that's great i love to see that some great events this year yeah uh yeah it feels like there's been a real step change in terms of the new york tech week as a whole what [43:17] how much is going on. It feels like there's a lot more going on than years prior, which I'm curious about like why that has happened. But I've sensed that.

[43:25] From the online discourse around it, at least. I wonder what the vibe is around... [43:31] fundraising right now. [43:33] as it relates to like also what's happening with vibe coding, like how if the relationship between founder and venture investor has changed, has the power dynamic shifted? [43:43] more towards the founder. I think there's a big discourse about how you can't ever call yourself a non-technical founder now with bug coding. So power dynamics shifting towers the founder, [43:53] I... [43:54] I think there is more capital to deploy now and a lot of people deploying so much capital. [43:59] But there are also a lot more founders. Yeah. So you have to, yeah. Yeah, a lot more noise. There are a lot of companies today than there ever have been. Yeah. So probably not that much shifting towards the founder. Yeah. Yeah. I think – [44:12] There has been times in the past, like different iterations of – [44:16] the tech industry where it, I guess it has just felt so stacked on the side of the, [44:22] VC where you're like, they have, Oh, the pig of the litter. Every, all the leverage and the founder has zero. And now, [44:31] There's like less being a founder, you're, you're less capital constrained with all these tools. And so you're able to move faster in ways that like, you don't necessarily need the VCs for [44:41] as much at least early stage stuff. And so I just wonder if that frees up, but you're right. That [44:48] probably 10 times the amount of founders and people who are building. I do also think that it makes sense that an in-person event or like a week of in-person events has...

[44:57] exploded because I think if I'm a venture capitalist and now there's 10x 50x the amount of founders who are working on projects like getting in front of and meeting as many folks as you can in an efficient way to then be like okay these are the three or five that I'm actually going to take meetings with based on. [45:14] our interaction or what they talked about or what they're building as opposed to like having to find a way to filter through all of the vibe coded apps that are like living on Twitter totally so I think that that makes sense in like the IRLness of it all yeah it's great the founders don't have to fly to SF and [45:29] People in SF are now coming to New York this week. It's great. There are so many people on the street who are just going to New York Tech Week events. I was just walking in Flatiron and someone pointed to me and said, hey, I met you at the New York Tech Week event last night. And at the event I was going to, I met someone from another event earlier that day. It's just it's a great sense of community that New York tech scene often lacks. Yeah. [45:51] What's next? What's your next vibe coding project? What are you going to disrupt next? What security vulnerabilities are you going to explain? Hopefully none of them. I really did not mean to see that. I really just want to describe the particle pages. It's so sweet that like there's such a I really appreciate the way that you are coming in to this around the what you were able to exploit, because there would be a different type of person who would be coming in with a different energy around it. And I'm like, it's so nice. You're like very sweet around it. But I yeah. [46:19] I did not mean to see that. It just happened and I just could not use it. Of course. These seem to be very cool merch, though. Nice. I DMed them on Twitter and I said,

[46:27] If you need to security test any of your... [46:30] Merch. Send it to me. And they did. Nice. Wait, there's something else going on with Partiful with ticketing, right? Yes. Okay. Should we talk about that? Yeah. Just that they're doing you're selling. Yeah. [46:43] tickets you're able to to sell tickets in portfolio okay i always thought that was the case [46:49] You were wrong. I was wrong. I have been to events where you had to Venmo in order to get into the event. That's a workaround. Okay, right. That makes sense. Okay. Yeah. They've, Stripe. I think they've plugged it in the back end. I see. Okay. Okay. Because honestly, the way that they had taped it together really worked. I was like, oh, wow. I'm like sent to Venmo. I sent the thing and I came back and it was like, oh, okay. Interesting. Anyway. They have a party full party go out tonight and they're, [47:16] you have to pay either $10,000 to get in or just the discount code that they just gave everyone. Oh, nice. That's funny. Okay. Everyone was talking about why is this $10,000? Yeah. Okay. That's nice. They do a great job. Yeah. I'm a big, big fan of Particle. Yeah. And I'm glad they're making some money. [47:30] And, you know, I'm happy to give data to Palantir anytime. You know, that's the, you know, that's the, yeah, yeah. That's what people think about a party full is that they're actually like an agent of Palantir and it's a way to collect data about people's movements. [47:43] I believe it. So I don't know. That's some deep like conspiracy theory vibes, but everybody makes me feel a bit less bad about exposing security. There you go. Well, thank you so much for coming on and congrats on a viral moment. You love to see it. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon.

[48:01] Thank you. [48:01] New York Tech Week. [48:04] What's on our agenda? Well, I want to go to this 11 Labs thing. 11 Labs. There's the Anthropic. Anthropic event. [48:14] and um i'm going to a delta lounge for me yeah then delta lounge i'm going to a stellar [48:20] event tomorrow night and there's some other crypto stuff. So, you know, [48:25] There is some crypto stuff? Well, kind of. There's like crypto people doing things that I don't know. It's not necessarily crypto. [48:33] So great. What a nice... [48:36] Young woman. Yes. [48:38] I. [48:41] Yeah, it's interesting to see how crypto is showing up. And that's... [48:48] Quite minimally. Yes. [48:51] Yes. Quite minimally. Okay. Well, there's also ETHConf next week, which I feel like is maybe part of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is that everyone's like, well... I'll see you next week. See you next week. Yeah. Okay. I have... [49:07] um [49:08] One other thing that is so fun about the site, the vibe coding site, [49:13] site that she put together. It's built with Purcell. [49:16] Love to see it. Always is. It always is. It always is. The tool that we use to get into our studio. Yeah. Also built with herself. I mean, it all comes back. It really does. It all comes back to them. [49:26] Okay. [49:27] I had one other story. Oh, should we talk about the...

[49:31] Well, I feel like I've talked quite a bit. So do you want to talk about the call sheet? Go Knicks. Yes. Um... [49:38] I just have one thing to say quickly, please, about the Knicks. [49:41] um, [49:42] If anybody's listening and wants to take me to a Knicks game, I'm available. For the Knicks game. She's here. She's ready. She's willing. At Natasha G. Hoskins. These DMs are open. She's a great time. She's a great person to bring to a Knicks game. Thank you. Yeah, you'll be a great date for a Knicks game. Or a friend. It doesn't have to be a date. It could be anything. [50:01] companion companion if you're looking for a companion for a next game yeah yeah you found your gal you know who to call yeah um look no further uh-huh uh [50:12] Well, [50:13] I don't follow basketball at all, so I just need to ask a couple basics. When is it, and who are they playing? Okay, so they're playing the Spurs, San Antonio Spurs. The first game is tonight. [50:23] There's a series of... You know how it works? A playoff. A playoff, yes. So up to a series of seven games. First to four. First to four. Okay. So tonight's the first game. Second game is... In New York. I believe tonight's in New York, right? Yeah. No, no, no. Tonight's in San Antonio. Okay, tonight's in San Antonio. Friday, huge in New York. Okay. So that's going to be a fun night. And then... [50:46] For me, who will be going. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be a great night for you. Yeah, Friday and then Monday and then I don't know the other ones. But those are the three upcoming games. And first time the Knicks are in the finals in what? [50:59] 27 years. You've got to be a Knicks fan here? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So are you wearing a Knicks shirt? Oh, no, no, you're not. So we'll be – it's really fun. And, you know, like what I love about New York sports –

[51:13] I'm not like a huge sports gal. I'm not going to pretend like I am. Basketball is my favorite. Great. But I... [51:19] I just love similar to watching a horror movie in a theater. [51:23] A communal. It's so fun. We need more of those. Yes, you do. And going to a bar and all rooting for the same thing. And it's great. So that's the deal. Speaking of, there's this really funny tweet that I'm going to pull up, which is, I love the World Cup and it's coming up. And they're similar. I don't really care. My husband watches soccer all the time. I'm not really into it. [51:53] Primarily games that he watches, but like the World Cup, especially communal experience. The funnest. My family's Brazilian. And so I feel like I have a little bit of license to share this tweet, which is so really funny. [52:06] And it is about the Brazilian... [52:10] Soccer team. [52:12] They flew to [52:14] the United States this past week and that [52:17] They baptized the plane. [52:22] It's a video. Is this real? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that's a joke. No, no, no, no, no. It's real. And they like sprayed... [52:30] the plane down. Oh, funny. [52:32] That's so funny. Really funny stuff. And anyway, they flew to New York. [52:38] And they're starting to come in, starting to gear up. Wow. Exciting. That feels so early. I thought it was like, I guess July. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you want to like be here to acclimate for a bit. Prep. Yeah. Um, yeah.

[52:49] Yeah, I am going to Paris in... [52:53] uh august no july couple weeks yeah couple weeks and uh for for the long-time listener they know this is [53:00] something that I do. And it, it, [53:04] It's remarkably easy to sublet my apartment this summer. I did. Okay, great. Because there's no Airbnb in New York, and all these people are coming in for the World Cup, and there's nowhere. It's actually... [53:17] I'd love to see some economic studies on how people are managing it because basically like there was so much inbound for my apartment because there's all these people who have no other way to stay in New York for more than, you know, you could of course do a hotel, but hotels are crazy expensive. Like there's a problem that has happened due to Airbnb not being legal in New York anymore, but really worked to my advantage this year. Yeah. [53:42] Anyway, great for the hotels. Great for the hotel. Hotel business is going to be [53:46] popping. Okay, wait, we were going to talk about Kalshi [53:51] Nick's bar. Yeah, now I'm distracted by how irritated I am at all the hotel prices in New York. It's insane. It's so... [53:59] Well, it's not just in New York. I was actually looking at you and I are going to a wedding in Italy this summer. Yeah. And we are spending a few days in Rome before, which will be really fun. And I was looking at hotel prices and we both used to work and we worked on a travel product and I... [54:17] was looking through some trauma, honestly. Like, we don't even need to get into it. We'll talk about it later. But, like, some things we had put together, some documentation that we had put together. And I was looking at the prices of those hotels, and this was in 2017.

[54:29] 21 2022 maybe and they were like 2 12 a night type thing for like cute boutique hotel and [54:37] 650, 700 now. That's the issue. In four years. Yeah. And it's the same room. It's the same product. It's the same product. Maybe a worse product. Right, exactly. Four years on. Four years on. Yes. Yeah. [54:48] That's the issue. Like, [54:52] The Penny Hotel here. Wow. Wow. Sorry. Name is James. Name is James. But like. No, Jim. No, Jim. [54:58] So many times. No lobby. No gym. No lobby. Like, it's a fine hotel. Like, it's totally fine. Yeah. Yeah. [55:05] At the price it is? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yes. And so, yeah, that's the issue. I feel really... [55:14] Upset by it. Upset by it. Okay, should we get back to the Cal sheet? Yes. So I feel, I just want to caveat this by saying that I do feel a little bit like I'm just giving a Cal sheet PR person a, [55:27] a megaphone so yeah a little bit like it gives me a little bit of the ick to share this story however it's a good idea so okay i'm going to share it [55:35] Anyway, there is... You're sharing it as a fan of the marketer that came up with this, not like doing the bidding of Kalshi. [55:43] Exactly. Yes. Kudos to the marketer. [55:46] um [55:46] Human story. Human interest story. The Jeffrey is a New York City bar. [55:55] And they basically put a bunch of money on the Knicks to win the,

[56:03] on I have to assume what's that? [56:06] Oops, sorry. [56:08] They put $5,000. [56:10] on the Knicks to win, I think, for Friday's game. [56:14] The barded. The barded. [56:17] If they win, [56:19] Everyone gets free drinks. Fun. If they don't. That's a great idea. Yeah, it's a great idea. Really smart. Really good idea. [56:27] Um, it's, do you think this was seeded by that Cal sheep gave them $5,000 to do it? [56:33] No, I don't think so. Like it's the, the maybe actually, yes. Let's just say yes. Because I was going to say like the press release is framed that like New York City local bar, the Jeffrey uses Caltree to hedge Nick's. [56:47] promotion, showing how small businesses can use prediction markets as insurance. Oh, okay. They're doing this hedging story. But like, yeah, of course they. Yeah. Cool. That's a great idea. But like really well executed. [57:00] Everyone did. [57:01] The Jeffrey. [57:04] Um, [57:06] Oh, Uptown. Okay. Whoa, crazy. [57:10] 60th and 2nd. [57:11] Between first and second for those who... [57:14] Thank you. [57:15] participate. That's so fun. I love that. You love to see a human interest piece. Oh, wait, it's for game one. So this night. Yeah. Great. Okay. [57:25] But yeah, I like – [57:27] Calci aside, but... [57:30] Great idea. Great execution. [57:32] Love that. Fun concept. It reminds me, there was a...

[57:36] Um, [57:38] back in a previous life when I worked in agencies, there was this agency that, [57:43] for their Christmas party. [57:45] they were like, we're going to put the budget for the Christmas party on, what's the Vegas game that goes? Roulette. Roulette. And we're going to put it on red. Okay. And if... [57:58] It hits. It hits. We all, whatever, have this like crazy blowout party. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. And a similar thing. Like, did it? I can't remember. It wasn't really about that. It was about like the idea of it. Yeah, totally. Great. But really fun. [58:12] Okay, should we end here with... [58:17] Thea? [58:18] Yeah. Raised. Okay. So, uh, [58:22] Big news hit the timeline this week around a fundraise for a company called FIA. And announcement was a $35 million raise. Mm-hmm. [58:34] Now, ordinarily in today's world, unfortunately or fortunately or whatever, $35 million raise wouldn't make the news, wouldn't break through the timeline. The main two main reasons why this particular raise did is because the founder, one of the founders is CEO. [58:54] Phoebe Gates, Bill Gates' daughter. The other founder is a woman named Sophie Kiani. And their raise announcement reads like a Coachella festival lineup. And the some of the names here. Number one, number one.

[59:12] seat 1A here. Khloe Kardashian, Sydney Sweeney, Alex Earle, Jessica Alba, Priyanka Chopra, Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, the list goes on and on. Oh my god. [59:27] And [59:27] There is many takes on the internet. People have feelings. People have thoughts. Yeah. Um, [59:34] I personally... [59:37] have, [59:39] So I'll tell you the takes. Half the takes are... [59:43] Basically, Napa baby. Sure. People are angry. People are like, quote, tweet. [59:51] This is a web. Oh, the product. First of all, the product is essentially it's a. [59:56] browser plugin that is AI-enabled, [1:00:00] shopping essentially so you it does a few things it's very like honey which we'll talk about in a [1:00:10] coded, if you remember that product, but it, you're on a page back to my bathing suit search. I'm on solid and stripe. I'm on Frankie bikinis. I'm looking at a bikini. I open the tool. There's a little, and you open it and it will show you other products for other price points that are similar throughout the internet. [1:00:30] using AI. I'm going to do a little demo right now so we can look at it. What's a... I put a link to the... I mean, it's a bathing suit. Maybe you don't want to do that, but like... Oh, that's okay. Frankie's Bikini. Okay, let's see it. So you go there.

[1:00:44] You open it up. You click that. [1:00:47] And then it will show you other bathing suits that are similar for other price points that are cheaper for, [1:00:53] And it searches like Poshmark. It searches. They're not the exact same. I'm sure there are some where you're like looking for a luxury bag. Poshmark used. Okay. Wow. All right. [1:01:04] Got it. They're really pulling from lots of different sources. Lots of different sources. [1:01:09] And... [1:01:10] Then when you go to checkout, it automatically automatically, [1:01:13] puts all these coupon codes that they source. I bought this bathing suit and it found me a 10% off [1:01:20] And I've ordered from Frankie a lot, so... [1:01:22] 10% off. I think it's actually a great product. Like I think it's really excellently executed. They raised 8 million. They announced $8 million raised last year. Now the $35 million raise and the product is, um, can you guys see the browser in the, um, this price is typical. That's cool. I haven't seen it. [1:01:40] Eight coupons found... [1:01:42] typical uh which also i have a bone to pick that 29 seconds okay baby scissors are not 250 dollars yeah that's a crime but that has nothing to do with them yeah that's fine um [1:01:53] So, I'm going to say, [1:01:54] That's the product. I think it's an excellent product. Yeah, I am. [1:01:59] My hope is that what will happen is that this little shopping buddy will get to know me more and more and more and more and will be more... [1:02:08] personalized and the recommendations that it has for me i'm not a believer in agentic commerce i don't think that that's going to happen i don't think that i'm going to have an agent go buy me all my clothes that's not a world that i see uh but having with you there but let's keep rolling okay but having but you don't like shopping

[1:02:24] Yeah, I think agentic commerce for things that you don't enjoy shopping for will absolutely happen. For your toilet paper, you want to go and make those choices? Okay, fine. That's cool. But like this bathing suit? You enjoy shopping for bathing suits, so you're going to keep doing it. Does anybody in the world enjoy shopping for bathing suits? There is a process, I feel. It's high touch. It's very high touch. It's a white glove. Totally. Totally. [1:02:49] That's not... [1:02:51] all of the shopping that you do. Yeah. And so people want to take examples like that and make all of agentic commerce like about that one thing. And they're like, I want to buy my own wedding dress. Like, of course you want to buy your own wedding dress. Like, okay, we're talking about [1:03:01] I agree with you. I agree with you. Okay. We actually aligned on that. Um, [1:03:05] So that's my experience with the product. Going back to the takes online, people are upset because she's an Apple baby. People are upset because of the way in which this race was announced, like a Coachella poster with all these celebrities on it. People are upset that there was a quote tweet that did numbers that was like, it's a web browser, LOL, and that sort of thing. Okay. So, yeah. And... [1:03:32] I think one... [1:03:35] what this woman has gone through being Bill Gates' daughter. [1:03:38] Let her do whatever the fuck she wants. Okay? Let her be. Two. [1:03:43] It's a great product. [1:03:45] Three, it's a stupid fucking take to say that this is a web browser, LOL. Honey, [1:03:52] I think five years ago, more than that, maybe raised $40 million. They had a $3 billion exit.

[1:03:58] To PayPal. $3 billion. [1:04:00] Maybe $4 billion. Let me double track my numbers here. [1:04:03] a huge, huge exit to PayPal as a browser plugin. $4 billion in cash in 2020. $4 billion cash. And what happened to them? Okay. Crazy story. So glad you asked. Okay. So Honey was everywhere. It was this plugin [1:04:17] Very similar. Very similar. It didn't do the AI shopping thing. It was just the coupon. And how these businesses work is affiliate. [1:04:23] affiliate fees. And [1:04:26] That was another take, like, how could a business be built on affiliate fees? And I'm like, you have no idea how much people shop then. Like, yeah, people spend so much money shopping online and. [1:04:36] So then... [1:04:37] Honey sold. [1:04:38] Huge sell to PayPal. [1:04:41] A big part of Honey's marketing over the course of their life, they were like very early to influencer marketing. They were very early to YouTube creators. That was like a big part of how they got initial like mass attraction for their product. [1:04:55] Then in 2025, um... [1:04:58] a wait was it in 2025 let's see hold on I just don't want to [1:05:02] Double check my numbers. Okay, 2024. A YouTuber comes out with a video. [1:05:07] That is entitled exposing the honey influencer scam gets 13 million views. And basically what they expose is two things. One, that honey would essentially was stealing affiliate linking from creators to be attributed to honey instead of the creator, the YouTube creator that actually was.

[1:05:30] push the product. [1:05:31] Are you following? I am. So that was one component of it. And then the second component of it was that they were [1:05:39] with some of the partnerships that they had were holding back coupon codes for some of the partners that they were like deeply embedded with, which was against the core premise of what the product was useful for and that. [1:05:55] basically what consumers were. Yep. So those two things happen. Expose. Expose. Class action lawsuit comes in. Oh. From all of these influencers, YouTubers, creators saying, like, you've been stealing from us. Uh-huh. [1:06:08] And, you know, [1:06:10] reportedly there was a $4 million user drop-off after this happened. I think also because trust was lost around like these coupons are working. I also think there's another part of this story that I didn't dig into as much, but the way in which affiliate linking works, [1:06:24] worked completely changed and that like fucked the product basically and so those three things all happened and um i think the product still exists i think people still use it but it doesn't have the same um like i at least in zeitgeist people are not talking about it there's a gap in the market for miss gates exactly and um [1:06:44] the lawsuit is still active. So crazy. And I'm very supportive of this product. I think it's great. Yeah. I think it's a wonderful. Oh, and the other take is, [1:06:56] Um, [1:06:57] That, well, you had a really funny...

[1:07:00] I'm looking at this list here. Yeah. Well, I just like that. What's hilarious to me is that. [1:07:07] This is the first time in his life, I think, that Alexander Arnaud [1:07:11] who is the son of Bernard Renaud, who is... [1:07:14] LVMH, the LVMH family. He doesn't show up until line five. He's getting like- Absolutely humbled. Yeah, majorly humbled. Also, Vlad Tenev, who is the CEO of Robin Hood, I'm sure he has never been to C1A on a funding announcement. So- They're like basically in coach at this point. I think it's kind of funny to see how this has shown up. I love to see him to be humbled in this way. [1:07:44] Taboozy, bottom row. [1:07:46] Crazy, crazy, crazy work. Wendy Murdoch. Wow. Yeah. I mean, also... [1:07:52] If I had this lineup of [1:07:55] Investors? [1:07:56] You better believe I'd be putting all their names on a graphic and putting it on Twitter, too. Additionally, like, if you have an app that's for shopping. Yeah, totally. This is an insane lineup. Yeah. [1:08:08] Sydney Sweeney collab with Frankie's Bikini brought to you by Fia. It just does the work all on its own. So anyway, that's my take on this. And I think that people... [1:08:20] I totally get it. She's an easy target. She's the easiest target that I've ever seen in my entire life. A hundred percent. And people love to hate on a funding grounds. There's actually no reason, in my opinion, to announce a fundraise unless it's this kind of lineup. Because people just do not root for you when they know you have raised money. So that's that. Wow.

[1:08:41] Anything else you want to talk about? I just want to give a quick shout out. It's not going to work for me to play it here, but there's an incredible video that I just linked to in – [1:08:50] the newsletter that I think is important for everyone to watch, which is this child, [1:08:56] who, um, [1:08:58] has mastered... [1:09:00] Probably, I don't know, he does like [1:09:02] 30 different bird calls oh yeah this note in the run of show um i can't find the link oh no i didn't i lost the link okay i'll just give you a quick synopsis well you know what you can do [1:09:13] You can go to... [1:09:17] boysclub.beehive.com. And you can look at the latest newsletter. And you can find the link there. Additionally, you should subscribe to both of the newsletters that we do because [1:09:29] I have to say, they're great. We work very hard on them. We do. And I think they're quite good. And so you should subscribe. You do have to subscribe. [1:09:37] To both. [1:09:39] Thank you. [1:09:39] to get both separately so just anyway [1:09:43] Tell us about the over-call guy. He is just... He's... [1:09:47] doing bird calls very accurately. And he has a whole... [1:09:52] auditorium of people and children and adults, a whole room of people who are like hanging on to his every word. [1:10:00] And he's pulling them out of, he's like out of school or something. And he's pulling out stuffed animals. And he's like, this is the horn birded, blah, blah, blah. And he like has stuffed animal. And then he goes, and sometimes he's on mic and sometimes he's not. And he's like, really accurate. And then he like tosses them aside. Have you seen it, Wes? Yes.

[1:10:20] Okay, everyone needs to go watch it. And there's just, it's, [1:10:23] Like a comedy. It's like he's doing his five minutes or whatever. And it's so tight. And he also like is just has these really odd mannerisms that he's like. [1:10:33] weaponized into comedy and he it's incredible stuff um and then the the last thing i'll say about it is that there's this kid in the front row [1:10:42] who is like, [1:10:43] egging him on and he's like just doing really good crowd work yeah it's just like a perfect video and so it's all at nine go to uh boys club drop you have.com check it out check out the latest dm me if you've watched it and we can chat about it the um rest of the newsletter is on scientific [1:11:02] Yeah. You know what? And it's a very different newsletter this week, but it was basically like, man, I'm [1:11:07] I'm just tired of... [1:11:09] Do more. [1:11:11] pessimism being something that's like cool and celebrated and i'm just like there's so much good stuff that's happening like let's [1:11:16] Take a look at some good stuff. I love that. The subject line is Oncologist Standing on Business, a good news edition. So can't wait to have people chat about it. And there's some really cool stuff happening in the world. There is. Technology is enabling. So you love to see that. Okay. That's our show. That's our show. Thank you for being here. Thanks for tuning in. We will see you next week.