The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Mon, 05 May 2025
Sam Altman is scanning eyeballs to verify Tinder dates… but the bigger story is the End of Passwords.Formula One just had its Miami Grand Prix… and the racing stock is at an all-time high.Mack Weldon’s underwear turned tariffs from a weakness to a strength.Plus, the next TBOY Live Show will be in **Chicago** 7/23/2025 đźŚđźŹ™ď¸ŹđźŚ¬ď¸Ź$LLYVK $MSFT $SPYWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… The Starbucks Frappuccino 🥤 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 Susper 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 is the significance of the End of Passwords?
Because we're going to have three fantastic stories, plus a surprise guest on stage at the Vic. And we'll be whipping up takeaways like a young Ferris Bueller. T-Boy Live does Chicago. Because Chicago does logistics. Tickets are on sale this Wednesday. Follow us to get those tickets first. Hey, Midwest, you look fantastic. Da Bears. Da Bulls. Da podcast. Da three stories. Let's eat them, Jack.
Oh boy, oh boy.
Start the show. Start the show. Start the show.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
For our first story, Formula One just held its hottest race event of the year down in Miami. But Formula One's stock is near an all-time high, and it's all thanks to your 28-year-old little sister.
Now, yetis, if your buddy Timmy called in sick today, it's because the Kentucky Derby, Cinco de Mayo, Star Wars Day, May the 4th, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, and Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder conference all happened over the weekend. And the Met Gala's today. Yeah, but the...
biggest event last weekend physically was actually the newest event formula one racing formula down in miami florida as they pronounce it in daytona formula and formula one the most technical cars the most expensive tickets and a whole lot of drama this weekend down in miami jack
The Dutch racer Max Verstappen drives for Team Red Bull, but almost missed the Miami race because his baby was born just a couple days before. Like literally right before. Oh, and then Ferrari unveiled a blue Ferrari car? What? Ferraris are red. That's the rule. It's like an insult to Italy worse than pineapple on pizza, man. Still, 2024 was a record year for Formula One.
They generated nearly $4 billion in revenue. Now, historically, Formula One racing has been ignored in America. This is NASCAR country. This is an indie world, baby. But today, F1 is actually the fastest growing professional sport in the United States. Depends on the timeframe, but along with pickleball and the WNBA, F1 is booming in America. And here's what Jack and I find fascinating.
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Chapter 2: Why is Formula One booming in the United States?
But the wildest part about F1's business model is actually who's behind it. Nick and I jumped in T-boy style to the earnings report from F1 last quarter. Female fans and fans under 30 are both up 50% for F1 in the past five years. That's right. Your 28-year-old little sister is who's driving growth at Formula One. But I'll be honest, even I'm attracted to the racers in Formula One.
Have you seen how chiseled those chins are? Max, don't Verstappen at all. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Formula One? F1 has mainstreamified the VIP section. Yetis, here's the irony. Formula One is the only mainstream luxury sport, yeah, that's a contradiction, that we can find. Polo, sailing, those aren't mainstream.
But F1 is mainstream, even though it's the glitziest of all the sports in the whole world. Nick, most Grand Prixs have their circuits viewable by yacht. Yeah, that's a real thing. Monaco, on the south coast of France, that's the most famous F1 racetrack. And yet, luxurious F1 is watched by a billion fans. It is also the fastest growing pro sport in America.
And most of those billion fans do not own yachts. So Formula One, it is sponsored by David Yerman Jewelry and Brunello Cuccinelli's fancy clothing. And yet it's also sponsored by Puma and Adidas. How does F1 pull it off? Such a wide, diverse spectrum of both fans and sponsors. It's strategic about what it keeps exclusive.
So Formula One limits itself to only 24 races, only 10 teams, and only 20 drivers. But it scales the media part. 100 million followers on social media, and it's broadcast globally on TV. So besties, Formula One is at an all-time high because it pulled off a contradiction Arameas never could. It's mainstreamified the VIP section.
For our second story, Sam Altman, Microsoft, and Tinder basically just killed the password. The future is passwordless. Yes, it is. Because we are so incredibly bad at keeping secure passwords. If I know Jack, there are a few things he loves more than a good game of trivia all the time.
So Jack, what was the trivia question I know you asked 50 people, including your family and the waiter at a restaurant? This is such a good hero stat. What percent of login attempts in America are successful?
32%.
That's it. Only 32% of the time are you successful logging in. Like only one out of three times are you getting your own password right. The other two thirds of the time you push login and it says wrong username or password. Please try again. Yetis, using logged in accounts online faces amazing friction and so much wasted time from all of those failed logins.
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Chapter 3: How is Mack Weldon turning tariffs into a strength?
None of those are good indicators for the economy. No, no, no, no, no, no. But the oldest alternative economic indicator is the men's underwear index. If men are so pinched that they're not buying new briefs, That's a bad sign. Yeah, guess what? Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, he actually coined this whole underwear observation.
He observed that nobody sees your underwear selection except the man who's wearing them and maybe their locker room neighbors. So if men aren't buying new underwear and they're wearing underwear with a bunch of holes in them, it means they're not feeling pretty good about their money right now.
So it's an interesting case study when we look at the direct-to-consumer men's brand, Mack Weldon, who sells underwear. Mack Weldon? Mack Weldon, a underwear brand that's between MeUndies and Calvin Klein on the coolness scale. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I guess I'd agree with you on that. Yeah, it's like the Lulu for dude dudes.
And like most of your wardrobe, Mack Weldon is facing 145% tariffs on the stuff they source from China. and 10% tariffs on everywhere else. So besties, everyone right now is worried about prices. Price hikes because of tariffs. When will they happen? When will they stop? Who knows how much? Not at Mack Weldon though. Prices aren't hiking at Mack Weldon.
And the timing of their no price change is very clear. Get this, Mack Weldon announced a price lock on all their underwear. Not a single pair will have a price increase until at least July 4th. We have not seen any other apparel company do this. Boxers or briefs. It's like a call option in finance applied to the top drawer of your dresser. We have seen Ford do something similar.
They announced employee pricing on cars, and their deal also lasts through July 4th. Now, Bessies, tariffs are coming. Not raising these underwear prices is going to hurt their underwear profit margins. But maybe it'll boost their sales. In fact, it already has. Mack Weldon's underwear sales actually jumped 90% in the month ending... April 15th.
So Mack Weldon is sacrificing some profit margin to gain loyalty at a painful economic moment. And it looks like it's selling. Men are buying up their male panties over Mack Weldon. Male panties. I'm sorry. You know what?
It's a new term. I just came up with it. Let's roll with it, Jack.
Yeah, but I hate the female version of the term, too. Well, I'm not saying it's going to work, but let's just, you know, you just put stuff out there sometimes. So, Bessie's every company in this economy is weakened by tariffs, but Mack Weldon has turned that into a strength. And you probably tossed a tank top and some trousers into your cart, too, not just the underwear.
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Chapter 4: What is a passkey and how does it work?
Epic Games and Spotify had been on a crusade to end Apple's 30% app tax, what they charge these apps in the App Store. And it looks like it finally happened. You can now subscribe to Spotify directly from an iPhone and not pay an app tax. After Apple got ripped by a judge, Spotify now has a link in their app so you can avoid the App Store toll booth.
And finally, ConAgra, the big food company, just sold Chef Boyardee last week for $600 million to a PE firm. The founder of the soup brand, Chef Boyardee, was a renowned chef who worked at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. He was a real Italian chef. Then he Americanized the spelling of his name to become a mass-market canned soup and pasta company.
Now that it's owned by private equity, they're probably going to, you know, water down some of the ingredients in the soups. Yeah, they're going to cut costs. So the can of mini raviolis, it's probably going to be even minier raviolis now. Spaghetti and meatballs is going to be spaghetti and meatball.
Yeah. Yeah.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Molly G from lovely Philadelphia. Speaking of Formula One racing, we told you about that race in Monaco with all the yachts. Well, Monaco in Europe is actually a country, one of the smallest countries on earth. Yeah, I said it was in the south of France. It's actually its own little thing. Like there's checkpoints.
But Monaco is actually smaller than Central Park in New York City. Here's the breakdown. Monaco is less than one square mile of land. Central Park. And it's a country. A little more than one square miles of land. Monaco. It's basically the Vatican City of the non-Catholic world. Because Vatican City is like its own country. Jack, I think you stuck the landing on it.
Yetis, you look fantastic today. Especially if you're over in the Midwest in Chicago, you look extra fantastic. We are so freaking pumped for July 23rd. It's going to be incredible. Amazing. We're going to a Cubs game the day after our performance, by the way. And maybe before as well. Yetis, we are dropping the tickets right here on Wednesday.
Can't wait.
And before we go, a happy birthday to the legendary Yeti, Annie Z, over in Toronto, Maple Leaf, Toronto. And happy birthday to Uramin Josel in Henderson, Nevada. This married dink is celebrating in Napa this weekend. Popping that pinot. And Matt, way charatana, is turning 36 years old over in Seattle, spent the birthday rock climbing on belay. Belay on that birthday, Matt.
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Chapter 5: Who else is moving towards a passwordless future?
Chapter 6: What can we expect from the upcoming T-Boy live show in Chicago?
Now, yetis, if your buddy Timmy called in sick today, it's because the Kentucky Derby, Cinco de Mayo, Star Wars Day, May the 4th, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, and Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder conference all happened over the weekend. And the Met Gala's today. Yeah, but the...
biggest event last weekend physically was actually the newest event formula one racing formula down in miami florida as they pronounce it in daytona formula and formula one the most technical cars the most expensive tickets and a whole lot of drama this weekend down in miami jack
The Dutch racer Max Verstappen drives for Team Red Bull, but almost missed the Miami race because his baby was born just a couple days before. Like literally right before. Oh, and then Ferrari unveiled a blue Ferrari car? What? Ferraris are red. That's the rule. It's like an insult to Italy worse than pineapple on pizza, man. Still, 2024 was a record year for Formula One.
They generated nearly $4 billion in revenue. Now, historically, Formula One racing has been ignored in America. This is NASCAR country. This is an indie world, baby. But today, F1 is actually the fastest growing professional sport in the United States. Depends on the timeframe, but along with pickleball and the WNBA, F1 is booming in America. And here's what Jack and I find fascinating.
Formula One is also a publicly traded business. It was acquired eight years ago by Liberty Media, and now the stock is near an all-time high. But Jack, could you press on the pistons a bit and sprinkle on a little context to their $4 billion in Formula One revenue? That's four times the revenue of NASCAR. It's almost as much as the NHL, and it's half as much As the NBA.
But honestly, it's even more impressive when you consider that Formula One only has 24 races a year. They're called Grand Prixs, not races. Oui, oui, oui, oui, Jack. Still, 24 Grand Prixs. Compare that to 1,230 basketball games played in the NBA every season. So what we're saying is that each Formula One racing event is really a profit puppy. It's like a mini Olympics.
It takes over the entire city for a whole weekend. Get this, the Miami Grand Prix yesterday got 25% more in ticket revenue for Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, where they do the race around, than all the Miami Dolphin football home games combined. You better call an audible, Dan Marino, because racing is taking over Miami. One race was equal to eight football games in revenue.
And it's the third race in the United States. There's also one in Austin, and there's also one in Las Vegas. Now, besties, it is Netflix who we can thank for growing the F1 fan base. Their reality show during the pandemic brought more fans and more sponsors to the sport. Especially in the United States. But F1 just struck a $1 billion sponsorship deal with Louis Vuitton. That's right.
The handbag company is now sponsoring the sports cars. F1 also just got a $450 million check from America's Cadillac. Because Cadillac wants to be the 11th Formula One racing team, so they had to pay a fee in order to enter. And they join the circuit next year. But the most valuable part of the Formula One business model is TV. Yeah, it's broadcasting. Like with every sport.
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