00:44:33 · Jordi Hays, John Coogan
[00:44:33] S0: world model for... But I've... Yeah. I've never seen so many people want a nuke SF. [00:44:38] S1: The nuke SF meme is really strong. I've seen a lot of these these images of the nuke. And every variation of it too. You get you get the you get the animated one, the picture, and then you get the full the full three d animated explainer video of what would happen if the if a new kit hit San Francisco. Yeah. People are not are not reacting well outside of the tech bubble. I think inside, people will be into just like, yeah, like hanging out with some people who are tech insiders and just hearing them talk about... I think it's probably [00:45:12] S0: like a very relatable conversation for people that live in SF. Yes. That's But totally then the video is being seen by people all over the world.
00:45:12 · Jordi Hays, John Coogan
[00:45:12] S0: like a very relatable conversation for people that live in SF. Yes. That's But totally then the video is being seen by people all over the world. [00:45:21] S1: Well, is kind of what The Economist said about us. Remember? The headline was Economist TVPN. Let me see. It was Superstar podcasts are Silicon Valley's way of talking to itself, but to but to much of the world, the sound is jarring. So that's what they that's what the economists said when they talked to... About us all in and do our cash. And and the and the critique was like, a lot of what we're talking about just makes no sense unless you're following tech pretty closely. And this is another example of this. I I think that there is an interesting trend in there are a lot of news shows. There are a lot of interview shows. Where is the actual white space? And there's something interesting about taking people that are actually tech insiders because there's a lot of content that's... Basically, take actual tech insiders and then have them talk about something else. So a lot of tech people would rather get their sports news from tech people than from sports people. [00:46:20] S0: Yeah. So you have the Harry Stebbing show. You have Ben Thompson show. [00:46:24] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On Dithering, John Gruber and Ben Thompson always kick it off with like three minutes of discussion about sports. And even though I don't follow sports, I'm like, I'm really into this. This is how I get information about sports. And you can even... Yeah.
00:46:24 · John Coogan, Jordi Hays
[00:46:24] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On Dithering, John Gruber and Ben Thompson always kick it off with like three minutes of discussion about sports. And even though I don't follow sports, I'm like, I'm really into this. This is how I get information about sports. And you can even... Yeah. [00:46:38] S0: We're how a lot of people get information about Christmas. [00:46:41] S1: And cars and houses, you know. The... Like, this is a real thing. And and there's something there. The the interesting thing about the first episode, it was, like, thirty minutes long, and it's... It feels like they went through a lot of biography in a good way. They definitely introduced themselves. You have a full context on their careers. It'll be interesting to see with the second, third, fourth episodes, do they do more story time from their history? Do they run out of their stories and they do more news stuff? Do they wind up being more techy, or do they do more lifestyle content, more family style content? But either way, people are definitely aware of it and that's and that's 90% of the challenge when you launch a new media product. What do you think? [00:47:24] S0: Yeah. Halo in our chat says, need that Christmas countdown, then I dip. Just coming in right just for the open. [00:47:35] S1: Yeah. I needed that. Thank you. Yeah. No. I'm good. [00:47:38] S0: Back to work.... [00:47:38] S1: Anywhere else. You can't Google it. There aren't websites for it. You can't calculate it yourself. There's no apps that would do a countdown on your phone. [00:47:45] S0: Can't even ask the models.
00:47:45 · Jordi Hays, John Coogan, Gavin Baker
[00:47:45] S0: Can't even ask the models. [00:47:47] S1: You can't even ask the models. They don't know how. Anyway, let me tell you about Cisco. Critical infrastructure for the AI era. Unlock seamless real time experiences and new value with Cisco. DoorDash is in advanced talks to acquire delivery rival Instacart. The deal could complete [00:48:03] S0: Let's give it up for advanced talks. [00:48:05] S1: Advanced talks. The deal could be completed as soon as this week and value Instacart around $17,000,000,000. It's a pretty great... I I don't know where Instacart's been trading. I don't know what its all time high has been, but I know as a YC company, it's from an era where $17,000,000,000 is a grand slam. I know we're in the AI era and we're looking at $60,000,000,000 acquisitions and crazy, crazy, crazy numbers that get even higher, but really a testament to what the Instacart team built with a delivery network that was highly competitive. Uber Eats, DoorDash are going up against a lot of different companies, and they built this business to a place where it can, you know, trade at $17,000,000,000 I'm just impressed with that as someone who saw them when they were in YC. But... And you invested, of course. Of course. Of course. I definitely backed up the truck. Play the sound effect for me when I had $5,000 in credit card debt, negative net worth, not not investing in Coinbase, not investing in Instagram. Instagram was in my YC badge. Like, I got the demo. Like... [00:49:11] S2: What? What?
00:49:11 · Gavin Baker, John Coogan, Jordi Hays
[00:49:11] S2: What? What? [00:49:12] S1: Instacart was in my YC badge. Like like, they were, like, at the YC demo day with us and, like, we were at parties with them. I remember just hanging out on a roof in San Francisco with them and, didn't write a single dime in. [00:49:25] S0: You know a lot about the history. Anyway. Pop quiz. What is Instacart's entity called? [00:49:33] S1: Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. I I I can't I can't... It's gonna... [00:49:39] S0: It's animal themed. Animal themed? Canada themed. [00:49:43] S1: Canada themed? [00:49:45] S0: Moose? Maple Bear Inc. [00:49:48] S1: Maple Bear Inc. Okay. [00:49:49] S0: And they haven't updated it yet. Interesting. So when you Google Instacart [00:49:53] S1: Inc. [00:49:54] S0: It will link you to Maple Bear Inc doing business as Instacart. Interesting. Which is crazy to me. Crazy to, like, [00:50:00] S1: have so many options. Company and didn't just redo that. That's wild. But, yeah, this happens all the time with YC companies because a lot of people get into YC with one idea they incorporate. Back then, it was done on a product called Clerky. This was pre Stripe Atlas. And [00:50:13] S0: Yeah. They still have Maple Bear Inc. DBA Instacart, like, in their footer. [00:50:17] S1: Wow. Yeah. They probably got in as, like [00:50:20] S0: Feels like doing
00:50:20 · Jordi Hays, John Coogan
[00:50:20] S0: Feels like doing [00:50:21] S1: some tech company or we're doing some other thing or we're doing software or whatever. And then and then during, during YC, they might have said, like, oh, well, you know, we should we should... It's kind of a hassle going out for groceries. Let's figure that out. And then they built that and, and and got it off the ground. Yeah. It it was it was fascinatingly manual at the start and then, of course, scaled and scaled and scaled. So Instacart went public in 2023. We had a market value around 13,000,000,000. The the shares rose 8% Monday following the report. DoorDash has a value of around $8,073,000,000,000 dollars. Its shares dropped 6% Monday. Buying Instacart would add a major grocery delivery partner to its growing roster of services. Instacart's core business involves online grocery shopping. I think this makes a lot of sense. Like, they are competitors, but they fill slightly different segments of the market between grocery delivery and and food and dinner delivery, like actual prepared meals. And they could work together really, really well. And it would it would allow them to differentiate against Uber. What do you think? Do you think this deal makes sense? [00:51:31] S0: I have no idea. [00:51:32] S1: You have no idea? Okay. [00:51:33] S0: I have no idea. [00:51:34] S1: Do think it'll... Would get approved by the FTC? [00:51:38] S0: Hopefully. [00:51:39] S1: I think it It [00:51:40] S0: just it just [00:51:41] S1: But, you know, it is it is close ish to creating more concentration in