The Boring Company

Miami's mayor handwrites letters to poach California talent

Shaan marvels at Miami mayor Francis Suarez, who personally handwrites letters to influential people inviting them to Miami every time California does something dumb, even publicly recruiting Elon Musk's Boring Company on Twitter, prompting Elon and the governor to engage.

“So he is basically saying, as California, every time California does something dumb, he personally handwrites a letter to an influential person saying, come out to Miami, I would love to have you here.”

Elon sold $10M of Tesla flamethrowers in 100 hours

Shaan notes that Tesla's $500 branded flamethrower sold $10 million worth in 100 hours, and the Boring Company hat sold $600,000 worth, as examples of using novelty merch to fund and build a brand.

“All right, flamethrowers. So he, you know, they made a flamethrower, a Tesla brand of flamethrower, I think, and it was $500, and he sold $10 million worth of it in 100 hours.”

Build a for-profit train company on Amtrak's only profitable routes

Shaan explains Wes Edens's Brightline (now Virgin Trains USA) thesis: Amtrak is a money pit that's never turned a profit, but specific corridors like NY-DC are extremely profitable. The play is to cherry-pick only the high-traffic legs (South-to-Central Florida, LA-Vegas in 85 min) and run them for profit.

“Amtrak is actually profitable on certain legs. It's just that they operate all these other legs because they're non-for-profit. They're not profit.. And so, um, it's their other legs that are causing them, uh, to be unprofitable. But if you just look at their, their best routes and like, he's like, you know, look at this one route from New York down to Washington or whatever. It's actually extremely profitable because a lot of people want to go on that corridor. And so he's identified all, so he started this thing called Brightline.”

Steal thisWhen entering a money-losing incumbent's market, isolate only its profitable segments and operate just those.