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  • #199: Supergoop – A Cancer Scare Jumpstarts An Empire

    #199: Supergoop – A Cancer Scare Jumpstarts An Empire
    2025/04/02
    When a family friend is diagnosed with skin cancer, Holly Thaggard polls a bunch a skin care chemists and comes up with the Unseen Sunscreen. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick in business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [No Bull RV Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, and we're talking about empires. And so Stephen said we're going to revisit one. And I think really, Stephen, what you're doing is just testing my ability to remember shit. Supergoop is what you told me, that it rings a bell, but help me out here. Stephen Semple: This is a rerecording because we did one recording, which didn't work out so well, and here I am in a hotel and you immediately informed me, "Boy, the microphone doesn't sound so good, so we might be recording it again in the future." Dave Young: It'll be Supergoop part three. Oh, dear. On the plus side, the listener doesn't remember this episode because it was never released. Stephen Semple: No, that's true. Dave Young: Okay, good. Stephen Semple: That's true because we had some real recording issues that we could not recover from. Dave Young: All right, we get another mulligan on Supergoop. Stephen Semple: Supergoop, for those who don't know, is a sunscreen and- Dave Young: Oh, that makes sense. Stephen Semple: ... basically- Dave Young: Now it sort of rings a bell. I think probably. Stephen Semple: It sort of rings a bell, does it? And in 2022, Supergoop did $250 million in sales, so that's- Dave Young: That's a lot of goop. Stephen Semple: That's a lot of goop. It was started in 2007 by Holly Thaggard who's from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And she has no background in cosmetics or sunscreens or any of those things, so again, another one of these empires that came from somebody completely from outside the industry. Dave Young: She wasn't a Nickelodeon child star or anything like that? Stephen Semple: No, she was none of those things. Dave Young: I'm looking for something goop related. Stephen Semple: Well, that'll come. That'll come. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: She started in 2007, and the inspiration started in 2005 when she had a close family friend who was diagnosed with skin cancer. And what she found out was that basically 70% of people don't wear sunscreen regularly, and you really need to be wearing it, it's not just about the beach, you really need to be wearing it all the time. And this whole issue with this skin cancer diagnosis sent her down this path of doing a lot of research. She had an entrepreneurial bent. Both of her parents were entrepreneurs, and she started a business when she was in high school. Dave Young: Oh, wow. Stephen Semple: She played the harp. Dave Young: That was a bigger reminder to me than the goop. Stephen Semple: She started Holly the Harp in high school, and she would go on weekends to country clubs and things along this lines, and she charged $100 an hour because there was no competition. Here she's this kid in high school charging a hundred bucks an hour going around playing the harp. Dave Young: Cool. Stephen Semple: Now, at one point she went into teaching and there was a bunch of things that fell apart on that. And there's a certain point where her brother moves to the Dallas area and she's helping her brother move. And she looks around and she's like, wow, this is a pretty swanky neighborhood and there's all these country clubs around,...
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    25 分
  • #198: Wizard Academy – Magical Communication

    #198: Wizard Academy – Magical Communication
    2025/03/26
    From writing a regular article in Radio Ink magazine to a weekly outbound memo to free clinics, Roy H. Williams created a marketing school like no other. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick in business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Travis Crawford Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And Stephen has just told me what the topic for today's episode is and well, I have some thoughts. Stephen Semple: I sure hope so. Dave Young: So we're going to talk about Wizard Academy, we've mentioned it quite a few times on the podcast and I don't know that it falls into the pantheon of super empire type brands, but the things that Wizard Academy teaches have definitely helped some businesses achieve at least some local empire status in the growth of their business. Well, thank you for making this one of the topics. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and part of the reason why I wanted as one of the topics is first of all, we've referred to it a lot and so we might as well let people know what the heck this thing is that we refer to you work there, I'm a major donor there, taught there a few times, been a student there a lot of times. And the thing I find incredible is, look, it's not a big school. When you go to do a class, it's not a hundred people, it's small classes it's like 18 people. But when I was there last, when I taught the course there with Matthew Burns and Gary Bernier, we had people from the Czech Republic, we had somebody from Australia. I've been there where there's been people from Central America and South America. When you go and there's people that are from around the world coming to this little place, it fits it to a degree because it tells us how special this place is. So let's talk a little bit about the specialness of it and the origin of it. Dave Young: I love it. Yeah. So origin-wise, man, I'll go back to my origin and my first exposure to Roy Williams who founded Wizard Academy. I was managing my family's small market radio stations in Nebraska starting in the mid eighties and in the radio broadcasting world, there are national groups like the National Association of Broadcasters, the Radio Advertising Bureau, and there's only ever been a handful of privately held industry publications that focused entirely on the radio broadcast industry. One of those is a magazine called Radio Ink, and it's not INC like incorporated it's Radio Ink as in printers ink, I-N-K. And started by a guy named Eric Rhoades, and I'm not sure how he and Roy first met, and by the way, Roy's got a hilarious story about Eric Rhoades dad speaking of empire building. We'll save that for another time. But Roy started writing a column for Radio Ink in the nineties, and the column was just, Hey, here's some things that you ought to consider when you're writing ads for businesses and you're in the radio business, or here are some tips for radio salespeople to sell more long form kind of schedules. And so I'd been reading those, you'd go to the post office once a month and there'd be the Radio Ink in the mail and it was always exciting because it was great writing, it was one of the few pieces of industry focused Journalism that was really engaging if you were in the radio business and Roy's column was always the first thing I looked at. And at some point he started doing the Monday morning memo and I think promoted it in the Radio Ink article. Hey, if you want, subscribe to The Monday Morning Memo send us a fax at this number.
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    21 分
  • #197: James Bond – Shaken Not Stirred

    #197: James Bond – Shaken Not Stirred
    2025/03/19
    A feeling of authenticity is what really brought 007 to life and the Broccoli family brought it to the screen. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [No Bull RV Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young with you, alongside Stephen Semple. We're talking about famous brands. This is, I guess it's a brand, sure. It's Bond, James Bond we're going to talk about. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: It's not a consumer product. Stephen Semple: Well- Dave Young: It's one of those things where there's a story and it fits the zeitgeist of marketing in the popular, I don't even know what I'm trying ... Save me, Stephen. What am I trying to say? Stephen Semple: Well, I look at it this way. How is it not a brand? Dave Young: Oh, it's a brand. Stephen Semple: The moment I say Bond. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Shaken not stirred. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: We all know who it is. Dave Young: Evil geniuses. Stephen Semple: The first movie came out in 1962. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And has generated billions and billions of dollars, both in a Hollywood, and spinoffs, and product placements. We all know about Aston Martin DB-whatevers because of Bond. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: To me, how is this not a brand? Dave Young: It's definitely a brand. I guess I'm thinking that most of what we've done have been consumer-facing products. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: Bond definitely is, in that selling seats to movies. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: For sure, that's consumer-focused. I'm with you. I'm all for talking about Bond. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: We just have to think differently, which I think like an evil genius. Stephen Semple: Well, the other part is it was the world's first blockbuster franchise. It's estimated that it's done seven billion in revenues. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Big, big, big, big, big, big bucks. Dave Young: We're always wondering, even when there's no Bond movie out, we're wondering who's the next Bond going to be? Stephen Semple: Who's the next Bond? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Who's the next Bond? Which is the controversy right now today. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: That we're going to come back and talk a little bit about. One of the funniest things though, when I was researching this, one of the funniest things is how Ian Fleming ... Ian Fleming created the Bond character and wrote the James Bond books, of which, what is it, the original dozen movies or so were all based upon the books. But here's the interesting thing, how he came up with the name James Bond. He's sitting writing, and he looks up at this book, The Birds of the West Indies because he's living in Jamaica, and it's written by James Bond. He goes, "That's a really cool name. That's what I'm going to name my spy." Dave Young: I like that, yeah. People that have single-syllable names always roll off the tongue. Stephen Semple: Yeah. I'm not going to go into a lot of the history. We're going to talk about it a little bit. I want to talk about something different, and it's going to seem weird. Because part of the reason why I believe James Bond, the Bond franchise and the Bond movies, have become so big and so successful is there's actually a degree of authenticity in all of them.
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    22 分
  • #196: Swatch – Saving the Swiss Watch Makers

    #196: Swatch – Saving the Swiss Watch Makers
    2025/03/12
    Japan's digital watches massively disrupted the Swiss watch market. So, an entry level fashion watch is created to save the day. Swatch! Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Waukee Feet Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Realtors podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And as usual, Stephen has whispered the topic into my ear as the five-second countdown commenced. So, I have three seconds to come up with my initial reaction to the brand is that we're going to discuss. And my recollection for this one is ... Let me tell you what it is first. It's Swatch. Remember the watches? And my recollection of it is they were just too damn cool for me. Stephen Semple: I mean, you're not a fashionista, Dave? Dave Young: I never have been. But here's the thing. I think by the time ... you'll have to fill in the dates here, but I think by the time I got out of college and was making my way in small market radio, the point of having fashionable timepieces on your wrist, which is ... was like, "That's just too cool for me. No." I recognize it as a cool idea that was going to make somebody a gazillion dollars. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: But it wasn't going to be my dollars that got it done. Stephen Semple: Well, you're somewhat accurate, and somewhat aren't because I believe that we are around the same age. I might be a tick older, but it was fall of 82 when Swatch was launched, but they became really big, late eighties, early nineties. Dave Young: So, yeah, I graduated college in 84, and so, yeah, by the late eighties ... and remember, I was in Western Nebraska. Stephen Semple: And there was no Amazon. Dave Young: Dude, Gone With the Wind has just now arrived at theaters in Western Nebraska. When you think about the good old days, they haven't even hit Western Nebraska yet. They're still waiting. So, go ahead. Stephen Semple: As I got looking at Swatch, here's the thing that's really remarkable about Swatch is how much they changed the watch industry. It is an idea that was remarkable because not only did it change the watch industry, it saved the Swiss watch industry. Dave Young: Oh, I believe it. Yeah. Stephen Semple: The change that came about was incredible. If we go back pre-Swatch, the idea of a watch is it was a single purchase item. Dave Young: There's a time ... yeah. Stephen Semple: People own one wristwatch. Dave Young: Yeah, and you decided, do you want a leather watch band or one of those metal expandy ones? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Which watch guy are you? Stephen Semple: Right. And Rolex, for example, was not even a high-end luxury product at that time. It was an expensive watch, but it was not a luxury watch. It was not an aspirational one. And it's really interesting. Even if you take a look at Rolex's advertisements from the seventies versus the ones 2000 and on, they're a very, very different feel. One was it's rugged, and you can use it, and they aligned with certain sports such as diving and things along that lines. You look at how it's positioned today, and it's a fashion statement. Dave Young: Yeah, I see that. Stephen Semple: It's very, very different. In 10 years following the launch of Swatch, they became the largest watch brand on the planet. Dave Young: Well, I'm sure we're going to hear about tons of imitators. And they hit right in that slice of time. There's a couple of decades,
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    23 分
  • #195: PEZ – Part 2 – From Loophole to Pez Outlaw

    #195: PEZ – Part 2 – From Loophole to Pez Outlaw
    2025/03/05
    How Steve Glue made 4 Million giving the people what they wanted by beating the system; and how Pez ran him out of the business. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is... Well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [ASAP Commercial Doors Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here with Stephen Semple and part two of the PEZ story. We're going to talk about the PEZ collectibles, the whole frenzy. Stephen, I'm going to turn it over to you because I'm fascinated with this. I did just 30 seconds worth of Googling, and yeah, there are PEZ dispensers that are worth bucks out there. Stephen Semple: And the whole collectibles and the PEZ story is crazy. And as we know, the '90s is when this whole idea of collectibles just took off. You had Swatch watches come onto the market, and in fact, stay tuned, we're going to do an episode on Swatch. Swatch is probably going to end up becoming one of my favorite all time stories. So Swatch is going to be coming up. Because as I was going down this whole collectibles thing, it opens other doors. But you had Beanie Babies and you had Pokemon, and of course, PEZ. And PEZ is so popular that it ended up being on the cover of the Forbes magazine edition on collectibles. And people who collect PEZ dispensers call themselves PEZ heads. And one of the biggest people in the space is a guy whose name is Stephen Glew, who's also known as the PEZ Outlaw. Dave Young: The Pez Outlaw. Stephen Semple: The PEZ Outlaw. You're immediately intrigued, aren't you? Dave Young: Oh, sure. Stephen Semple: And Steve Glew is a machine operator from Michigan, and he started doing collectibles as a side hustle. And he started by collecting cereal boxes. So he would go to the local recycling plant and clip the coupons and ask for the toy to send them, things like those secret decoder rings. Have you ever noticed that there's a disclaimer now on those things that says only one per customer Dave Young: Because of him? Stephen Semple: It's because of him. Because at a certain point, Kellogg's notices that they're sending tons of toys to this one address- Dave Young: To one guy. Stephen Semple: ... in rural Michigan, to this one guy. He's basically getting these things and then going to trade shows and selling them. Dave Young: Nice. That's smart. Stephen Semple: That's smart, hey. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: It's funny, I bought a book a little while ago that is somebody had put together a book of all of the ads and the products that we saw in comics. Dave Young: Oh, sure. Stephen Semple: And in fact, the reason why I had got the book is when I did my comic, I was looking for ideas for fun, made-up placement. Dave Young: My dad had a story about when he was a kid, he sent off for something and it was a model airplane, a Balsa model airplane, send a dollar or whatever. I think this had to be a joke. Basically, he got back a big block of balsa wood and a knife. There you go. Stephen Semple: There you go, that's awesome. Yeah. Dave Young: Yeah, so Steve Glew. Stephen Semple: So we thank Steve Glew for the origin of the disclaimer of one per customer. So Steve's got a problem. He needs to find new things to sell because this side hustle is about to disappear because he's no longer able to scavenge these boxes and send in and get all these toys to sell. He's clearing out the last of his inventory and he notices a nearby vendor selling Pez dispensers.
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    13 分
  • #194: Pez – Part 1 – The Mint that Became a Collectable

    #194: Pez – Part 1 – The Mint that Became a Collectable
    2025/02/26
    What do you do when you think cigarette smoke is disgusting and you are a bit of a germaphobe? Create a collectable candy empire, of course. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Waukee Feet Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. And I'm Dave Young, alongside Stephen Semple, where we're talking about empires. And Stephen whispered the subject of today's episode into my ear, and immediately, immediately my thoughts went not to my childhood as usually happens. Stephen Semple: Well, this is a variation. Can I guess where your brain went? Dave Young: Go ahead. Stephen Semple: Seinfeld? Dave Young: No, not even se Seinfeld. Stephen Semple: Okay. All right. Dave Young: I think it's on Apple, the current, maybe it's not on Apple. Maybe it's Prime. I'm not sure. But it's a current series, sci-fi series going on called Silo. Stephen Semple: Oh, yes, yes. I've started watching it. Yes. Dave Young: And they have these artifacts and somebody has a Pez dispenser, this Silo, futuristic, that mankind's been living in these silos for 350 years. They can't come out, but there's some people have these trinkets from the past and there's a Pez dispenser amongst them. Stephen Semple: That's right. Dave Young: They have no idea what it is. Stephen Semple: Right, yeah. And then there's that famous Seinfeld episode with the Pez dispenser in it as well. That was super popular one, where Jerry basically is being pain in the neck with this Pez dispenser. Yeah, but they're huge. They sell about 75 million Pez dispensers a year, still, across 80 countries, as well as five billion individual Pez candies. There's like 900 employees working for Pez. Dave Young: Wow. Okay. And the candy's nothing special, other than it's all uniform, like little bricks. It's almost like eating a Lego and almost as flavorful. Stephen Semple: Yeah, there you go. Well, I can't comment, because I've never eaten a Lego, but... Dave Young: Well, you didn't have my childhood, Stephen. Stephen Semple: So, the Pez company starts in 1927. I didn't realize how old it was. And it was started by Edward Haas III, and he lived in Vienna, and he couldn't stand the smell of smoke. And he's running this family, this successful family business, making a special kind of baking powder that was invented by his grandfather. So he was already a business person making this baking powder. And Edwin took the business in a new direction when he created the world's first ready mix cake mixture during World War I. Dave Young: Oh, wow. Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And so, by the late 1920s, they have a number of factories in Europe, and at this time, smoking booms with the invention of the rolling machine, the automated rolling machine, which suddenly makes cigarettes cheap and plentiful. And if you want to learn more about this trend, go back to episode 85 for American tobacco. So first, Dave, can you believe that was like a year and a half ago that we recorded that? Dave Young: No kidding, yeah, the automatic rolling machines. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So there's a whole episode really on that. Go back and check it out. It's actually quite a fascinating story. Dave Young: But this guy, he doesn't like smoke. Stephen Semple: He does not like it. And one of the other things that happened is during World War I, soldiers are provided cigarettes as rations. And it's really interesting.
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    17 分
  • #193: Jacuzzi – Propellers to Propellers

    #193: Jacuzzi – Propellers to Propellers
    2025/02/19
    The Jacuzzi Seven were obsessed with flight and engineered better propellers. What is the difference between propellers of air or water??? Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Tapper's Jewelry Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here, alongside Stephen Semple, discussing empires, entrepreneurial empires that started from just somebody's crazy idea and became something huge. And today, Jacuzzi. Stephen Semple: Jacuzzi. Dave Young: We're not talking about a hot tub, we're talking about a Jacuzzi. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: Which, sort of became the generic name for hot tubs, but I'm fascinated to hear the story. I'm guessing we're headed to the 70s, baby. Is that ring true or no? Stephen Semple: The business was founded in 1915. Dave Young: All right, so we're not headed to the 70s, but we'll still be around. Was it founded as Jacuzzi? Stephen Semple: Well, here's the interesting thing, here's the really fun part. Dave Young: Oh wait. Stephen Semple: Guess what their first business was? Dave Young: Wait, I'm thinking. These might be like therapeutic Whirlpool things too, no? I don't know. I'm getting ahead, I don't know what their first business was. Stephen Semple: Their first business was in the airplane business. Dave Young: Okay. The 1915 three engine Jacuzzi. No, I don't know. Stephen Semple: No, they started by making props for airplanes, that was their first business. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yes. How crazy is that? Dave Young: That's nuts. Okay. Stephen Semple: Isn't that nuts? Yeah. So, they were founded in 1915 in Berkeley, California by seven siblings, there were seven kids in the Jacuzzi family. Dave Young: Holy. Stephen Semple: And they were- Dave Young: Was Jacuzzi their name? Stephen Semple: Well, actually, it was Iacuzzi, and when they immigrated, the classic. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah, the classic mistake of being written down wrong, and that's the new spelling is what stuck. They were immigrants from Casarsa della Delizia in Italy, and I'm sure I'm completely butchering that. Dave Young: Yeah, just say Italy. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And as said, the original family name was Iacuzzi. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And it became Jacuzzi, and of course, it defined the hot tub business, which today is a $6 billion global market. Dave Young: But airplane propellers. Stephen Semple: Airplane propellers. Dave Young: Seven siblings had the bright idea of making airplane propellers. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: But this is shortly after Orville and Wilbur- Stephen Semple: Oh yeah. This is- Dave Young: Had invented airplane propellers. Stephen Semple: Well, this is the day of biplanes, right? So, it's 1915, and Rachele Jacuzzi, who's the youngest of the seven, is visiting the San Francisco Fair, and he sees biplanes. And one of the sons is working as an engineer for the founder of McDonnell Douglas, and they're obsessed with flight, and they see these stunt plane props, and they look at them and go, these are really inefficient. So, they invented propeller that is curved and smaller and more efficient, and it's called the toothpick propeller. Got these little tiny blades. And they open up a machine shop to start making these propellers,
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    19 分
  • #192: Polaroid – Instant Idea, Instant Pic, Instant Empire

    #192: Polaroid – Instant Idea, Instant Pic, Instant Empire
    2025/02/12
    What happens when you are in the polarization film business and your daughter asks why she can't see the picture right away? You invent Polaroid. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [No Bull RV Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And today's topic, man, you keep picking topics that take me back to my childhood, Stephen. And for this one, it's the camera my dad had. It's the Polaroid. Stephen Semple: Is that right? Your dad had one? Dave Young: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And it was a great camera. He used to let me take pictures. And he'd set the timer and I'd peel the backing off. These were the old kind, not the SX-70, modern day seventies. Stephen Semple: You were old school. You had the little backing you had to peel off. Right? Dave Young: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Stephen Semple: Awesome. Dave Young: And he had extra doodads and things like a little timer that would snap onto the button so we could do a family pic. Stephen Semple: Oh, is that right? Dave Young: Oh, yeah. Stephen Semple: Wow. Dave Young: All the fun stuff. Stephen Semple: Well, when I got talking about this with my oldest daughter, Crystal, what I was surprised to learn, and I learned this when I said to her I was going to do this and then discovered more about it. Polaroid is still around. She is a camp counselor in the summertime. Little kids show up at camp with a Polaroid camera. And it's still the point it and comes out, and you've got to wait for a minute for it to it develop. But yeah, it's still a thing. Dave Young: And honestly, the nice part is the algorithm doesn't get ahold of that image. Stephen Semple: That's true. That's true Dave Young: Big data doesn't have a picture of your kid If you use a Polaroid. Stephen Semple: Well, that's maybe why they're giving these little kids to do that. It's estimated that they do around $770 million in business. Dave Young: Wow. Wow. Stephen Semple: So it's not insignificant. Yeah. Yeah. Dave Young: I'd say that's not insignificant, I think. Stephen Semple: Yeah. But as we know, it was revolutionary at the time, this whole instant picture. And at their peak, which was 1991, they were doing about $3 billion in business. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So that's- Dave Young: Man, I would've thought their peak was way earlier than that for some reason. Stephen Semple: Yeah, that was the peak, '91. Yeah. Dave Young: Just before digital kind of came in. Stephen Semple: And kind of messed with a bunch of things. Yeah. The company was founded by Edwin Land and George Wheelwright in 1937 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But didn't start off as a camera company. Edwin Land was in Harvard, and he dropped out of Harvard to pursue business. But what he had invented was the coating that polarizes lenses. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Stephen Semple: So hence the name Polaroid. Dave Young: Polaroid. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And I've always wondered about that. Why Polaroid? And it came from that. And the business became huge in 1941 when the US entered World War II, because it was being used for flight goggles. It was massive. Sales went from $760,000 pre-war to like $16 million in 1943. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: Selling this polarizing technology. But 90% of the contracts were military. There was no Sunglass Hut yet. Right?
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    24 分