Wahl Street (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Capital Pains - full transcript
- Holy shit. Wow.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Hold up...
with a TV in here...
with a TV!
[light laughter]
And a fuckin'--
two frigerators.
- What do you think they're
paying in rent here?
- Ugh. Oh, man.
- The frames alone.
- Mm-hmm.
- Are you kidding me?
Pictures of beets?
- It makes Unrealistic
look like a toilet.
- Got to sell a lot of burgers
to pay for this place alone.
- Don't get me going.
- You're very generous.
- The hammer's coming down.
[spray-paint can rattling]
[edgy music]
♪ ♪
I hadn't seen
how wonderfully booming
the business was
behind the four walls
of the corporate office
while the rest of the business
outside of it was struggling.
We're trying to build a real
business here, you know.
You've got these giant offices
and so many employees,
so many items on the menu.
What little money
was coming in,
there was just a lot of money
being spent
in a very,
very irresponsible way.
We've been in business
for some years now,
but it's still
a small business.
This is a great opportunity
to build a family business,
pass it on
to future generations,
and people need to be
financially responsible.
[scoffs]
I don't know,
do people think there was
just an endless amount
of cash flow to burn through
or if people just assume,
"Well, don't worry;
Mark's got deep pockets,"
they got another think coming.
That's not happening.
I don't think anybody should be
deciding where or when
they're gonna spend my money.
We need new leadership
that will hopefully be able
to help my brother Paul
take us to a healthy,
robust franchise.
[moody music]
♪ ♪
- Hey, honey, it's me.
Give me a call when you can.
Just some stuff going on
that we need to talk about.
And it's pretty urgent.
We have to radically reduce
our expense base,
which might mean layoffs.
It might mean furloughs.
It might mean
salary reductions.
I'll be right out.
So my wife and I had to have
that conversation.
- It's pretty quiet.
- There's no one here,
just us.
- You like this?
- I do like this.
So what's up?
- I talked to Mark, and with,
you know,
the funding getting pulled.
- So they're pulling out
completely?
- Yep they're not putting in
another penny.
- Okay.
- We talked.
Everybody is in full alignment
that our best way to proceed
from here is if Mark,
Lev, and I take over
and fund the business
from here going forward.
[edge music]
- Got it.
- So that means we're gonna
have to be putting capital
into Municipal
to keep it going.
- So us, Mark, and Lev.
- Right.
- A third, a third, a third?
- Right.
- Hmm.
- Obviously, they're in,
you know,
slightly different
financial position than we are.
And they recognize that,
of course.
- Yeah.
So wait, but how much
are we talking about?
- I'm not even sure
what the feasibility is,
but we should look at that.
Like, what is our--
what is our max?
- So we might be putting
everything we can liquidate
into this business.
- I don't have that kind
of cash lying around.
So for us in particular,
we'd have to cash in
a lot of things that we were
saving for retirement
and take on second mortgages
and do some things
that we never thought
we would be doing.
- Mm.
- I'm not fearless.
I mean, who knows what's gonna
happen with this pandemic?
But people are really gonna
love this brand
if we get the opportunity
to launch it.
- So and when do you think
you'll launch now?
- Could be June, could be July,
could be August.
This is the riskiest thing
that I've ever done.
My relationship with my family
and my wife
are now counting on
the success of Municipal.
♪ ♪
[light funky music]
♪ ♪
At one point I thought about
bringing this company Apex
to help the business,
and they wanted
to take over
the entire business,
including
Wahlburgers Corporate,
and we just said no.
And we were able to find
John Fuller.
- Have your kids ever seen
"Boogie Nights"?
- [breathing heavily]
- No.
[laughter]
- I first got my chance to be
a CEO in January of 2010,
then went on to Coffee Bean
and was their president-CEO
for the last 4 1/2 years,
and after I did my research,
I was blown away by what
a business mogul Mark
has become way above and
beyond being a movie actor.
For the stores, you got to
make
those more profitable.
The only one that fits
the model right now
is Myrtle Beach.
- Myrtle Beach, yeah.
- Yeah, and everything else
is,
like, danger zone.
- Yep.
- And then just on
menu optimization,
the best way to improve
your economics is your menu.
- Yep, no,
here are many things
that are not the high margins,
right...
- Yeah.
- That literally have
little to no tails.
- Okay.
- And Paul is like--
- Well, there you go,
low transactions, low margins.
- Yeah.
- They're dogs, and then you
take them off the menu.
- John Fuller understood
all the problems
and challenges
that the business faced
but also saw the potential.
- Corporate needs to lead
and give them a playbook.
They'll be falling over
themselves to build more
if you give them a model
that they can
print money with.
- Whatever you spend,
you should get back
in four years from
the cash flow of the store.
- I like these guys
in the front of me.
- [laughs]
- Hire people thoughtfully
into your organization,
'cause as an entrepreneur,
you're not gonna get
a lot of time
to build
every single person up,
but if you hire
the right people
and then you build them up,
it becomes exponential
through your organization.
Everybody was really excited
once we hired John Fuller
to help my brother Paul.
Finding people
who have proven themselves
in that business
and in that world
is very difficult.
- This was a unique
hiring story for myself,
from the time Mark
kind of expressed interest
to the time I was hired,
it happened really quick,
and it was a whirlwind.
[airplane engine whirring]
[light electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Starting to feel
a little normal again.
- It's amazing, right?
Freshened up the space.
Look at this,
new coat of paint.
All the flooring's
brand-new here,
deep-cleaned all that,
so...good stuff.
- Oh, I miss it so much.
Like I said, we've been
quarantining together,
so we've been
working out together,
but to be able to be
back in the studio
with the whole F45 community,
all the people we started
getting close to
I haven't seen in months,
I mean, we're back, baby.
Come on, cowgirl.
Let me get a yee-haw.
- Yee-haw.
- No bull--give me one.
Yee-haw.
Time to get it in.
Ace, you ready?
- ♪ I'm all out ♪
- ♪ No holds barred,
I go so hard ♪
♪ Till I break things apart ♪
♪ Leave blown-up shards ♪
- ♪ I'm all out ♪
- ♪ To get mine ♪
♪ So upcharged,
energized ♪
♪ A small dream,
need it blown up large ♪
- ♪ I'm all out ♪
- I'm very proud of you.
So since she started her
hobby horse business,
she got an order of 10 horses
for $100 apiece,
and she delivered them all
in a day and a half.
When we first came in,
my wife was having
a very hard time
having to modify everything,
and now she came in today
first time back after months
of working out together at home.
I mean, she has grown so far.
Babe...
- So easy, right?
- Compared to what
we've been doing.
Remember how hard...
- I know, but remember how hard
it used to be
when you could come in?
- You see how far you've come?
[[indistinct chatter]
Gug-gug-gug-gug-gug-gug.
Yeah.
[laughs]
[somber music]
♪ ♪
[music intensifies]
♪ ♪
- I think we brought
about 20 things
just 'cause we wanted
to make sure we had a variety.
The first production run
are the way things will look
as produced to the consumer.
Up until this point,
anything that Mark and Lev
have seen
have been prototypes.
Did you see all these?
- These are our launch colors,
all that.
You gonna wear the lava one?
No?
With Lev, I never know,
like, do you hate the concept?
Lev, feel these.
Sport utility gear.
Didn't exist before, Lev,
until you invented it.
- How about these?
- Lev is the world's
toughest critic.
You want me to try to find
something for you?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Ultimately,
at the end of the day,
if Mark smiles and gives us
the thumbs up,
we know that we've got
something good.
This is a Goatee.
That's the stretchy one.
I think the Ts are good.
This is more workout
the more you move down here.
- This is all Levi shit.
This ain't me.
This is Levi stuff.
- It's not my shit.
- This is all Levi.
- So he nixed
all of your product.
In one fell swoop.
- It's our product.
It's our product.
- And tried to pin it on me.
And I don't like it either,
Harry.
- He's more talking about
the style.
It's, like, he doesn't like
the shirt you have on,
which we all think
is really cool.
We have to make something that
not only is Mark gonna love,
who wants something to be
really close-fitting
and not a lot
of excess fabric,
to something Lev's gonna love,
who wants just extreme comfort
all the time.
Too tight?
- Yeah.
Give me a pair of
scissors.
- Putting those two things
together
we think is really unique.
We're gonna--hey.
Look in here.
- Huh?
- We're gonna get a shirt
you're gonna love, okay?
- Okay.
- Don't worry. Don't worry.
- No problem.
- We're all equal partners.
So if Mark and Lev
want changes,
we're gonna make changes.
- It's okay. It's okay.
- We got it.
- It's okay.
- Pre-pandemic,
I felt pretty confident
we could have a
million-dollar month at launch,
and now I'd be happy
if we had
a $130,000 month.
I'm totally confident.
[light electronic music]
♪ ♪
[indistinct under music]
♪ ♪
- Mark, how you been,
my friend?
- Blessed.
Father Emmanuel,
we're doing a doc with him,
so we started talking
about stuff.
Now we talk all the time.
He's been helpful to me.
Let me ask you
a quick question.
I'm very interested
in business but obviously
still kind of in my infancy
when it comes to having
real experience in investments.
Obviously, we're focusing
on opportunities
and the things that
I might want to
invest in in the future.
- What I was telling you, Mark,
you've got to get
enough knowledge
to have a clear framework.
I sent him a reading list
of books.
You know, if you showed
ten people that reading list,
nine would say thanks
and never read it.
Mark read it.
He ordered the books.
He had them the next day.
- Wanted a 5% profit...
- Wanted to educate
myself more,
so I've been taking
a lot of time
to really read and just become
more informed,
you know,
so I always felt like
if I want to go and earn money,
I had to go out there and work
hard for it,
you know,
the old-fashioned way.
- You know, Mark, I don't think
it's incompatible
working with a company.
It doesn't have to be
a private company.
All I'm saying is it has to be
a good company.
- Certainly
the stock market was
never something that I was
so quick to just dive into.
So Father, the thing that
I'm most excited about
is Green Zebra.
- I'm not an expert on
the convenience store model.
- We're more interested in just
period, point blank
what you think
about the business.
- All right.
- Yeah.
We'd love to get
your thoughts on this, Father.
- Yeah, if you find it helpful,
I'm always happy to help.
[chuckles]
- All rightie.
- All right. Take care, guys.
- Thanks, guys.
[light funky music]
♪ ♪
So, Lisa, we wanted
to give Frank especially
a chance to talk with you.
- I've heard so many
good things about you.
- Oh, that's nice to hear.
- So Green Zebra.
My concern was making sure
that she had enough money
to go and open the amount of
stores that she wanted to open
and then continue to grow
the business.
You know, we didn't want to be
in a situation
where she didn't raise
enough capital
to kind of get to the store
number that she needed to.
Ultimately, you know, in,
like, three or four years,
I would love to see her with,
you know, 50 to 100 stores.
It's not impossible.
- Let me ask you some questions
just for my own edification.
You know, what concerns me is,
like,
do you think you're gonna have
a problem getting product,
I mean,
food and product and stuff?
- Not really.
There's a few things
that we haven't been able
to get
from our primary
supplier, so...
all throughout COVID,
so many businesses
have cratered,
and that's super sad,
and we haven't.
The second you take a dollar
from someone else,
that's a huge responsibility,
and so investors are, like,
wanting to vet it all,
you know.
- How many stores do you think
you'll do in the next year?
- I think if we really crank,
we can get up to 10 stores open
in 18 months.
- Do you think you have
enough money to do this?
- I think we could raise
more money, frankly.
Frankly.
Ha-ha-ha.
- Frank,
just take your checkbook out
and solve the problem.
- It got quiet fast.
- [laughs]
- Well, I think you've
answered all my questions.
- Tom, are you already in?
- I'm still wrestling with it,
to be honest.
My cost of capital
has changed dramatically,
so we're gonna see how things
roll out, so...
- In every investor meeting
that you have,
sometimes you think,
"They're really into my deal,"
and you're never really sure
at the end
if they're gonna write
the check,
and so I never know
when I have them
and when I don't have them,
but also, I have hope.
- Thank you very much
for your time.
I really appreciate it.
- Thank you, Lisa.
I'll call y'all later.
- Am I the last one in?
[punchy music]
♪ ♪
- Okay.
♪ ♪
How are you?
- Good. How are you, man?
- Sit down, guys. Sit down.
- Oscar De La Hoya is friends
with Mario Lopez.
Mario Lopez is friends
with Mark Wahlberg.
So those guys came to Mark
and said, "Hey,
let's do a documentary film
about Oscar's life."
- Archie, you cool?
- I'm cool.
How are you guys doing?
- I didn't want to wake
the baby.
- No. Great to meet you, Oscar.
- Glad we finally
all got together, you know.
We're all fired up.
- Yeah.
I've always called Oscar, like,
our Latino Muhammad Ali.
There's still so much buzz
outside of
the Latino community too.
It's, like, you know,
he transcends.
- Look, Mark is the ultimate
salesman for our company.
He's been one of the top actors
and producers
in the entire
entertainment industry
for the past few decades.
He's cultivated tons
of relationships with people,
and those people come to him
with potential projects
that we can develop
and produce.
- There's so many stories
that we have, you know...
- Oh, yeah.
- That can make it real.
I'm an open book.
I'm not even afraid to tap into
the controversies, you know.
There's a lot of great events
that have taken place
that nobody knows of,
but I just want
to make sure that, you know,
we tell the right story.
- But I think the more access
we have
the more compelling
it's gonna be.
- In a pandemic, there's no
one way to be a leader.
- You have to think about
what to do immediately.
You got to stop
and take inventory.
What is at your fingertips?
Is that time on hand?
Is that cash on hand?
Is that an amazing staff?
Is it the fact
that your Rolodex right now
is what you need to tap into?
That's your inventory,
your friends.
- I was able
to walk through fire,
and here I am now
still going.
- Mark's sitting right there.
That's, you know,
that's his story, man.
People grow,
and they become huge successes
because they learn
from their mistakes.
You saying
that you're an open book
brings joy to me
because this is not going to be
a boxing documentary.
- Exactly. It's about a man.
Right.
- That's what I wanted to hear.
I--I want something
that my kids can be proud of
and say, you know,
"That's my dad."
- We'll do something
that you'll be really proud of.
- Yeah.
- Like Mark said, let's go.
- All right.
- Beautiful.
[funky electronic music]
♪ ♪
[dog barks, growls]
- Which one is better,
this one or this one?
- Oh, I like that color.
- I'm still not sure
about Harry's taste.
I mean, it's a little bit
of a scary thought
considering he's running
the fucking company.
What do we say?
- Every moment now with Mark
and Lev is like
a dress rehearsal.
That has a Modal liner.
Because stakes are pretty high
for us to hit
the key gates that we want
to hit for this launch.
- Do you ever feel this?
- No.
- This is our blend.
- Yo, this is nice,
exactly what I dreamed about.
- Yeah. The fabric is awesome.
It almost feels like
everything's a big reveal.
I brought more Ts.
This is that polo I showed you.
We'll get the intensity up
today.
- How is it with,
like, moisture, sweat?
- Yeah. It's good.
If Mark and Lev like it...
- Oh, it feels nice
on the head, no tab.
- And there are only small
tweaks, then we're good to go.
- Tighter. Elastic.
- Oh, okay.
If Mark and Lev
don't care for it,
the launch
will be compromised,
and there's really not
a lot we can do
other than scrap it and go back
to the drawing board.
- Yo, it is comfortable.
- Isn't it?
- That's the most comfortable
hat I've ever put on.
- It's ridiculous.
- Oh, this feels good.
- Ohh.
- That feels good, baby.
♪ Hallelujah ♪
Damn.
- That's a green light.
We're ready to launch.
[light electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Are you okay if we start
with a prayer?
- Of course. Always.
- Sure.
- Okay, in the name
of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of the Living God, we ask,
pray, and intreat
that you will bless all those
involved
in the Green Zebra endeavor.
We ask that you enlighten
our minds
with the light
of your knowledge and wisdom,
for you are Holy, always known
forever to the ages of ages.
Amen.
- Amen.
- Yeah.
That's a first for me.
- Ryan, can you remind me
of your role, Ryan?
- Sure.
Mark and I over the past year
have chosen to partner
on a number of different deals,
Green Zebra being one of them.
- I only spent about 25 minutes
on this.
Normally when analyzing
a company,
I would probably spend
a couple hours, I mean,
and honestly, I spend a couple
of weeks on some,
some months and even years.
While I'm not an expert
in the convenience store sector,
I've studied at least
I'm sure hundreds of companies
over the last decade,
and in that process,
usually what I do is,
I publish my research publicly
so that it's open
for public scrutiny.
- Great. Okay.
- Let me start
with the positive first of all.
I think what Lisa is trying
to build is really admirable,
and I think that the convenience
store model,
I can understand why
people would think
it should be disrupted.
But let me just walk you
through what I see on the deck.
So the deck is--is confusing.
- [clears throat]
Okay.
- But just getting into
some of the things
that jump out at me...
- Mm-hmm.
- So the page that say,
"Who are we, our customers?"
It says, "People who are health
conscious and short on time.
Basically everyone."
I'm not totally convinced
that's everyone.
If we're looking at a country
of 330 million people,
probably a lot of
health-conscious people
in Seattle and Portland and LA,
but I don't know
I'd speak for the rest
of the country so quickly.
- That's fair. Yeah.
- And the other thing
that jumps out at me is,
it says,
"Industry-wide enterprise value
is 10x even on average."
Based on my research,
that's wildly off.
So it says gross profit margins
of 22 to 26.
I happen to know
that's a false number.
She's talking about
an increase of going
from 11 million in gross sales
to 120 million
in five years?
That's a hockey stick.
- Right, and look, it's--the--
- I'm very, very suspect
of hockey stick projections.
I don't like them--I think
they're a huge red flag.
The convenience store risk--
it's very capital intensive.
The interest expense
is 10% of gross margin.
You can have a company
that loses money for a while.
You're gonna have to put a lot
of inputs to increase revenue.
A loss of about 2.1 million.
She's talking about metrics
that I've never heard of.
Looking at the statement
of income, that worries me.
When you're raising capital
from investors,
liquidation preference,
methodologies for valuation,
the more money you put in,
the more you lose.
Then we get down
to the net income line,
very severe recession.
Again, I don't know
when this deck was done,
but as we speak here today,
it is not the time to invest.
[dramatic musical sting]
We are looking at
a very severe recession
and probably a depression,
in my opinion.
And that worries me
as an analyst
who studied hundreds
of companies.
[tense music]
So that's 20 minutes
of analysis, guys.
[funky music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Hold up...
with a TV in here...
with a TV!
[light laughter]
And a fuckin'--
two frigerators.
- What do you think they're
paying in rent here?
- Ugh. Oh, man.
- The frames alone.
- Mm-hmm.
- Are you kidding me?
Pictures of beets?
- It makes Unrealistic
look like a toilet.
- Got to sell a lot of burgers
to pay for this place alone.
- Don't get me going.
- You're very generous.
- The hammer's coming down.
[spray-paint can rattling]
[edgy music]
♪ ♪
I hadn't seen
how wonderfully booming
the business was
behind the four walls
of the corporate office
while the rest of the business
outside of it was struggling.
We're trying to build a real
business here, you know.
You've got these giant offices
and so many employees,
so many items on the menu.
What little money
was coming in,
there was just a lot of money
being spent
in a very,
very irresponsible way.
We've been in business
for some years now,
but it's still
a small business.
This is a great opportunity
to build a family business,
pass it on
to future generations,
and people need to be
financially responsible.
[scoffs]
I don't know,
do people think there was
just an endless amount
of cash flow to burn through
or if people just assume,
"Well, don't worry;
Mark's got deep pockets,"
they got another think coming.
That's not happening.
I don't think anybody should be
deciding where or when
they're gonna spend my money.
We need new leadership
that will hopefully be able
to help my brother Paul
take us to a healthy,
robust franchise.
[moody music]
♪ ♪
- Hey, honey, it's me.
Give me a call when you can.
Just some stuff going on
that we need to talk about.
And it's pretty urgent.
We have to radically reduce
our expense base,
which might mean layoffs.
It might mean furloughs.
It might mean
salary reductions.
I'll be right out.
So my wife and I had to have
that conversation.
- It's pretty quiet.
- There's no one here,
just us.
- You like this?
- I do like this.
So what's up?
- I talked to Mark, and with,
you know,
the funding getting pulled.
- So they're pulling out
completely?
- Yep they're not putting in
another penny.
- Okay.
- We talked.
Everybody is in full alignment
that our best way to proceed
from here is if Mark,
Lev, and I take over
and fund the business
from here going forward.
[edge music]
- Got it.
- So that means we're gonna
have to be putting capital
into Municipal
to keep it going.
- So us, Mark, and Lev.
- Right.
- A third, a third, a third?
- Right.
- Hmm.
- Obviously, they're in,
you know,
slightly different
financial position than we are.
And they recognize that,
of course.
- Yeah.
So wait, but how much
are we talking about?
- I'm not even sure
what the feasibility is,
but we should look at that.
Like, what is our--
what is our max?
- So we might be putting
everything we can liquidate
into this business.
- I don't have that kind
of cash lying around.
So for us in particular,
we'd have to cash in
a lot of things that we were
saving for retirement
and take on second mortgages
and do some things
that we never thought
we would be doing.
- Mm.
- I'm not fearless.
I mean, who knows what's gonna
happen with this pandemic?
But people are really gonna
love this brand
if we get the opportunity
to launch it.
- So and when do you think
you'll launch now?
- Could be June, could be July,
could be August.
This is the riskiest thing
that I've ever done.
My relationship with my family
and my wife
are now counting on
the success of Municipal.
♪ ♪
[light funky music]
♪ ♪
At one point I thought about
bringing this company Apex
to help the business,
and they wanted
to take over
the entire business,
including
Wahlburgers Corporate,
and we just said no.
And we were able to find
John Fuller.
- Have your kids ever seen
"Boogie Nights"?
- [breathing heavily]
- No.
[laughter]
- I first got my chance to be
a CEO in January of 2010,
then went on to Coffee Bean
and was their president-CEO
for the last 4 1/2 years,
and after I did my research,
I was blown away by what
a business mogul Mark
has become way above and
beyond being a movie actor.
For the stores, you got to
make
those more profitable.
The only one that fits
the model right now
is Myrtle Beach.
- Myrtle Beach, yeah.
- Yeah, and everything else
is,
like, danger zone.
- Yep.
- And then just on
menu optimization,
the best way to improve
your economics is your menu.
- Yep, no,
here are many things
that are not the high margins,
right...
- Yeah.
- That literally have
little to no tails.
- Okay.
- And Paul is like--
- Well, there you go,
low transactions, low margins.
- Yeah.
- They're dogs, and then you
take them off the menu.
- John Fuller understood
all the problems
and challenges
that the business faced
but also saw the potential.
- Corporate needs to lead
and give them a playbook.
They'll be falling over
themselves to build more
if you give them a model
that they can
print money with.
- Whatever you spend,
you should get back
in four years from
the cash flow of the store.
- I like these guys
in the front of me.
- [laughs]
- Hire people thoughtfully
into your organization,
'cause as an entrepreneur,
you're not gonna get
a lot of time
to build
every single person up,
but if you hire
the right people
and then you build them up,
it becomes exponential
through your organization.
Everybody was really excited
once we hired John Fuller
to help my brother Paul.
Finding people
who have proven themselves
in that business
and in that world
is very difficult.
- This was a unique
hiring story for myself,
from the time Mark
kind of expressed interest
to the time I was hired,
it happened really quick,
and it was a whirlwind.
[airplane engine whirring]
[light electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Starting to feel
a little normal again.
- It's amazing, right?
Freshened up the space.
Look at this,
new coat of paint.
All the flooring's
brand-new here,
deep-cleaned all that,
so...good stuff.
- Oh, I miss it so much.
Like I said, we've been
quarantining together,
so we've been
working out together,
but to be able to be
back in the studio
with the whole F45 community,
all the people we started
getting close to
I haven't seen in months,
I mean, we're back, baby.
Come on, cowgirl.
Let me get a yee-haw.
- Yee-haw.
- No bull--give me one.
Yee-haw.
Time to get it in.
Ace, you ready?
- ♪ I'm all out ♪
- ♪ No holds barred,
I go so hard ♪
♪ Till I break things apart ♪
♪ Leave blown-up shards ♪
- ♪ I'm all out ♪
- ♪ To get mine ♪
♪ So upcharged,
energized ♪
♪ A small dream,
need it blown up large ♪
- ♪ I'm all out ♪
- I'm very proud of you.
So since she started her
hobby horse business,
she got an order of 10 horses
for $100 apiece,
and she delivered them all
in a day and a half.
When we first came in,
my wife was having
a very hard time
having to modify everything,
and now she came in today
first time back after months
of working out together at home.
I mean, she has grown so far.
Babe...
- So easy, right?
- Compared to what
we've been doing.
Remember how hard...
- I know, but remember how hard
it used to be
when you could come in?
- You see how far you've come?
[[indistinct chatter]
Gug-gug-gug-gug-gug-gug.
Yeah.
[laughs]
[somber music]
♪ ♪
[music intensifies]
♪ ♪
- I think we brought
about 20 things
just 'cause we wanted
to make sure we had a variety.
The first production run
are the way things will look
as produced to the consumer.
Up until this point,
anything that Mark and Lev
have seen
have been prototypes.
Did you see all these?
- These are our launch colors,
all that.
You gonna wear the lava one?
No?
With Lev, I never know,
like, do you hate the concept?
Lev, feel these.
Sport utility gear.
Didn't exist before, Lev,
until you invented it.
- How about these?
- Lev is the world's
toughest critic.
You want me to try to find
something for you?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Ultimately,
at the end of the day,
if Mark smiles and gives us
the thumbs up,
we know that we've got
something good.
This is a Goatee.
That's the stretchy one.
I think the Ts are good.
This is more workout
the more you move down here.
- This is all Levi shit.
This ain't me.
This is Levi stuff.
- It's not my shit.
- This is all Levi.
- So he nixed
all of your product.
In one fell swoop.
- It's our product.
It's our product.
- And tried to pin it on me.
And I don't like it either,
Harry.
- He's more talking about
the style.
It's, like, he doesn't like
the shirt you have on,
which we all think
is really cool.
We have to make something that
not only is Mark gonna love,
who wants something to be
really close-fitting
and not a lot
of excess fabric,
to something Lev's gonna love,
who wants just extreme comfort
all the time.
Too tight?
- Yeah.
Give me a pair of
scissors.
- Putting those two things
together
we think is really unique.
We're gonna--hey.
Look in here.
- Huh?
- We're gonna get a shirt
you're gonna love, okay?
- Okay.
- Don't worry. Don't worry.
- No problem.
- We're all equal partners.
So if Mark and Lev
want changes,
we're gonna make changes.
- It's okay. It's okay.
- We got it.
- It's okay.
- Pre-pandemic,
I felt pretty confident
we could have a
million-dollar month at launch,
and now I'd be happy
if we had
a $130,000 month.
I'm totally confident.
[light electronic music]
♪ ♪
[indistinct under music]
♪ ♪
- Mark, how you been,
my friend?
- Blessed.
Father Emmanuel,
we're doing a doc with him,
so we started talking
about stuff.
Now we talk all the time.
He's been helpful to me.
Let me ask you
a quick question.
I'm very interested
in business but obviously
still kind of in my infancy
when it comes to having
real experience in investments.
Obviously, we're focusing
on opportunities
and the things that
I might want to
invest in in the future.
- What I was telling you, Mark,
you've got to get
enough knowledge
to have a clear framework.
I sent him a reading list
of books.
You know, if you showed
ten people that reading list,
nine would say thanks
and never read it.
Mark read it.
He ordered the books.
He had them the next day.
- Wanted a 5% profit...
- Wanted to educate
myself more,
so I've been taking
a lot of time
to really read and just become
more informed,
you know,
so I always felt like
if I want to go and earn money,
I had to go out there and work
hard for it,
you know,
the old-fashioned way.
- You know, Mark, I don't think
it's incompatible
working with a company.
It doesn't have to be
a private company.
All I'm saying is it has to be
a good company.
- Certainly
the stock market was
never something that I was
so quick to just dive into.
So Father, the thing that
I'm most excited about
is Green Zebra.
- I'm not an expert on
the convenience store model.
- We're more interested in just
period, point blank
what you think
about the business.
- All right.
- Yeah.
We'd love to get
your thoughts on this, Father.
- Yeah, if you find it helpful,
I'm always happy to help.
[chuckles]
- All rightie.
- All right. Take care, guys.
- Thanks, guys.
[light funky music]
♪ ♪
So, Lisa, we wanted
to give Frank especially
a chance to talk with you.
- I've heard so many
good things about you.
- Oh, that's nice to hear.
- So Green Zebra.
My concern was making sure
that she had enough money
to go and open the amount of
stores that she wanted to open
and then continue to grow
the business.
You know, we didn't want to be
in a situation
where she didn't raise
enough capital
to kind of get to the store
number that she needed to.
Ultimately, you know, in,
like, three or four years,
I would love to see her with,
you know, 50 to 100 stores.
It's not impossible.
- Let me ask you some questions
just for my own edification.
You know, what concerns me is,
like,
do you think you're gonna have
a problem getting product,
I mean,
food and product and stuff?
- Not really.
There's a few things
that we haven't been able
to get
from our primary
supplier, so...
all throughout COVID,
so many businesses
have cratered,
and that's super sad,
and we haven't.
The second you take a dollar
from someone else,
that's a huge responsibility,
and so investors are, like,
wanting to vet it all,
you know.
- How many stores do you think
you'll do in the next year?
- I think if we really crank,
we can get up to 10 stores open
in 18 months.
- Do you think you have
enough money to do this?
- I think we could raise
more money, frankly.
Frankly.
Ha-ha-ha.
- Frank,
just take your checkbook out
and solve the problem.
- It got quiet fast.
- [laughs]
- Well, I think you've
answered all my questions.
- Tom, are you already in?
- I'm still wrestling with it,
to be honest.
My cost of capital
has changed dramatically,
so we're gonna see how things
roll out, so...
- In every investor meeting
that you have,
sometimes you think,
"They're really into my deal,"
and you're never really sure
at the end
if they're gonna write
the check,
and so I never know
when I have them
and when I don't have them,
but also, I have hope.
- Thank you very much
for your time.
I really appreciate it.
- Thank you, Lisa.
I'll call y'all later.
- Am I the last one in?
[punchy music]
♪ ♪
- Okay.
♪ ♪
How are you?
- Good. How are you, man?
- Sit down, guys. Sit down.
- Oscar De La Hoya is friends
with Mario Lopez.
Mario Lopez is friends
with Mark Wahlberg.
So those guys came to Mark
and said, "Hey,
let's do a documentary film
about Oscar's life."
- Archie, you cool?
- I'm cool.
How are you guys doing?
- I didn't want to wake
the baby.
- No. Great to meet you, Oscar.
- Glad we finally
all got together, you know.
We're all fired up.
- Yeah.
I've always called Oscar, like,
our Latino Muhammad Ali.
There's still so much buzz
outside of
the Latino community too.
It's, like, you know,
he transcends.
- Look, Mark is the ultimate
salesman for our company.
He's been one of the top actors
and producers
in the entire
entertainment industry
for the past few decades.
He's cultivated tons
of relationships with people,
and those people come to him
with potential projects
that we can develop
and produce.
- There's so many stories
that we have, you know...
- Oh, yeah.
- That can make it real.
I'm an open book.
I'm not even afraid to tap into
the controversies, you know.
There's a lot of great events
that have taken place
that nobody knows of,
but I just want
to make sure that, you know,
we tell the right story.
- But I think the more access
we have
the more compelling
it's gonna be.
- In a pandemic, there's no
one way to be a leader.
- You have to think about
what to do immediately.
You got to stop
and take inventory.
What is at your fingertips?
Is that time on hand?
Is that cash on hand?
Is that an amazing staff?
Is it the fact
that your Rolodex right now
is what you need to tap into?
That's your inventory,
your friends.
- I was able
to walk through fire,
and here I am now
still going.
- Mark's sitting right there.
That's, you know,
that's his story, man.
People grow,
and they become huge successes
because they learn
from their mistakes.
You saying
that you're an open book
brings joy to me
because this is not going to be
a boxing documentary.
- Exactly. It's about a man.
Right.
- That's what I wanted to hear.
I--I want something
that my kids can be proud of
and say, you know,
"That's my dad."
- We'll do something
that you'll be really proud of.
- Yeah.
- Like Mark said, let's go.
- All right.
- Beautiful.
[funky electronic music]
♪ ♪
[dog barks, growls]
- Which one is better,
this one or this one?
- Oh, I like that color.
- I'm still not sure
about Harry's taste.
I mean, it's a little bit
of a scary thought
considering he's running
the fucking company.
What do we say?
- Every moment now with Mark
and Lev is like
a dress rehearsal.
That has a Modal liner.
Because stakes are pretty high
for us to hit
the key gates that we want
to hit for this launch.
- Do you ever feel this?
- No.
- This is our blend.
- Yo, this is nice,
exactly what I dreamed about.
- Yeah. The fabric is awesome.
It almost feels like
everything's a big reveal.
I brought more Ts.
This is that polo I showed you.
We'll get the intensity up
today.
- How is it with,
like, moisture, sweat?
- Yeah. It's good.
If Mark and Lev like it...
- Oh, it feels nice
on the head, no tab.
- And there are only small
tweaks, then we're good to go.
- Tighter. Elastic.
- Oh, okay.
If Mark and Lev
don't care for it,
the launch
will be compromised,
and there's really not
a lot we can do
other than scrap it and go back
to the drawing board.
- Yo, it is comfortable.
- Isn't it?
- That's the most comfortable
hat I've ever put on.
- It's ridiculous.
- Oh, this feels good.
- Ohh.
- That feels good, baby.
♪ Hallelujah ♪
Damn.
- That's a green light.
We're ready to launch.
[light electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Are you okay if we start
with a prayer?
- Of course. Always.
- Sure.
- Okay, in the name
of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of the Living God, we ask,
pray, and intreat
that you will bless all those
involved
in the Green Zebra endeavor.
We ask that you enlighten
our minds
with the light
of your knowledge and wisdom,
for you are Holy, always known
forever to the ages of ages.
Amen.
- Amen.
- Yeah.
That's a first for me.
- Ryan, can you remind me
of your role, Ryan?
- Sure.
Mark and I over the past year
have chosen to partner
on a number of different deals,
Green Zebra being one of them.
- I only spent about 25 minutes
on this.
Normally when analyzing
a company,
I would probably spend
a couple hours, I mean,
and honestly, I spend a couple
of weeks on some,
some months and even years.
While I'm not an expert
in the convenience store sector,
I've studied at least
I'm sure hundreds of companies
over the last decade,
and in that process,
usually what I do is,
I publish my research publicly
so that it's open
for public scrutiny.
- Great. Okay.
- Let me start
with the positive first of all.
I think what Lisa is trying
to build is really admirable,
and I think that the convenience
store model,
I can understand why
people would think
it should be disrupted.
But let me just walk you
through what I see on the deck.
So the deck is--is confusing.
- [clears throat]
Okay.
- But just getting into
some of the things
that jump out at me...
- Mm-hmm.
- So the page that say,
"Who are we, our customers?"
It says, "People who are health
conscious and short on time.
Basically everyone."
I'm not totally convinced
that's everyone.
If we're looking at a country
of 330 million people,
probably a lot of
health-conscious people
in Seattle and Portland and LA,
but I don't know
I'd speak for the rest
of the country so quickly.
- That's fair. Yeah.
- And the other thing
that jumps out at me is,
it says,
"Industry-wide enterprise value
is 10x even on average."
Based on my research,
that's wildly off.
So it says gross profit margins
of 22 to 26.
I happen to know
that's a false number.
She's talking about
an increase of going
from 11 million in gross sales
to 120 million
in five years?
That's a hockey stick.
- Right, and look, it's--the--
- I'm very, very suspect
of hockey stick projections.
I don't like them--I think
they're a huge red flag.
The convenience store risk--
it's very capital intensive.
The interest expense
is 10% of gross margin.
You can have a company
that loses money for a while.
You're gonna have to put a lot
of inputs to increase revenue.
A loss of about 2.1 million.
She's talking about metrics
that I've never heard of.
Looking at the statement
of income, that worries me.
When you're raising capital
from investors,
liquidation preference,
methodologies for valuation,
the more money you put in,
the more you lose.
Then we get down
to the net income line,
very severe recession.
Again, I don't know
when this deck was done,
but as we speak here today,
it is not the time to invest.
[dramatic musical sting]
We are looking at
a very severe recession
and probably a depression,
in my opinion.
And that worries me
as an analyst
who studied hundreds
of companies.
[tense music]
So that's 20 minutes
of analysis, guys.
[funky music]
♪ ♪