WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.240 It is Saturday, January 24th, 2026. Welcome back 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:06.719 to the Deep Dive. Good to be here. Today, we 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:10.080 are putting aside the usual tech reviews, the 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:12.619 market sweeps, all of that, to really focus on 00:00:12.619 --> 00:00:15.759 a biographical case study. And it's one that 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.469 has, I mean... quite literally span the last 00:00:18.469 --> 00:00:21.410 decade of cultural conversation, we're looking 00:00:21.410 --> 00:00:24.449 at a timeline that effectively ends, or maybe 00:00:24.449 --> 00:00:27.510 just pauses, right about now, in early 2026. 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:29.550 It's a timeline that, you know, if you pitched 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:31.890 it as a movie script, it would probably get rejected 00:00:31.890 --> 00:00:34.130 for being too repetitive. A little too on the 00:00:34.130 --> 00:00:37.670 nose. Too unbelievable. Exactly. It's the story 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:40.649 of a specific kind of American persistence, though 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:43.009 I guess whether you call it ambition or pathology 00:00:43.009 --> 00:00:45.090 really depends on which side of the wire transfer 00:00:45.090 --> 00:00:47.679 you're on. We are talking, of course, about Williams 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:49.960 or Bacchus McFarland, Billy McFarland, the man 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:51.840 himself. And before anyone rolls their eyes and 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:54.359 says, oh, we know cheese sandwiches 2017. I want 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:56.640 to frame this differently today. We aren't here 00:00:56.640 --> 00:00:59.359 to just rehash the Fyre Festival memes from almost 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:01.799 10 years ago. We are here to look at the entirety 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:04.140 of the file, you know, from his first ventures 00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:07.079 in 2013 all the way to the collapse of the sequel. 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:10.719 In 2025. Correct. And the reason this is a deep 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:12.819 dive and not just a recap is that we have to 00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:15.260 look at the mechanics, the nuts and bolts of 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:18.359 it. The how. The how. We need to understand the 00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:20.579 financial engineering, the psychology of the, 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:24.519 well, the recidivism and the bizarre legal gray 00:01:24.519 --> 00:01:27.340 zones that allowed a convicted felon to launch 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:29.920 a second multimillion dollar presale campaign 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:32.900 while he still owed $26 million in restitution. 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:35.120 It's incredible. So we've got a massive stack 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:37.079 of sources today. We're pulling from federal 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:39.159 court records, Bureau of Prisons incident reports 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:41.280 that Jonathan Taylor lawsuit filing from 2023. 00:01:42.219 --> 00:01:44.280 And of course, the great investigative reporting 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:46.480 from The New York Times and Rolling Stone about 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.879 the whole debacle in Mexico last year. So our 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:51.540 mission really is to figure out how a college 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:53.439 dropout convinced the world he was a tycoon, 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:56.239 went to prison, came out, and then convinced 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.659 a whole new set of people to do it all over again. 00:01:58.819 --> 00:02:00.799 It raises a pretty fundamental question, I think, 00:02:00.819 --> 00:02:02.920 about the venture capital ecosystem and, you 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:06.459 know, the whole creator economy. Is Billy McFarland 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:10.539 a glitch in this system? Or is he actually the 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:14.919 system working exactly as designed, just without 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:17.800 any breaks? That is the question. So let's start 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:20.240 at the beginning, but let's move past the Wikipedia 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.699 summary. We know he was born in 91, grew up in 00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:26.659 Short Hills, New Jersey. His parents were real 00:02:26.659 --> 00:02:29.240 estate developers. Right. So comfortable. Upper 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:31.379 middle class. This is not a rags to riches story 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:33.659 by any means. Not at all. He goes to the Pingree 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:35.439 School, a pretty prestigious private school, 00:02:35.580 --> 00:02:37.800 then off to Bucknell University. Where he drops 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.000 out in his freshman year. And I think we need 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:41.460 to contextualize that for a second. We're talking 00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:45.259 2010, 2011. Okay. This was the peak era. Of the 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:47.960 Peale Fellowship mentality. Yeah. Peter Thiel 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.580 paying smart kids to not go to college. Right. 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:52.819 So the cultural narrative in tech was that higher 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:55.300 education was a bottleneck for genius. Right. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.240 If you were really smart, you dropped out to 00:02:57.240 --> 00:02:59.520 build something. Exactly. And McFarland clearly 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.219 internalized that signal. He saw himself in that 00:03:02.219 --> 00:03:04.840 mold. So his first attempt at building is a company 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.759 called Spling, an ad platform. TechCrunch covers 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:12.270 it, but the coverage is. Well, it's pretty lukewarm. 00:03:12.430 --> 00:03:15.250 Lukewarm is generous. They basically call it 00:03:15.250 --> 00:03:17.610 a clone of services that already existed. And 00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:19.530 that's really the first data point in the pattern, 00:03:19.650 --> 00:03:22.590 isn't it? It really is. Spling wasn't a technological 00:03:22.590 --> 00:03:25.409 innovation. It was what you might call a memetic 00:03:25.409 --> 00:03:28.469 innovation. He copied the look and feel of a 00:03:28.469 --> 00:03:30.909 tech startup, but without any of the underlying 00:03:30.909 --> 00:03:33.789 proprietary value. Style over substance. All 00:03:33.789 --> 00:03:36.960 style. But the real training ground. The place 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.120 where he really honed the playbook for the fraud 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.199 that would come later was his next venture, Magnus' 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:45.900 in 2013. Okay, let's drill down on Magnus' because 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:47.960 this is where the financial disconnect really 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:49.759 starts to show. For anyone who's blocked this 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:52.580 era out, Magnus' was essentially a club. You 00:03:52.580 --> 00:03:55.759 paid, what, $250 a year? $250 a year. And in 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:57.900 return, you got this heavy metal black card. 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.460 It looked impressive. It did. But we need to 00:04:00.460 --> 00:04:03.020 be really clear on the technical side here. This 00:04:03.020 --> 00:04:05.719 was not a credit card. He didn't have a banking 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:08.280 charter. He wasn't underwriting any credit risk. 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:11.719 He was, for all intents and purposes, just cloning 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:14.080 the magnetic strip from your regular Wells Fargo 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:16.639 or Chase debit card onto a cool -looking piece 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:19.759 of heavy metal. It was a cart skin. But the value 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:21.480 proposition wasn't really the payment method 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:25.000 itself. It was the access. He had this townhouse 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.980 in the West Village. He threw parties, promised 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:30.660 networking. The whole status oriented millennial 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:32.839 pitch. And he raised one and a half million dollars 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:35.420 in seed funding, which, you know, it's not a 00:04:35.420 --> 00:04:37.439 huge amount in the grand scheme of startup land, 00:04:37.620 --> 00:04:40.819 but it's real money. It is real money. But here 00:04:40.819 --> 00:04:43.180 is where we need to introduce what I'm calling 00:04:43.180 --> 00:04:46.379 McFarland math. It's his own special brand of 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:49.240 valuation metrics. McFarlane math. I like it. 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:53.019 Because in 2013 and 2014, he is out there shopping 00:04:53.019 --> 00:04:56.139 Magnuses around to potential investors. And he 00:04:56.139 --> 00:04:59.019 produces these term sheets claiming the company 00:04:59.019 --> 00:05:01.259 is worth $90 million. Okay, let's just pause 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:04.959 on that. $90 million. To justify a $90 million 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:08.259 valuation, especially in a series A or B round, 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:11.040 you generally need to show some pretty significant 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.660 recurring revenue. Or, you know. Massive off 00:05:14.660 --> 00:05:16.819 the charts user growth. What were the actual 00:05:16.819 --> 00:05:20.560 numbers? So when the authorities eventually subpoenaed 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:22.920 the actual financials as part of the later investigations, 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:27.019 it turned out Magnesis had generated about $60 00:05:27.019 --> 00:05:30.779 ,000 in revenue. Wait, say that again. $60 ,000. 00:05:30.779 --> 00:05:34.620 $60 ,000. Six zero. Is that total? Or like monthly 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:36.600 recurring? That was total recognized revenue 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:38.980 at the point he was making that $90 million valuation 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:41.399 claim. My math isn't great, but we are talking 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:44.139 about a valuation multiple that is, what, 1 ,500 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:46.100 times revenue? Something like that. That's not 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:48.240 just optimism. That's not even aspirational. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:51.620 That's fantasy. How does an investor look at 00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:55.100 a $90 million claim backed by $60 grand in sales 00:05:55.100 --> 00:05:57.459 and not just laugh him out of the room? This 00:05:57.459 --> 00:05:59.379 is the critical insight, I think, into the venture 00:05:59.379 --> 00:06:01.800 capital landscape of that very specific moment. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:05.180 McFarlane. Wasn't pitching revenue. He wasn't 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:07.100 selling a balance sheet. He was pitching brand 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:09.839 heat. It's a sizzle. All sizzle. He argued that 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:12.459 Magnus' had captured the millennial influencer 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:15.660 market. This demographic that traditional banks 00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:18.480 like Amex were absolutely desperate to reach. 00:06:18.779 --> 00:06:21.560 He sold the potential of the user base, not the 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:23.680 reality of the business. So he was basically 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:27.480 arbitraging the FOMO of older, richer bankers. 00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:30.740 Exactly. He presented himself as the gatekeeper 00:06:30.740 --> 00:06:33.959 to the cool kids. And if you're a 50 -year -old 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:36.639 investment banker, terrified of losing relevance, 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:38.819 terrified you don't get it anymore, you might 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:41.079 just skip some of the due diligence because you 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:42.959 desperately want to believe this gatekeeper. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:45.860 But the math always wins in the end. Magnus is 00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:48.660 burning cash, it fails to scale, and it effectively 00:06:48.660 --> 00:06:51.720 becomes this little Ponzi scheme where new membership 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:53.699 fees are just paying for yesterday's parties. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.360 A tale as old as time. But instead of folding, 00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:00.079 he pivots. 2016. Fire Media. And, you know, the 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:02.860 premise here was actually it was somewhat sound 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:06.620 on paper, an app to book music talent directly. 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:09.939 The Uber for booking artists. Like disintermediating 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:12.399 the big clunky talent agencies. Sure. If you 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:14.319 can get the artists on board, if you can build 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:16.439 that marketplace, that really is a billion -dollar 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:18.759 business. But McFarland doesn't have the patience 00:07:18.759 --> 00:07:22.420 to build a marketplace. That's slow. It's boring. 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:26.019 It's hard work. He needs the splash. He needs 00:07:26.019 --> 00:07:28.160 the launch party to end all launch parties. He 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:29.879 needs Fyre Festival. He needs Fyre Festival. 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.579 Okay. So I don't want to spend the next 20 minutes 00:07:32.579 --> 00:07:34.579 on the cheese sandwich, but I do want to talk 00:07:34.579 --> 00:07:37.240 about the financing of this thing. Because when 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:41.000 you look at the court documents from 2017, the— 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.839 The way he funded this festival was, honestly, 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:46.740 it was terrifying. It was. And this is where 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:48.459 we have to talk about something called Merchant 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:51.720 Cash Advances, or MCAs. Okay, explain that for 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:53.339 the listener who might not be in finance. How 00:07:53.339 --> 00:07:55.600 is that different from just, you know, a regular 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:58.759 loan from a bank? Well, a standard bank loan 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:01.439 looks at your creditworthiness, your assets, 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:04.339 and they charge an interest rate that's regulated 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:07.680 by usury laws. Right. There are caps. An MCA 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.730 is technically not a loan. It's structured as 00:08:10.730 --> 00:08:13.769 the purchase of future receivables. So a lender 00:08:13.769 --> 00:08:17.970 gives you, say, $100 ,000 today in exchange for 00:08:17.970 --> 00:08:21.689 $140 ,000 of your future credit card sales. So 00:08:21.689 --> 00:08:23.810 they're just buying your future income at a discount. 00:08:23.949 --> 00:08:26.529 Precisely. And because it's framed as a commercial 00:08:26.529 --> 00:08:29.490 transaction and not a loan, it gets to bypass 00:08:29.490 --> 00:08:31.990 a lot of those interest rate caps. And McFarland 00:08:31.990 --> 00:08:34.879 was... addicted to these. He was drowning in 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.120 them. He took out millions in MCAs. The prosecutors 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:41.019 found one specific agreement he signed that had 00:08:41.019 --> 00:08:43.539 an effective annualized interest rate of 120 00:08:43.539 --> 00:08:48.399 percent. 120. 120 percent. That is just it's 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:50.899 a death spiral. There is no legitimate business 00:08:50.899 --> 00:08:54.059 on Earth outside of maybe like cartel drug trafficking 00:08:54.059 --> 00:08:57.940 that has high enough margins to service 120 percent 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:00.440 interest debt. Correct. You can't out earn that. 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.500 And this explains the utter chaos of the festival 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:06.500 planning. He wasn't just disorganized. He was 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:09.740 fundamentally insolvent from day one. Every single 00:09:09.740 --> 00:09:12.259 dollar that came in from a ticket sale was immediately 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:15.299 being siphoned off to pay the MCA lenders from 00:09:15.299 --> 00:09:17.600 the week before. He was on a treadmill that was 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:20.100 moving faster than he could possibly run. And 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:22.379 that desperation leads directly to the fraud. 00:09:22.580 --> 00:09:25.279 Which is when he started sending like fake wire 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:27.879 transfer screenshots to vendors to prove he'd 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:30.139 paid them. Right. And he doctored inventory. 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.240 sheets to make investors think he owned millions 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:35.960 in stock shares that he absolutely did not own. 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:38.259 He was literally just photoshopping brokerage 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:40.080 statements. I remember reading that he would 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:42.399 cut and paste numbers. It wasn't some sophisticated 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:45.320 hack. It was it was digital arts and craft. And 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:47.759 yet it worked for a while. It worked long enough 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:50.039 to get thousands of people on planes to the Bahamas 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:53.659 in April 2017. And we all know the result. The 00:09:53.659 --> 00:09:56.960 FEMA tents, the rain, the total collapse of logistics, 00:09:57.440 --> 00:09:59.899 the cancellation after everyone's already there. 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:02.340 The $100 million class action lawsuit. And then 00:10:02.340 --> 00:10:05.840 his arrest in June 2017. But this is the part 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:07.600 of the story where the timeline usually just 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:10.480 fades to black for the general public. They think 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.779 arrest, jail, end of story. Right. But for us, 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:16.940 looking back from 2026, the period between his 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:20.559 arrest and his actual sentencing is, in my opinion, 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:22.980 the most revealing part of his psychology. This 00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:27.100 is the NYC VIP access era. Exactly. He is out 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:29.919 on $300 ,000 bail. He's living with his parents 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.600 in New Jersey. He is facing decades in federal 00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:35.460 prison. And what does he do? He fires up the 00:10:35.460 --> 00:10:37.960 old email list again. It is almost pathological. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.220 He takes the email list of Fyre Festival victims, 00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:43.200 people who he had already defrauded, who had 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:45.500 lost thousands of dollars, and he targets them 00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:48.899 with a brand new scheme. NYC VIP access. He starts 00:10:48.899 --> 00:10:51.340 offering tickets to these hyper -exclusive events. 00:10:51.620 --> 00:10:54.179 The Met Gala Burning Man, Coachella, the Grammy 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:56.759 Awards. Let's be very, very clear about the Met 00:10:56.759 --> 00:10:58.600 Gala. You cannot buy a ticket to the Met Gala. 00:10:58.679 --> 00:11:01.179 You cannot. It is an invitation -only fundraiser 00:11:01.179 --> 00:11:04.100 for the Costume Institute. Anna Wintour herself. 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:07.259 personally approves every single person on that 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:09.779 guest list. So how does he even sell this? If 00:11:09.779 --> 00:11:13.200 I'm some wealthy millennial in 2017, how do I 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.919 possibly believe that Billy McFarlane, the guy 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:19.159 from the cheese sandwich festival, can get me 00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:21.440 into the Met Gala? It's pure social engineering. 00:11:21.659 --> 00:11:23.799 He didn't sell it as, I have a ticket for you. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:27.840 He sold it as, I have a relationship. He preyed 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:30.879 on the insecurity of the nouveau riche, the people 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.500 who have money. but not status. He implied that 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:36.980 there's a backdoor for everything, a secret menu 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:40.179 if you just know the right guy. And he, Billy 00:11:40.179 --> 00:11:42.299 McFarland, was the guy. But he wasn't the guy. 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:44.399 He was just taking their money. He was just taking 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:46.320 their money. It was wire fraud, pure and simple. 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:49.740 And he was caught. Because, and this part is 00:11:49.740 --> 00:11:52.139 still unbelievable to me, he was being filmed 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:54.240 by the documentary crew for the Netflix film 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:56.659 while he was running the scam. You can hear the 00:11:56.659 --> 00:11:58.679 audio in the film. You can hear audio of him 00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:01.019 spoofing his voice, pretending to be some other 00:12:01.019 --> 00:12:03.139 chicken broker on the phone. It's insane. It's 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:05.279 the unstoppable hustle, in the worst possible 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.299 sense of the phrase. He literally could not stop 00:12:08.299 --> 00:12:10.700 himself from transactionalizing his entire existence, 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:13.639 even when he knew the FBI was monitoring his 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:16.840 every move. And that behavior is what sealed 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:20.429 his fate. The prosecutors had him dead to rights. 00:12:20.750 --> 00:12:24.250 So in March 2018, he pleads guilty. In October, 00:12:24.509 --> 00:12:26.830 he's sentenced to six years in federal prison 00:12:26.830 --> 00:12:30.590 and ordered to forfeit $26 million. So he goes 00:12:30.590 --> 00:12:33.330 to prison, FCI Otisville, then he gets transferred 00:12:33.330 --> 00:12:36.299 later. Now, you know, most white... collar criminals 00:12:36.299 --> 00:12:38.539 who go to federal prison, they just keep their 00:12:38.539 --> 00:12:40.679 heads down. Right. They teach yoga class. They 00:12:40.679 --> 00:12:42.559 work in the library. They try to get time off 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:44.419 for good behavior. They just want to do their 00:12:44.419 --> 00:12:46.700 time and get out. Billy McFarland is not most 00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:48.960 criminals. No, he's not. So let's talk about 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.850 the prison years from 2018 to 2022. specifically 00:12:52.850 --> 00:12:56.110 this solitary confinement incident. He claims 00:12:56.110 --> 00:12:58.710 he was thrown in the SHU, the special housing 00:12:58.710 --> 00:13:00.610 unit, because he was trying to write a book and 00:13:00.610 --> 00:13:03.149 launch a podcast from his cell. That's his version 00:13:03.149 --> 00:13:06.330 of the story. The Bureau of Prisons is notoriously 00:13:06.330 --> 00:13:09.009 opaque, but generally speaking, running a for 00:13:09.009 --> 00:13:11.009 -profit business from inside a federal facility 00:13:11.009 --> 00:13:14.580 is a major, major violation. Inmates have limited 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:17.179 phone privileges, limited email access through 00:13:17.179 --> 00:13:20.179 a system called CoreLynx. You're absolutely not 00:13:20.179 --> 00:13:22.480 allowed to conduct commercial activity. But he 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:24.600 was trying to record voice notes to send out 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:27.519 to a collaborator. Yes. The plan, apparently, 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.399 was to dictate a memoir and potentially host 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:33.120 a podcast all through the prison phone system. 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:36.440 He was treating his own incarceration as just 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:39.360 another content vertical, live from the inside. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:42.950 Which brings up the son of Sam laws, right? In 00:13:42.950 --> 00:13:45.590 New York and federally, there are statutes designed 00:13:45.590 --> 00:13:47.870 to prevent criminals from profiting from the 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:50.590 publicity of their crimes. How did he think he 00:13:50.590 --> 00:13:52.529 could get away with monetizing his story while 00:13:52.529 --> 00:13:56.320 still owing $26 million to his victims? The legal 00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:58.559 framework there is actually pretty complex. The 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:00.679 original Son of Sam laws have been challenged 00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:03.299 on First Amendment grounds and struck down. The 00:14:03.299 --> 00:14:05.480 modern versions are a bit different. Usually 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.399 the government can seize the proceeds of the 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:10.440 book or movie to pay restitution, but they can't 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:12.840 necessarily stop the speech itself from happening. 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:15.559 So his thinking was probably, let me make the 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:17.820 money first and we'll fight over who gets to 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:19.940 keep it later. I think that's exactly it. The 00:14:19.940 --> 00:14:22.200 hustle never stops. And speaking of hustling 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:24.799 for money inside prison, we have to talk about 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:27.830 Jonathan Taylor. This all came out in a lawsuit 00:14:27.830 --> 00:14:31.190 that was filed later in 2023. Taylor was a fellow 00:14:31.190 --> 00:14:33.750 inmate, right? Yes. And this is a detail that 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:38.429 just boggles the mind. Jonathan Taylor, another 00:14:38.429 --> 00:14:42.049 inmate, claims he met McFarland inside. And while 00:14:42.049 --> 00:14:44.470 they were both serving time, McFarland convinced 00:14:44.470 --> 00:14:48.909 Taylor to invest $740 ,000 into his next post 00:14:48.909 --> 00:14:52.429 -prison venture. Hold on a second. How? How does 00:14:52.429 --> 00:14:54.669 an inmate transfer three quarters of a million 00:14:54.669 --> 00:14:56.929 dollars to another inmate? It wasn't like he 00:14:56.929 --> 00:14:58.669 was handing him bags of cash in the yard. Right. 00:14:58.750 --> 00:15:00.730 I'm assuming it wasn't commissary funds. No. 00:15:00.889 --> 00:15:02.549 It would have all been arranged through outside 00:15:02.549 --> 00:15:05.470 proxies, family members, lawyers, existing business 00:15:05.470 --> 00:15:08.490 accounts. But the core of it is that McFarlane, 00:15:08.570 --> 00:15:11.870 while wearing a beige prison jumpsuit, was able 00:15:11.870 --> 00:15:14.929 to convince a peer, another inmate, to part with 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:18.149 $740 ,000 for a company that did not exist yet. 00:15:18.490 --> 00:15:20.789 It just shows that his charisma is it's like 00:15:20.789 --> 00:15:22.990 a weapon. It works even without the fancy clothes 00:15:22.990 --> 00:15:25.289 in the West Village townhouse. No, it's source 00:15:25.289 --> 00:15:28.389 agnostic. The charisma functions anywhere. So 00:15:28.389 --> 00:15:30.769 he ends up serving less than four years of his 00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:33.769 six year sentence. He gets out in March 2022, 00:15:34.129 --> 00:15:36.970 first to a halfway house in New York, then full 00:15:36.970 --> 00:15:39.830 freedom in September. And almost immediately 00:15:39.830 --> 00:15:43.470 we get the launch of PYRT. Spelled P -Y -R -T. 00:15:43.750 --> 00:15:47.389 Of course. A hard pivot into pure tech bro buzzword 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:50.250 territory. Oh, absolutely. This was late 2022. 00:15:50.629 --> 00:15:53.450 The crypto winter was setting in, but the metaverse 00:15:53.450 --> 00:15:55.509 was still this lingering concept people were 00:15:55.509 --> 00:15:58.789 throwing money at. So McFarlane pitches PYRT 00:15:58.789 --> 00:16:02.429 as a, quote, virtual, immersive, decentralized 00:16:02.429 --> 00:16:06.110 reality. Which means absolutely nothing. It's 00:16:06.110 --> 00:16:08.940 a word salad. It means nothing. Vanity Fair at 00:16:08.940 --> 00:16:11.019 the time called it Fire Festival Light without 00:16:11.019 --> 00:16:13.519 the capacity issues. A great line. The idea, 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.620 as best as anyone could tell, was a hybrid model. 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:17.639 You'd do these virtual treasure hunts online 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:20.100 to win tickets to physical trips and parties. 00:16:20.419 --> 00:16:22.659 But he made a fatal error right out of the gate. 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:24.720 He started teasing that some of these events 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:26.460 would happen in the Bahamas. And the Bahamas, 00:16:26.539 --> 00:16:28.620 well, they have a long memory. A very long memory. 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.759 The Bahamian Ministry of Tourism issued one of 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.740 the most blistering government statements I've 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:36.509 ever seen. They didn't just say no. They didn't 00:16:36.509 --> 00:16:38.429 just say he's not welcome. They called him a 00:16:38.429 --> 00:16:41.169 fugitive in the eyes of their government. Wow. 00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:44.250 They said he was persona non grata. Full stop. 00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:46.330 That really should have been the end of it. I 00:16:46.330 --> 00:16:49.269 mean, when a sovereign nation publicly bans you 00:16:49.269 --> 00:16:51.370 and calls you a fugitive, maybe it's time to 00:16:51.370 --> 00:16:54.309 pivot to something else. Open a deli. Write a 00:16:54.309 --> 00:16:57.759 quiet blog. Just stop. But he didn't stop. He 00:16:57.759 --> 00:16:59.659 pivoted to politics for a minute. There were 00:16:59.659 --> 00:17:01.539 reports he was trying to broker endorsements 00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:04.579 from hip hop artists for the 2024 Trump campaign. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:07.779 But that seemed to fizzle out. And then in April 00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:11.160 2023, he drops the bomb on Twitter. The tweet 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.980 heard around the world. Fire Festival 2 is finally 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:16.759 happening. I remember seeing this. I, like everyone 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:18.799 else, assumed it was a parody account. It was 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:20.960 not. And this kicks off the era that we need 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.119 to analyze most closely. Right. This timeline 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:26.759 from 2023 to 2025. Because this wasn't just a 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:29.619 random tweet. It was a very calibrated, very 00:17:29.619 --> 00:17:32.420 deliberate attempt to restart the entire machine. 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:36.339 So he puts the first 100 tickets on sale in August 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:41.980 of 2023. They're $499 each. $499. And to be clear. 00:17:42.299 --> 00:17:45.119 This was for a festival with no venue. No lineup. 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:48.460 No date. Nothing. Just the words fire to. And 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:51.819 he claimed they sold out instantly. Yeah. Now, 00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:54.099 we don't have audited records of that sale, but 00:17:54.099 --> 00:17:57.240 frankly, given the Internet's obsession with 00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:00.079 irony and meta commentary. I actually believe. 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:02.140 Oh, I believe it, too. There are more than 100 00:18:02.140 --> 00:18:05.140 YouTubers and streamers who would pay 500 bucks 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:07.240 just for the content opportunity of watching 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:09.160 it fail again. It's a business expense for them. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:11.819 Exactly. So he raises this initial seed capital 00:18:11.819 --> 00:18:14.460 from what we could call the irony market. And 00:18:14.460 --> 00:18:17.400 then things go quiet for a while until late 2024, 00:18:17.700 --> 00:18:19.920 when the supposed details start leaking out. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.619 Right. A date appears May 30th to June 2nd, 2025. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:27.400 And a location, Ila Mujeres, Mexico. Which is 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:29.640 off the coast of Cancun. It's a beautiful, very 00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:32.220 well -established, very real tourist destination. 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:35.039 For a moment, it almost seemed plausible. Almost. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:37.200 But then Rolling Stone gets its hands on the 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:40.160 official ticket packages. And this, this is where 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.079 the deep dive really needs to get skeptical. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:45.940 The top -tier package, the VIP experience, was 00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:53.160 listed at $1 .1 million. $1 .1 million. Okay, 00:18:53.299 --> 00:18:56.319 I have to push back on this. In the actual luxury 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.859 experience economy, and I'm talking about things 00:18:58.859 --> 00:19:02.220 like Virgin Galactic flights to space or private 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:05.019 expeditions to climb Mount Everest or buying 00:19:05.019 --> 00:19:08.200 citizenship in Malta, $1 .1 million gets you 00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:11.000 a lot. It gets you tangible life altering assets 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.279 or experiences. Exactly. What on earth was McFarland 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:16.279 offering for a million dollars for a three day 00:19:16.279 --> 00:19:18.920 weekend on an island in Mexico? The prospectus 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.940 was predictably vague. It promised things like 00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:25.109 private yacht access. Luxury diving excursions, 00:19:25.109 --> 00:19:27.750 artists meet and greets, and my personal favorite, 00:19:27.910 --> 00:19:30.710 lifetime access to all future Fyre events. Lifetime 00:19:30.710 --> 00:19:32.869 access to a brand that has held exactly zero 00:19:32.869 --> 00:19:35.170 successful events in its entire history is a 00:19:35.170 --> 00:19:37.890 dubious asset, to put it mildly. To put it mildly. 00:19:37.910 --> 00:19:40.029 But the price point I don't think was ever about 00:19:40.029 --> 00:19:42.930 value. It was a marketing stunt. By anchoring 00:19:42.930 --> 00:19:47.369 the price way up there at $1 .1 million, it makes 00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:50.670 the $1 ,400 general admission ticket seem reasonable 00:19:50.670 --> 00:19:53.690 by comparison. It's a classic pricing psychology 00:19:53.690 --> 00:19:56.950 tactic, the ridiculously expensive decoy. But 00:19:56.950 --> 00:19:59.150 this is where reality once again collided with 00:19:59.150 --> 00:20:01.789 the pitch deck. February 2025. We're getting 00:20:01.789 --> 00:20:04.730 close to the festival date. The municipal government 00:20:04.730 --> 00:20:07.170 of Isla Mujeres releases an official statement. 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:10.150 And they said, in no uncertain terms, we have 00:20:10.150 --> 00:20:13.200 no record of this. No permit applications have 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:16.099 been filed, no sanitation plans, no security 00:20:16.099 --> 00:20:18.500 contracts, nothing. So he was selling tickets, 00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:21.200 including a million dollar ticket to a festival 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:23.619 in a foreign country, without ever telling the 00:20:23.619 --> 00:20:25.299 government of that country that he was coming. 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:27.339 It actually gets weirder. The New York Times 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:29.619 did a fantastic piece of forensic investigation. 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:32.119 They took the GPS coordinates that were listed 00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:34.319 on the ticket confirmation emails. The ones sent 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:35.900 to the people who actually bought tickets. The 00:20:35.900 --> 00:20:38.279 very same. And they plotted those coordinates 00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:40.619 on a proper nautical chart of the area. What 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:42.819 did they find? The coordinates were three miles 00:20:42.819 --> 00:20:45.160 off the coast of the island in the water. You're 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:48.299 kidding me. In the ocean? Yes. Not like on a 00:20:48.299 --> 00:20:51.460 beach, not a resort, in the water. In the water. 00:20:51.539 --> 00:20:54.500 Literally just a point in the Caribbean Sea. 00:20:54.619 --> 00:20:58.220 Okay. Was this just staggering incompetence a 00:20:58.220 --> 00:21:03.059 typo or was this some kind of clever like jurisdiction 00:21:03.059 --> 00:21:07.130 dodge? That's the big debate. Some legal analysts 00:21:07.130 --> 00:21:08.849 at the time suggested he might have been trying 00:21:08.849 --> 00:21:10.529 to claim the event was taking place in international 00:21:10.529 --> 00:21:13.529 waters to avoid Mexican labor laws or liability 00:21:13.529 --> 00:21:16.410 statutes. But three miles out is usually still 00:21:16.410 --> 00:21:18.970 considered territorial waters, isn't it? It is. 00:21:18.970 --> 00:21:22.049 So that theory is shaky. The more likely explanation 00:21:22.049 --> 00:21:23.829 is that he just picked a pin on a Google map 00:21:23.829 --> 00:21:26.210 that looked cool and remote without ever checking 00:21:26.210 --> 00:21:28.190 the actual depth charts or, you know, whether 00:21:28.190 --> 00:21:30.390 it was land. So he's selling a million dollar 00:21:30.390 --> 00:21:33.059 ticket to a patch of ocean. Did he have a plan 00:21:33.059 --> 00:21:35.500 for this? Were there barges? Did he have a flotilla 00:21:35.500 --> 00:21:37.920 of yachts lined up? There were no contracts for 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.599 barges, no contracts for cruise ships, no evidence 00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:44.640 of any logistical plan whatsoever. It was a phantom 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:47.039 location. And the Times piece pointed out that 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:49.660 constructing a stable floating platform for 3 00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:52.500 ,000 people in open water would cost tens of 00:21:52.500 --> 00:21:55.480 millions of dollars and take over a year of serious 00:21:55.480 --> 00:21:58.099 marine engineering. Right. The logistics were, 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:01.640 in a word, Impossible. It was fire eye all over 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:04.680 again, but this time it was wet. So inevitably 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:08.539 the collapse happens mid -April 2025, just a 00:22:08.539 --> 00:22:11.019 month before the scheduled date. It's postponed 00:22:11.019 --> 00:22:14.200 indefinitely. And McFarlane releases this video. 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:17.480 He looks tired. He looks defeated. And he says 00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:19.950 the brand is... bigger than what I'm able to 00:22:19.950 --> 00:22:21.930 lead on my own. Which was really the first time 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:23.789 he ever admitted defeat, wasn't it? It wasn't 00:22:23.789 --> 00:22:26.150 just a setback or fake news. It was an admission 00:22:26.150 --> 00:22:28.809 of failure. It was. And that brings us to the 00:22:28.809 --> 00:22:31.890 final bizarre chapter of this saga. Yeah. July 00:22:31.890 --> 00:22:35.519 2025. The eBay auction. This was the funeral. 00:22:35.619 --> 00:22:39.079 He put the entire Fyre Festival brand, the trademarks, 00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:41.440 the IP, the mailing list, the logo, everything 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:43.299 up for auction on eBay. We were watching this 00:22:43.299 --> 00:22:45.339 happen live. He was hyping it up on social media 00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:47.579 for weeks, saying the brand was worth millions 00:22:47.579 --> 00:22:49.180 just because of the global name recognition. 00:22:49.500 --> 00:22:51.579 Everyone knows Fyre, he kept saying. And he's 00:22:51.579 --> 00:22:53.859 not wrong. Everyone does know Fyre. But they 00:22:53.859 --> 00:22:55.779 know it as a warning label. They know it as a 00:22:55.779 --> 00:22:58.579 punchline, not as the luxury mark. And the final 00:22:58.579 --> 00:23:03.410 gavel price reflected that. $245 ,300. Which, 00:23:03.529 --> 00:23:05.930 you know, to be fair, is a quarter of a million 00:23:05.930 --> 00:23:09.410 dollars for a completely tainted brand. It's 00:23:09.410 --> 00:23:12.369 not nothing. But when you compare it to the $26 00:23:12.369 --> 00:23:15.410 million, he still owes his victims. It's a drop 00:23:15.410 --> 00:23:18.130 in the bucket. A rounding error. Not even that. 00:23:18.289 --> 00:23:20.509 Do we know who bought it? Some anonymous holding 00:23:20.509 --> 00:23:23.369 company. The rumors are they plan to turn it 00:23:23.369 --> 00:23:25.809 into a documentary series or maybe a horror -themed 00:23:25.809 --> 00:23:29.650 attraction. The irony is just complete. So here 00:23:29.650 --> 00:23:33.329 we are, January 2026. Looking back at this absolute 00:23:33.329 --> 00:23:35.750 wreckage, we have the original Magnus' fraud, 00:23:36.009 --> 00:23:38.410 the FireEye fraud, the fraud while on bail, the 00:23:38.410 --> 00:23:40.569 prison hustle, the crypto pivot, and the ocean 00:23:40.569 --> 00:23:42.809 festival that never was. It is a solid decade 00:23:42.809 --> 00:23:45.710 of unadulterated hubris. But I want to push back 00:23:45.710 --> 00:23:47.690 on the hubris label just a little bit. Because 00:23:47.690 --> 00:23:51.269 hubris implies just arrogance, a personal failing. 00:23:51.369 --> 00:23:54.359 This feels, I don't know, more systemic. Well, 00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:57.579 when you look at the 2026 landscape, the AI bubble 00:23:57.579 --> 00:23:59.799 we're all living through right now, the creator 00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:03.000 economy, where attention is the only currency 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:06.359 that really matters, was Billy McFarlane truly 00:24:06.359 --> 00:24:09.160 an outlier or was he just a little too messy, 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:12.059 a little too early? That is the really uncomfortable 00:24:12.059 --> 00:24:14.400 truth, isn't it? Look at the companies that have 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:16.640 reached billion dollar valuations in the last 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:19.680 two years with zero profit, sometimes with zero 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:22.680 revenue. Look at how our entire market values 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:26.319 narrative over cash flow. McFarlane's only real 00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:28.380 crime, you could argue, was that he was just 00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:30.970 bad at the execution. That's a terrifying thought. 00:24:31.190 --> 00:24:33.289 If he had actually pulled off the festival, if 00:24:33.289 --> 00:24:35.430 by some miracle the villas had been built and 00:24:35.430 --> 00:24:37.549 the bands had shown up, he wouldn't be a felon. 00:24:37.549 --> 00:24:40.210 He'd be on the cover of Forbes. So the line between 00:24:40.210 --> 00:24:43.250 a visionary and a con man is just whether the 00:24:43.250 --> 00:24:45.369 tents arrive on time. In the current economy, 00:24:45.509 --> 00:24:47.730 I think the answer is yes. So for our listeners, 00:24:47.789 --> 00:24:49.890 especially the professionals tuning in who might 00:24:49.890 --> 00:24:52.730 be evaluating deals or partnerships in 2026. 00:24:53.690 --> 00:24:55.549 What's the tactical takeaway here? How do you 00:24:55.549 --> 00:24:58.250 spot a McFarland before the wire transfer clears? 00:24:58.509 --> 00:25:00.569 You have to look at the boring stuff. The boring 00:25:00.569 --> 00:25:03.230 stuff. The boring stuff. Everyone gets seduced 00:25:03.230 --> 00:25:05.170 by the pitch deck. Everyone watches the hype 00:25:05.170 --> 00:25:07.190 video with the models on the beach. You have 00:25:07.190 --> 00:25:08.670 to ignore that and look at the boring stuff. 00:25:08.829 --> 00:25:12.990 The audit trail. The bank charters. The specific 00:25:12.990 --> 00:25:15.289 language in the terms of service about refunds 00:25:15.289 --> 00:25:17.089 and venue changes. And a financing structure. 00:25:17.369 --> 00:25:20.009 Crucially. If you find out a potential partner 00:25:20.009 --> 00:25:22.539 is relying on... NCAAs or other kinds of high 00:25:22.539 --> 00:25:24.619 interest bridge loans, they are already dead. 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:26.880 They're insolvent. They just haven't fallen over 00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:29.380 yet. So transparency is the only metric that 00:25:29.380 --> 00:25:32.740 matters. It's the only one. If they can't or 00:25:32.740 --> 00:25:35.680 won't show you the raw data, not the pretty slide 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:38.480 deck, the actual raw data, you have to walk away. 00:25:38.660 --> 00:25:40.720 And I'd add one more thing to that. Beware the 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:44.359 allure of the exclusive. Yes, absolutely. McFarland's 00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:48.339 entire career. from Magnuses to fire to the Met 00:25:48.339 --> 00:25:52.240 Gala scams, it all relied on the victim's deep 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:55.519 -seated desire to be in, to be part of the club 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.740 that other people couldn't join. He weaponized 00:25:57.740 --> 00:26:00.420 our insecurity. He knew that the moment he told 00:26:00.420 --> 00:26:02.720 you you can't come in, you would pay double to 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:05.940 get through the door. So maybe the ultimate defense 00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:08.039 against the Billy McFarlands of the world is 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:11.420 just a little bit of humility. Be okay with the 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:13.630 general admission ticket. Be okay with the regular 00:26:13.630 --> 00:26:15.910 credit card. Be okay with the sandwich you made 00:26:15.910 --> 00:26:18.130 yourself. Exactly. Be okay with the sandwich 00:26:18.130 --> 00:26:20.529 you made yourself. It's certainly cheaper than 00:26:20.529 --> 00:26:23.750 the $1 .1 million alternative. And, you know, 00:26:23.829 --> 00:26:26.630 it likely tastes better. That brings us to the 00:26:26.630 --> 00:26:29.250 end of this deep dive. A decade of the unstoppable 00:26:29.250 --> 00:26:32.369 hustle finally stopped, or at least auctioned 00:26:32.369 --> 00:26:35.250 off for parts on eBay. We will be back next week 00:26:35.250 --> 00:26:37.529 with a look at the new Neuralink regulations 00:26:37.529 --> 00:26:40.269 coming out of the EU. Until then, check your 00:26:40.269 --> 00:26:41.650 term sheets. And stay safe.