Smash Notes

Back to How to find your arbitrage (from the guy who’s done it 3x) ft. Nick Kokonas, with Nick Kokonas.

Why Are Tuesday and Saturday Dinner Reservations the Same Price?

Tuesday and Saturday dinner reservations are the same price because restaurants still sell time as if every hour were worth the same. Nick Kokonas treats that as the reservation version of the old paper ticket. A guest walks up to the host stand, the phone rings, and the first words are that someone will be right with them. He calls the phone a middle finger, followed by a demand to prove you belong there.

OpenTable in 2005 sat between the guest and the restaurant, and that middle seat was its arbitrage. The software was dismal. His picture of it is a sweater shop. You point at the blue cashmere cardigan, and they tell you to guess which of the other 300 you are allowed to buy. Tock started because he could not tell who was about to walk in, and because a guest is not worth the same amount on a Tuesday at 9pm in Chicago as on a Saturday at 7pm. Those two tables should carry different prices. He says that was obvious to him and is still not obvious to everyone else.

Transcript

How to find your arbitrage (from the guy who’s done it 3x) ft. Nick Kokonas ·

My First Million

More from this episode

  1. How Do You Know You Are Taking Enough Risk?Nick Kokonas knows he is taking enough risk when a morning feels close to throwing up and he has not thrown up yet.
  2. What Does All Talk, No Action Mean?Nick Kokonas says all talk, no action is what AT&A means in his house. His wife uses the phrase on him.
  3. Why Did Nick Kokonas Erase College From His Resume?Nick Kokonas erased college from his resume so a firm would hire him as a runner at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for $5 and 25 cents an hour.
  4. Why Did Nick Kokonas Offer to Pay His Own Boss?Nick Kokonas offered to pay a floor trader for the chance to work for him, because that trader was the only person in the pit who could teach what he was after.
  5. Why Is Expertise a Trap?Nick Kokonas says expertise is a trap because comfort is how you get passed.
  6. Why Is Every Arbitrage About Time?Nick Kokonas says every arbitrage is about the timescale. He turned down podcasts for about three years, then said yes to this one so he could say that.
  7. Why Did Nick Kokonas Shut Down a Risk-free Trade?Nick Kokonas shut the trade down because it worked too well.
  8. What Did Nick Kokonas's Father Say About Boats, Women, and Drugs?Nick Kokonas's father told him no boats, no women, and no drugs.
  9. Why Did Nick Kokonas Quit the Trading Floor?Nick Kokonas quit the floor because the window was closing and he did not like who he had become. Every arbitrage shuts, fast or slow.
  10. How Often Should a Busy Restaurant Change Prices?Nick Kokonas says a busy restaurant should change its prices every day, every hour, or every minute.
  11. Why Do Great Songwriters Throw Out Most Songs?Nick Kokonas says everything is grind: a great songwriter writes songs every day and throws out 98 percent of them, and while a song finished overnight might…
  12. Why Did Alinea Publish Its Business Plan Before Opening?Alinea published its business plan before opening so strangers could fix it and so future guests would already feel part of it.
  13. Why Did Alinea Start With an Empty Table?Nick Kokonas built the opening of Alinea on the concert Stop Making Sense.
  14. Why Do Magicians Stand Next to You?Magicians stand next to you because trust follows the person looking at the same thing you are. Nick Kokonas took that from old magic books.
  15. How Did Alinea Group Investors Get Paid?Alinea Group investors were paid from the first year, not only when the group was sold. Nick Kokonas sold the group in 2023.
  16. How Did Tock Finish a Buyer's Question List in Three Days?Tock finished a buyer's list of 896 questions in three days because Nick Kokonas would not let the advisors set the pace.
  17. Why Is Intensity the Strategy?Nick Kokonas says intensity is the strategy because winners do not know a secret he missed and they do not hold a magic formula.
  18. What Did Nick Kokonas Tell Napa Grape Growers?Nick Kokonas keynoted the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association last spring after telling the group they had the wrong person.
  19. What Is Strange House?Strange House is a walk-through built to make a stranger feel five years old, not a restaurant and not a magic show.

People

More answers like this

More with Sam Parr

More with Shaan Puri

Related episodes

Plays from this note through the rest of the episode.

Note

Weekly highlights

One letter a week.

The notes worth hearing, with the minute they were said.