The value of the value chain. October 16, 2026

Scott Phillips (0:04)

Welcome to Motley Fool Money, the podcast that also didn't float on the ASX last week. I'm Scott Phillips from the Motley Fool. He is Andrew Page. I've said before, he's not really from Strawman.

He kind of is Strawman, and yet he's bigger than Strawman. Strawman is bigger than him. It is a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, all held together with string sticky tape, and this man's cast iron will. Andrew Ram Page, how are you, sir?

Andrew Page (0:30)

Very good, man. That was very meta.

Scott Phillips (0:32)

That was meta.

Andrew Page (0:33)

I love it. I love it.

Scott Phillips (0:35)

I'm not particularly inventive, and I am running out of ways to do it, but every now and again, I surprise myself, and that was not too bad, that one. I'll take that because I have to.

Andrew Page (0:42)

I'll take it, for sure. I love a bit of fantasy to start things off.

Scott Phillips (0:47)

Fantasy? So, you mean I'm making it too small, pretending it's just a little thing? Exactly, yes.

Fair enough. How was the week, mate? Very good.

Andrew Page (0:57)

Um, yeah, I just... 2026 is just a blur. I feel like...

Scott Phillips (1:03)

Isn't it what?

Andrew Page (1:03)

I just can't keep up, you know.

Scott Phillips (1:05)

So much is happening so quickly.

Andrew Page (1:06)

If I didn't shave all my hair off, I would say my hair's been blown back.

Scott Phillips (1:10)

Again, unfortunately, we're not on a video here, but the hair is recovering. You had mentioned it.

Yes, it's coming back. Unlike me, you can't actually grow your hair back. So, you know, I'm both impressed and jealous, and you know, for a little while, you tried it. Are you going to persist with the short hair? What's the plan?

Andrew Page (1:26)

Yeah, I think so. I think so.

Scott Phillips (1:28)

Okay.

Andrew Page (1:29)

You made the joke off air, but now that you've said it, I think I'm going to lean into the whole Jack Dorsey.

I'm going to go full Dorsey, and just like, what do they call him, the wizard? Because he just looks like a wizard with the beard and everything. So yeah, why not? Why not?

Scott Phillips (1:48)

Do yourself a favor, listener.

Just Google Jack Dorsey before and after, and you can see the original Jack, clean shaven at one point, and then a little bit of facial hair, and then he's gone full Bush Ranger. And so Andrew May have made it go on that path from the sound of it. Jack Dorsey is a wizard. I reckon leaning into the Australian bit, mate. I think go Bush Ranger. That's it. There's your thing. We'll see how that goes.

Andrew Page (2:12)

The genetics are not on my side though, unfortunately.

Scott Phillips (2:16)

So time will do it. I suppose the wizard thing, I just speak of AI. We haven't yet. We will. Over on Google says Jack Dorsey's transformation spans from a clean shaven suit wearing young tech founder to an eccentric billionaire with a full wizard beard, long hair and an avant-garde or minimalist personal style.

Andrew Page (2:33)

Brilliant.

Scott Phillips (2:34)

Just love it. Jack Dorsey is your spirit animal, I see. And that's one of my favorite billionaires.

Andrew Page (2:39)

I mean, look, it's a very narrow list of billionaires. You can publicly say you like, yeah, no, he's a good guy. I don't know, or not, until the next headline breaks and you go, oh, okay.

Scott Phillips (2:51)

Isn't that it, right? Well, you've said a million times, never meet your heroes. Kind of like, good guy, good guy, good guy. Oh, dear.

SPEAKER_3 (2:56)

Not so much, maybe.

Scott Phillips (2:57)

Another question, especially on you, Jack. Jack listens, obviously, regularly. So g'day, Jack, thanks for listening. Discuss this one. Your other billionaires, maybe, Jack, we're talking about here. And yeah, please don't sue us. We can't afford it. Legal fees.

Although I said legal fees, no, Andrew, there'll be a legal bot he'll use to defend us. It probably wins. So I will happily bow before your AI in this, mate. And you can run out of legal defense if you need to.

Andrew Page (3:20)

It's not a million miles away, dude.

Scott Phillips (3:22)

I literally do have a lawyer bot. I know you do. You know I do, right? Funny because it's true, as they say. Oh, mate.

Hey, so let's kick off. We missed the Firmus story, Firmus, F-I-M. I said someone Firmus on the phone, went, Firmus, like the drinking thing? No, no, Firmus, F-I-R-M-U-S. If you haven't been paying attention, I'm sure you have these days because sometimes headline writers and journals just get hit in the backside with a rainbow. And when you got a big multi-billion dollar float and then that float flops, you have got stories for days, probably weeks. In fact, there was another story in today's paper, seven days on from that would-be float.