Through 2014 to 2018, Casper was everywhere on the Internet, flooding advertisements into every trendy podcast, website, and YouTube video. Need a mattress? Want a mattress? Buy Casper. Not comfortable buying a mattress you’ve never seen or touched before? No problem! Sleep on it for three months and return it anytime for a full refund within those 100 days, no questions asked. With a radically generous return policy and aggressive multi-million advertising budgets, Casper quickly rose to fame as the flashiest and fast growing online consumer brand. Silicon Valley fueled Casper’s meteoric rise, eager to showcase the company as a shining example of technological innovation and business transformation. Casper, Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club were all pioneers of a new revolutionary type of business called Direct-To-Consumer.
Buffet’s focus on value investing and consequent aversion to investing in software companies or more broadly, newer modern day technology companies has led Berkshire Hathway to serious misses in recent years. Losing billions over Kraft Heinz, another $5B loss on airlines, $3B loss on Wells Fargo. Warren Bufffeft had not invested in a tech IPO in over 50 years, famously avoiding IPOs and dismissing recent tech IPOs as ridiculous. So when Buffett invested over half a million dollars into a surging tech cloud data company called Snowflake in 2020, it caught Wall Street by surprise. Snowflake since then has surged to become one of Buffet’s best investments with paper profits of over 2B dollars on a $735M investment. And while the company stock has cooled down significantly, Snowflake has remained one of Berkshire Hathaway's best investments to date. So what is Snowflake and what exactly does this unprofitable data company do that has successfully convinced Buffet to go against his lif
In 2015, McDonald’s had just discontinued the fan favorite snack wraps, removed hot mustard from the sauce lineup, and axed the Bacon Habanero Ranch, Bacon & Cheese, Deluxe Quarter Pounder with Cheese. To freshen up the menu, they rolled out a series of new items that same year in a desperate effort to freshen their old-school cheap burger image, appeal to the modern health-conscious consumers, and better compete with the upscale burger joints. Since 2015, the company has enjoyed a major turnaround. When you think of McDonald’s today, the company is really finding its form with hit celebrity partnerships from Travis Scott to BTS and Mariah Carey. There’s no more salads, gourmet sandwiches, or fancy sandwiches. And investors have noticed this turnaround with the stock up 110% over 5 years. Many companies in multiple industries, not just McDonald’s and fast foods, find themselves in this identity crisis of being caught between their iconic legacy reputation and the newer millenni
Palantir is one of the newer sweethearts of WSB, Reddit, and retail investors worldwide and with good reason - a polarizing, highly secretive, niche business whose majority of market share comes from selling software to the governments, defense, and intelligence sector. But beyond these memes, let’s take a look at how Palantir operates as a business. Along the way, we can also learn just how much money there is to be made selling to the CIA and the greater American military complex. Palantir is riding on the big data trend just like Snowflake, but what’s unique to Palantir is that the company rides on bigger winds based on macro geopolitical trends. Despite intense public scrutiny, Western governments have continued to actively promote and invest in tech-driven governance with items such as preventative policing, public surveillance, and facial recognition.
To outsiders, luxury fashion is a curious industry where consumers seem to irrationally shell out hundreds and thousands of dollars for sneakers, handbags, wallets, or T-shirts. But take a step inside, and you’ll find the world of high fashion is more like Game of Thrones with Italian, English, and French houses like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, YSL, and Balenciaga fighting to be the king. For the houses that get to sit on the throne, they don’t last for long. A brand who only sells its products to a carefully curated list of only its highest spending customers, takes no preorders, refuses to expand inventory, or scale production. A brand whose products are so elusive that they appreciate thousands of dollars and are often resold for profit. A brand that does not allow returns, refunds, or exchanges. A brand who has remained independent, manufactures by hand, spends the least on marketing, and yet grosses close to what Gucci makes every year. That brand is Hermès and they are th
This year, everything is changing. Facebook stock dropped by 26% in a single day, wiping out 230B in its valuation after its 4Q earnings announcement. The company goes through a new crisis every month. Employees are stepping out as whistleblowers, political pressures are growing, but most damning of all - consumers are now spending significantly less time on Facebook. For the first time ever, Facebook announced weaker ad impressions, fewer daily active users, slowing spending by advertisers. And while the world is still very much stuck in COVID, there are enough signals to suggest that it’s not just you and me - lots of other people are simply getting tired of Facebook. The golden era of seemingly endless growth is now over. Facebook in a single month has gone through a complete rebranding and is now pounding the drum for a flashy new vision about metaverses, digital frontiers, and innovation - things that companies only do when they feel they have no other choice. So what is
From the outside, Dollar Tree is a fun, harmless store to buy random, gimmicky, short-lived products for a buck. But go inside, and Dollar Tree is a ruthless business empire who knows that its best customers are low income Americans. The company will do everything it can to suffocate the competition and be the only store physically available in low income communities, small towns, and rural America. So poor Americans keep buying Dollar Tree no matter how flimsy or low quality its products are, because there’s no other store that they can afford or is available in their neighborhood. Retail, at the most abstract, is the heartbeat that fuels daily domestic consumption which in turn drives the American economy. But what happens when that consumption, spending, and money printing finally catches up? 15% inflation. The highest increase in prices since the 1980s. $8 a gallon for gas. Shipping delays. Supply chain problems. Labor shortages. There is one Fortune 500 corporation t
Cost is the biggest barrier to scale in the hotel industry. It takes on average 2-3 years to build a hotel. The upfront cost for design, permits, and construction can range from $30M to $130M, depending on location and category. These estimates don’t even include the cost of the land. Since these numbers are publicly shared by nearly every hotel giant, it’s no secret how cost prohibitive it is to grow market share in the hotel industry. Airbnb’s innovation is on the supply side. Anyone can list and monetize their room, apartment, or house with a few steps on Airbnb. The company’s business value is to serve as a trusted platform between travelers and hosts. Discovery, communication, and transactions between both parties all occur on Airbnb. Hosts set their own prices for their listings, provide service, and accept travelers in whatever way they see fit. So why aren’t hotel executives scared of Airbnb? Are Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt executives all just pretending not to care publi
Soda consumption has substantially declined in the past two decades. Consumers worldwide have become more conscious about what they eat, what they drink, and the consequences of those choices on their health. By 2017, soda consumption had plummeted to a 30-year low. If soda wasn’t selling anymore, juice was out of fashion, bottled water was commoditized, and premium water was never able to outgrow its niche, the beverage industry was faced with a big question. Who would be the successor to Big Soda? What drink could directly replace soda? What company could take over Coke and Pepsi’s multi-billion dollar market share? In 2016, a small beverage company that had been under the radar since 1991 suddenly exploded in mainstream popularity and record sales. The Chosen One had seemingly arrived, boasting growth rates, unit volume, revenue, virality, consumer excitement that the beverage industry had not seen in decades. La Croix, a fruit-flavored sparkling water brand, owned by
The funeral industry in the United States is worth $20 billion dollars annually with 2.4 million funerals taking place every year. With death and taxation being the two certainties in life, funeral homes have a long-standing reputation for highly resilient and stable businesses. Everyone dies. If there’s any business that should stand the test of time, it would be funeral homes and cemeteries. But when we look at the numbers, the surprising reality is that it’s not actually true. For 2 decades, average funeral home revenue has been declining every year. The number of funeral homes has been shrinking every year with more and more closing their doors. Today, the American funeral industry is significantly fragmented, seemingly unscathed by the M&A of corporate America. There are roughly 18,800 funeral homes in the United States. There are about 1,000 crematoriums and 115,000 cemeteries. Service Corporation International is the largest public funeral home corporation today, op
Modern software is about rapid continuous improvement. Speed is the priority even at the expense of stability. Updates are constant and features are regularly introduced. You can see software as a service in nearly every facet of modern life with Netflix, Spotify, and many more. But what most people missing is that while SaaS is becoming more popular, the standards and quality of software itself has been declining. The “ship fast, fail fast” attitude has meant that SaaS products often launch way before they’re ready with severe bugs and broken functionality. There is one particular industry that has taken advantage of the declining standards to deliver aggressively monetized yet progressively worse, unfinished, buggy SaaS products (also known as "live services') for maximum profit year after year after year. That is the gaming industry. This episode dives into the traditional video game business model and 3 very different gaming companies (CD Projekt Red, Square Enix, Take-Tw
The world runs on cardboard. Produce, snacks, electronics, beverages, merchandise, household goods, everything is shipped in cardboard. Cardboard can be made into different properties, strengths, and shapes - everything from heavy-duty bins that can hold watermelons or merchandise, trays for fresh produce, food-safe boxes for pizzas, candy boxes that double as in-store displays, to Amazon boxes tough enough to survive the back of a Fedex truck. International Paper and WestRock are two biggest players who have taken a lion’s share of the American cardboard market in the past decade. The next time you come across a cardboard box, take a second to flip it over and look for a logo at the bottom, and you’ll likely find that it came from 1 of these 2 companies. International Paper and WestRock are massive business empires hidden in plain sight whose products not only enable American commerce, but also extend into the political landscape and shape foreign countries. In this episode, w
It’s 2014 and Adidas is struggling. The once-dominant sportswear company is now lost and directionless suffering through declining revenue and profits three years in a row. Outside of football, consumers don’t care for the brand, retailers are giving their most valuable shelf space to Nike, new products are flopping, and activists are threatening a hostile takeover if the CEO is not replaced within the year. In this episode, we’ll cover Adidas, the fatal mistakes that its former CEO made which toppled the German brand to a distant third behind Nike and UnderArmour, sparked an investor battle, and ultimately cost him his job. We’ll also cover the winning strategy that revolutionized Adidas and the new CEO’s moves which have since taken the company to new heights.
Food delivery is a simple business. While the market today is dominated by DoorDash, Uber Eats, Delivery Hero, and a few others, back in 2014, food delivery and the gig economy were just emerging in Silicon Valley. Back then, the barriers to entry were so low that anyone could open up their own food delivery business in a matter of weeks with just a few thousand dollars and a website. Food delivery seemed such an obvious million dollar business that as a starry-eyed 20 year old at the time, I left college to start a food delivery company, joining many others in the gold rush. The market in 2014 was wide open for the taking. DoorDash had not yet become a household name, UberEats was just spinning up, and GrubHub was used for looking up restaurant menus online. 6 years after my startup, it’s been interesting to see the continued hype of food delivery companies around the world even though everyone knows that the unit economics just don’t work. When you have to rely on tips to pa
In 2014, there was one Silicon Valley startup that was widely applauded for its ambition to revolutionize a massive high-stakes industry as old as the Middle Ages. That company was called Opendoor and their idea was to make it possible to buy or sell a home in just a few clicks. OpenDoor in 2014 was the perfect mix of all the hottest Silicon Valley trends from the 2010s - online to offline platform businesses, data science, machine learning, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automation applied to the old-fashioned world of real estate. OpenDoor was not flipping homes, instead, in their own words, they were a once-in-a-lifetime quote on quote market maker that could transform the American residential real estate. As OpenDoor built up hype, industry giants like Zillow and Redfin started to worry that they were missing out. This ushered in the “Instant Buying” or iBuying phenomenon, where Zillow, Redfin, and OpenDoor burnt millions of dollars flipping thousands of homes across
Avocados have become one of the world's most popular foods in the past two decades. Americans these days eat 9 pounds of avocados annually and that’s a huge leap compared to 2001, when the average American only ate 1 pound a year. As domestic consumption and global interest have soared, so have production and prices. Yet as prices have reached to all-time-highs, demand has not stopped. Whether it’s avocado toast or guacamole in a Chipotle bowl, consumers continue to pay the premium for this fruit in the name of taste and nutrition. These twenty years of appreciation have turned avocados into a multi-billion-dollar industry where farmers nickname the fruit “green gold”. The avocado industry is so lucrative that it’s become a target for organized crime, leading people to label avocados as modern day blood diamonds. In this episode, we’ll cover the business of avocados, the major players, and how this simple fruit is at the heart of the political and economic relationship between th
Balding is a personal and emotional process that 85% of men will experience in their lives. 70% of men suffer hair loss by 35. Male pattern baldness accounts for 95% of cases worldwide and is the most common form of hair loss. Like Thanos, male pattern baldness is inevitable. For some men, male pattern baldness starts as early as the teens. For me, I started balding in my early twenties. And it sucked. With so many possible treatments with different degrees of effectiveness and cost, hair loss is a global billion dollar market with ties not just into big pharmaceuticals, but also the medical tourism of developed countries like South Korea - the cosmetic surgery capital of the world. In this episode, we’ll navigate the business of balding, the different treatments available, the companies behind those solutions, all through my own personal experience / transformation from medication to hair transplant at a prestigious clinic in South Korea. If you're interested in Dr. Kim Kyong-
Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay - in just 5 years, these 3 companies have popularized a new form of consumer spending called Buy Now Pay Later. BNPL is a type of short-term unsecured personal loan where instead of paying the full price upfront at checkout, you can defer the cost of any item by splitting the payment into smaller installments over time. If you want to spread payments out over a longer period of time to make the installments even smaller, you’ll have to pay interest. And if you miss a payment using BNPL, there are penalties with late fees, collections, and lowered credit score. What Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay have done is they’ve broadened the purpose of short-term unsecured personal loans from large one-time essentials into everyday, impulse, and splurge purchases. They’ve made it easy for anyone to borrow money, simplifying a historically opaque, time-consuming process of applications and manual underwriting into a scalable UX that provides instant credit in just
Kentucky Fried Chicken has long dominated fried chicken around the world with legacy and scale, but its relevance and popularity in America has been declining for years. As the Colonel has weakened, longtime rivals in Popeyes, Chick Fil-A, Bojangle's, Jollibee, Bonchon, and and others have all laid claims to the chicken throne. The popular narrative amongst Americans is that KFC’s drop in quality over the years is the result of cost cutting from out-of-touch executives who wouldn’t know good fried chicken if it hit them in the face. When you look at KFC in America, it’s an outdated, run-down, uncreative chain with a boring menu and terrible food. But around the world in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, KFC is a star brand known for quality chicken, great service, and unique offerings. So how is it that the same company can be so great internationally and so poor in its own home country? In this episode, we’ll cover the fried chicken wars, the strategy and mis
Dating is an activity where people around the world have enthusiastically adopted technology, embraced software over traditional face-to-face methods, and where venture capital and subsidies have played a small role in its mainstream acceptance. No longer are you constrained to the people you meet at school, on your commute, at work, at the grocery store, coffee shop, or on a night out. With dating apps, you expand your options from a handful of static possibilities to a dynamic pool that spans hundreds of miles at the tap of a button anywhere you go. Dating apps eliminate the risky, emotionally-intensive, in-person cold approach of traditional dating in favor of a casual and detached game of swipes. Through photos and bio, you create a digital representation of yourself on dating apps. You get to showcase yourself, your personality, hobbies, interests, finest moments, and physical attributes so that potential partners are always seeing you at your best. Dating apps are more le
Twitter has a new owner and his presence is sinking in. Regardless of whether or not you think Elon Musk can save Twitter, the reality is that Twitter as a private company under Elon can’t get any worse than the Twitter that has existed for the past 9 years. Twitter has struggled with declining users, engagement, turnover, innovation, infighting, losses, and vision. Twitter burned through 4 CEOs and 5 billion dollars in 10 years - regressing further away from being a viable business or attractive product. Twitter is not just a case study of business mismanagement and poor strategy, but also a story of betrayal, ego, and greed. Since its founding, the company has been like Game of Thrones, plagued with politics and schemes. At the center of Twitter’s story, there is a founder, whose desire to be seen as a spiritual, futuristic genius was so important that he would do everything to achieve this recognition - even if it meant backstabbing friends and undermining his own company to
Football is the beautiful game that brings in billions of dollars every year as the world’s most popular sport. There’s been no shortage of controversy with the World Cup in Qatar. Yet most people learn and follow football through leading clubs like Liverpool and Manchester City in England, Juventus and AC Milan in Italy or Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain. It is these clubs that make the spectacle of football possible. On the outside, the biggest football clubs seem successful - they win trophies, pay high salaries, play on the biggest stages, and sign the best players. As these clubs achieve success on the field, their brands get stronger, which grows the fanbase, and fuels revenue. The business seems simple enough. And with so many famous clubs all over Europe, this flywheel must work. But in reality, football clubs are businesses that are barely cash flow positive and bankrupt themselves to sustain on-the-field success. They say that if they keep winning, money will mater
Self-service storage is an American phenomenon. While self-storage facilities exist in Europe and Asia, the business overseas does not come close to the scale and demand in the United States over the past decade. Self-storage is a direct monetization of American overconsumption so any bet on the industry is a bet that Americans will keep buying so much stuff that they’ll always need to rent extra space to store it. In a time where the economy is contracting, institutional and retail investors are looking for defensive businesses that deal in essentials. Self storage companies have become attractive as stable, recession-proof, operationally lean lean real estate businesses where cash flows in every month, overhead is minimal, and the customers literally do all the heavy lifting themselves. In this episode, we’ll cover the business of self storage, how the industry’s success rides on the death of the American Dream, how it all relates to skyrocketing home prices, wages stagnatio
Airbnb disrupts hotels because it doesn’t own real estate. DoorDash disrupts food delivery because it doesn’t own restaurants or drivers. Uber disrupts transportation because it doesn’t own any cars. As a ride-hailing service, Uber is divisive - to riders, the cheap fares, upfront pricing, cashless payment, and on-demand pickups are upgrades over taxis. To others, Uber is a public nuisance that causes greater traffic congestion and pollution. For some drivers, Uber is a useful gig where they can work flexible hours. For others, Uber is an exploitative middleman who has lowered payouts and provides inadequate benefits to drivers as independent contractors. The purpose of this episode is not to rehash Uber’s checkered past but instead to assess Uber’s profitability. As the most prominent, well-funded company in the past decade, Uber is the largest living embodiment of Silicon Valley. Uber is the only tech startup in history to raise over $25 billion and still not turn a profit a
As restaurants go, there’s Italian, Mexican, Chinese, American, Japanese and so on. But there is only one type of restaurant that is considered to be the most lucrative and makes up over half of the Top 100 highest grossing restaurants in the United States every year. That is the steakhouse. In America, the steakhouse is as much a cultural rite of passage as it is a fine dining establishment. When people go to a steakhouse, it’s for the experience as much as the food - they dress up, they expect quality service, and the meal serves as a platform for business or celebration. All steakhouses offer standard fare like New York Strip, Porterhouse, Filet Mignon alongside mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, Caesar salad, and chocolate cake. While most restaurants aim to specialize in certain foods or offer unique items for differentiation, steakhouses thrive in conformity. Their goal is to serve tried-and-true classics with good ingredients, good execution, good service, and good ambi
“Net Return" refers to the annualized internal rate of return net of all fees and costs, calculated from the offering closing date to the date the sale is consummated. IRR may not be indicative of Masterworks paintings not yet sold and past performance is not indicative of future results. See important Reg A disclosures: Masterworks.com/cd When it comes to fast food, McDonald’s is unrivaled in scale and success. McDonald’s has held onto its crown, selling more fries, burgers, nuggets, and apple pies every year than any other fast food chain. There is no challenger to the Golden Arches whether that’s overseas or on home field. In the world of burgers, the fight for the top spot is futile. While the fight for first place is non-existent, the battle for second place in the burger wars is vicious. For decades, Burger King held second place with its signature flame-grilled Whopper, onion rings, and French Toast sticks. Burger King and a little red-haired girl by the name of Wendy’s
From the 80’s to 2000’s, Abercrombie was the prom king of American fashion - the cool and preppy brand of choice for teens and young adults. You couldn’t miss when someone was wearing Abercrombie. While wearing Abercrombie was a statement, going into Abercrombie was an adventure. To impressionable adolescents, Abercrombie stores were uniquely alluring with dim lighting, musky cologne, blaring music, and floor-to-ceiling wallpapers of sculpted men. Yet as the shopping mall died, e-commerce grew, social media helped widen perspective and styles, competition intensified with fast fashion like Uniqlo, ZARA, H&M, Forever 21 and athleisure like Lululemon, Athleta, Nike entering the scene. Controversial statements from the CEO only reinforced the perception of Abercrombie as an outdated, exclusionary, over-sexualized brand built on teenage-angst. In less than a decade, Abercrombie went out-of-style. The PR crisis, widespread disapproval, and declining consumer popularity had many pre
In America, burglaries and home invasions are highly publicized crimes that surface regularly in fiction and media. Turn on the news, and it seems like just about every week, someone nearby is getting robbed - whether it’s shoplifters at retail stores, burglars who steal valuables, or viral footage of opportunistic creeps caught on a Ring doorbell camera. Many companies have popped up over the decades with a variety of solutions to help people better protect their homes - private patrols, panic rooms, burglar alarms, and DIY wireless cameras. In the world of home security, there is no company more famous than ADT. ADT and its iconic blue signs are plastered over many lawns and commercial buildings. ADT was the first to turn home security into service - a company that would come to your house, install a custom security system, setup burglar alarms, and then “watch” your home 24/7 365 for a monthly subscription. Through the high-crime and low-tech era of the 80s and 90s, ADT wa
To some, GameStop is a relic of the glory days of gaming before the arrival of the filthy casuals where true gamers would line up passionately at midnight in the cold and rain to get their hands on the next AAA title. To others, GameStop is a painful reminder of deep losses and a timeless example of the institutional market manipulation between hedge funds and stock brokers. And to a faithful few, GameStop is the superstonk and hodling is the best way to fight back against a game rigged against retail investors. But the real question with GameStop that no one has answered is that beyond the headlines, daytrading, and memes - is there an actual business? In this episode, we’ll cover the three eras of GameStop - from its dominant control over gaming in the mid 2000’s into an overextended mess throughout the 2010’s and finally to the present day, where the company is deep in a last-ditch-effort to reinvent itself as a tech startup and restore relevancy: diving headfirst into every t
Starbucks has been a mainstay in business school literature as a role model for innovation, branding, vertical integration, and corporate social responsibility. The impact of Starbucks is well-known - the company repositioned coffee into a mainstream drink that people consume these days for taste and aesthetics as much as function. Thanks to efforts from its CEO, Howard Schultz, Starbucks has carefully crafted a uniquely respected and celebrated image in academia, business, political, and investment circles. Starbucks is not some basic coffee retailer, but instead a forward-thinking, fast-growing, innovative, socially responsible company that always does the right thing for customers, employees, investors, farmers, and environment. This makes it especially ironic that Starbucks, the poster child of corporate social responsibility and model employer, is now waging such a high-profile, visible, ugly war with its baristas across the United States - using every trick in and outside th
In the world of travel, the destination matters far more than the journey. The travel industry has adjusted to this as resorts, tour guides, agencies, hotels, and airlines now compete on how fast they can get you to where you want to go. Yet there remains one business who insists that the journey is just as important as the destination. That is the cruise ship. By the numbers, cruises are very much an American phenomenon. Cruises boast restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, water parks, Broadway musicals, basketball courts, golf, comedy, waterfalls, pools, rock climbing, ice skating, casinos, theaters, go-karts, spas, nightclubs, and arcades. Throw in unlimited alcohol, bottomless French fries, and endless pizza, it makes sense why cruises lean on spectacle and excess for appeal. Industry insiders push every year that cruises are a fast-developing, under-penetrated market with significant growth potential. Cruises are an oligopoly run by three players - Royal Caribbean, Carnival,
In America, the police are a $100B annual business. Modern policing can be seen in the stream of viral police body camera footage that lands the Internet. Look at the top right corner of those videos and 10/10 times it will say Axon, the one company that has made this revolution possible. In business theory, some say that companies are not about flawless execution or perfect prediction. They suggest that the most important ingredient to success is picking the right space. You tread water, develop expertise, and even make mistakes - but once the market moves in your direction, you can snowball that momentum into billions of dollars. In the 2000s, Axon was a struggling startup. Then in the 2010s, tailwinds propelled Axon, who had been building wearable cameras and software, into prosperity. Now in the 2020s, the company is a powerhouse where every single interaction with law enforcement every day is recorded with an Axon body-cam and stored in Axon’s cloud platform. In this
Banks make money by lending out the money that you deposit. The more cash you put in, the better you’re treated - transactions take priority, fees get waived, interest rates are higher, and a personal banker is assigned. On the flip side, the less money in your account, the more fees you pay, and the further back in the line you start from. Banks chase affluent accounts who bring large balances and high cash flow. But it’s not just banks - every business aims for as many high spenders and wealthy as possible. Yet there are 2 companies - Western Union and MoneyGram, that have gone in the opposite direction in providing financial services in peer-to-peer money transfer (international & domestic) to a population that banks deem to be too poor and too low-value. Migrant workers and the poor are left out of the global financial system for similar reasons: they have too little money, their employment is volatile, their earnings are inconsistent, there are significant language and cultu
Fluffy pancakes, sunny-side eggs, crispy bacon, golden hash browns with buttered toast and coffee. For decades, diners have specialized in serving not just the hearty American breakfast but also classics like burgers, waffles, milkshakes, soup, and pie. Due to their sustained popularity and depiction in TV & film through generations, diners have become so ingrained into American culture that they’ve become iconic establishments over the world. While every industry is evolving, diners are the rare example of a business that's been invincible to change. While the restaurant industry has gravitated towards off-premise dining, originality, and automation, diners have remained consistent since the 1940s with huge menus, staying open 24/7 or into the late night, traditional service with pen and paper, simple comfort foods, and an accepting atmosphere. At a diner, there are no reservations, no VIPs, no private areas, no policies, no minimums, and no judgment. In this episode, we’ll cove
In the 2010s, there was one tiny American brand doing what no one else had been able to do for decades in sportswear. It had grown sales in North America at double digits every year for 13 years, taken market share from Nike, and leapfrogged Adidas as the new number #2 athletic brand in the United States. It was an upstart with a passionate fanbase, competed on quality over price, and backed by some of the most celebrated athletes in the world. This was Under Armour. In the eyes of the media and investors, the fast-growing Under Armour was the closest to a Nike slayer that the industry had ever seen - and that enormous potential was quickly priced into the stock. Yet fast forward to the present - just a few years after the hype and my own experiences, Under Armor is a shadow of its former self and is worth only a little more than a penny stock. Declining sales, executive turnover, failed pivots, expensed trips to strip clubs, and federal investigations into dodgy accounting hav
The amusement park, like the shopping mall and movie theater, was once an indispensable establishment for every major metropolitan. Before the Internet, the amusement park thrived as a provider of affordable recreation. Yet fast forward to present day and amusement parks are a dying breed in the modern age. With the emergence of the Disney adult, consumers all around the world have shown a preference for IP-based theme parks like Universal Studios and Disneyland. The themed concessions, branded attractions, exclusive merchandise, and trademark characters of theme parks have elevated customer experiences to the point where amusement parks can no longer compete with generic foods, mascots, and rides. In this day and age, customers have demonstrated through virality, spend, and popularity that they’d rather make a special trip to Disneyland or Universal over the local / regional amusement park. In this episode, we’ll cover the business of roller coasters through the lens of Six Fl
Popeye's chicken sandwich is one of the greatest modern business phenomenons. For years, McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and other leading brands have given up on innovation and instead lean on nostalgia to breathe life into stagnant menus and hide one dimensional cost-cutting strategies. These brands have all deprioritized the United States in favor of international markets. Dollar menus have been eliminated, consistency is now as rare as quality, and Americans have gotten used to getting the short end of the stick in fast food. All these factors made the Popeyes chicken sandwich in 2019 a miracle in itself. The sandwich was so unexpectedly exceptional in quality and price that customers waited hours to experience the viral sensation. The sandwich was groundbreaking in demonstrating that even in a market as mature as fast food, businesses ultimately compete on merit and that customers will always reward innovation. As we covered in the Burger King episode and Under Armour episode,
In the 2010s, there was one startup who by the measures of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, seemed destined to be the next big billion-dollar consumer brand. That company was GoPro. GoPro took the world by storm with its game-changing cameras. With radically compact design, tiny form factor, high portability, rugged waterproof exteriors, and reasonable picture quality - GoPro cameras were able to capture never before seen action and perspectives. GoPro was category-leading and category-defining - the company had effectively created and owned an entire category of cameras. It was the pioneer, golden standard, and household name as GoPro was not just the name of the product and company, but also became the unofficial label for any small, portable, action camera on the market. Yet fast forward to present-day in 2023, less than a decade later, and GoPro’s stock has dropped 95%. How could a company who had all the right ingredients from the measures of Silicon Valley and Wall Street
For a business about making and selling pizzas, Papa John's has gone through non-stop drama, infighting, and controversy in recent years. While every company has its problems, Papa John’s takes the cake with the founder trashing his own company in public. But when a founder says a racial remark in a recorded business meeting, it’s an offense so great that no company could sweep under the rug. Companies rarely go to war against their own founders. But the timing, evidence, and volume of media covering John’s misconduct was so sudden, strong, and overwhelming that it was no coincidence. The Board wanted to bury John. It would not be enough to exile the founder and former CEO. John was an evil spirit and what Papa John’s needed as a company was an exorcism. Since his removal in 2018, John has climbed out of the dirt and gone on a high-profile, mud-slinging, counter-offensive rarely seen in usually tight-lipped corporate America. Was John Schnatter actually a good CEO or was h
Temu is everywhere, promising that you can shop like a billionaire buying $10 wireless speakers, $12 sneakers, $20 drones and other cheap gadgets, clothes, backed with the promise of free shipping, 90-day returns, 30-day price adjustments, and deliveries within 2 weeks. But Temu isn’t the first to sell generic, unbranded, mass-produced Chinese products online at radically low prices. Before Temu, there was AliExpress and Wish - who both went to market decades ago with the exact same value prop, unbelievably low prices, and wacky advertising. Wish was the earliest entrant into this space and the SF-based startup was once one of Silicon Valley’s darling unicorns. It all begs the question - how exactly do these companies stay alive selling $5-10 items online? In this episode, we’ll cover the business of selling cheap Chinese-made junk online through the rise and fall of Wish, the persistence of AliExpress, and the sudden emergence of Temu - and how all of this ties back to greed,
Puffer jackets and the broader outerwear market are a competitive billion-dollar market that's been historically dominated by legacy brands like The North Face and Columbia. But in recent years, there has been a strong push towards luxury with the emergence of Canada Goose and Moncler. 10 years ago, spending $100-300 on a winter jacket would have been considered to be a top-of-the-line investment. Nowadays, that price-point sits over $1,000. If you look at famous luxury brands like Hermes, Gucci, Prada, Versace, Rolex, Hugo Boss, or Dior, they all built up their clientele and prestige through many generations. Yet luxury outerwear is remarkably young. Canada Goose and Moncler have been around for decades, but their evolution and success has only been very recent, making them truly modern luxury brands - and not the old money brands of the past. While the rapid rise of Canada Goose and Moncler is well understood, the economics and market dynamics of outerwear have remained une
The movie industry is dominated by the “Big Five” of Paramount Studios, Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney Pictures - who eat up over 80% of the box office. But in a era where awards are meaningless, streaming has replaced DVDs, and talent no longer moves the box office - the Big 5 movie studios have become conservative. Hollywood has devolved into non-stop superhero movies, nostalgia-centric remakes, and formulaic sequels of existing franchises where the ROI is safer and risk is much lower than any real original endeavor. This gap has enabled smaller studios like MGM, Lionsgate, A24 and streaming services like Apple and Netflix to thrive with independent titles in this ever-competitive landscape. As consumers, we see the trailers, suffer through terrible movies, and are now being funneled to streaming services. Yet the industry has rarely, if ever, been covered from the perspective of the studio. Instead of covering one of the Big 5 major film studios
Taco Bell is an extraordinary outlier by every measure. It’s a fast food chain that boasts a deeply passionate fanbase, enjoys a reputation for reliability, speed, and accuracy, and when it comes to business - Taco Bell has grown at such a breakneck pace over the past 20 years that it outperforms giants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC in per-store earnings. The Mexican chain is so popular that it’s one of the few companies whose per-store earnings have stayed ahead of inflation. Remarkably, Taco Bell boasts some of the highest ever profit margins ever reported in not just fast food, but also in the restaurant industry. Taco Bell’s renaissance is a miracle in an era where fast food chains all follow the same cookie-cutter playbook of cost-cutting and international expansion to cover up domestic decline like KFC, McDonald’s, and Starbucks. Business is a zero-sum game where every decision is connected, every action has a cause and effect, and the rise of one brand contribute
If you’ve watched any American sports game recently, there’s a good chance you were blasted with an ad from FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, WynnBET, Caesars Online, and various online casinos promising free money and million dollar jackpots upon signup. Historically, sports betting and gambling in the US had been heavily restricted where you could only legally play offline at isolated places around the country like Las Vegas and Atlantic City. But in the past 5 years, the landscape has evolved dramatically as venture capitalists have invested billions into mobile-first gambling startups like FanDuel and DraftKings. But despite the relentless advertisements and celebrity endorsements, online gambling and sports betting is nothing more than a wild west where everyone claims to be a hero and no one is telling the truth. It’s a market so new that everyones boasts that they have the greatest market share, the best apps, the most users, and the fastest growth.
Every city has nightclubs - social venues where people can mingle with strangers, dance with friends, and escape the monotony of life in an environment of darkness, music, and chaos. As businesses, all nightclubs face the same challenge every week. If you’re a club owner, how do you make your nightclub desirable? How can you make your nightclub pop on a regular Thursday, Friday, or Saturday without headliners? The answer is promoters. Promoters are the invisible men and women who work tirelessly to turn clubs from slow, empty venues into packed, exciting destinations every week. Cities are defined by their nightlife and Chicago is home to some of the best clubs in the world.
Donuts are a multi-billion dollar industry fueled by insatiable demand. The United States is the battleground between chains and mom-and-pops. It’s on the West Coast where the market has gone through the greatest evolution - donuts here are a canvas for gourmet ingredients, unorthodox flavors, and elegant decorations. In this Modern MBA exclusive, we’ll break down the business of donuts from the lens of the biggest chains in the world in Dunkin’ and Krispy Kreme. We'll then dive behind-the-scenes of 2 West Coast shops looking to disrupt this status quo.
Tech is a sector unlike any other - it’s an industry where individuals can turn into billionaires overnight, ideas supersede fundamentals, and leaders are rewarded for showmanship. In today’s Silicon Valley, innovation is crowned and not earned. Venture capitalists and founders are symbiotic. Unprofitable companies are kept alive with injections of capital, gamed valuations, and manufactured hype with the goal of surviving long enough to IPO. Starting in the early 2010s, Silicon Valley had championed big data as a revolutionary technology that could unearth deep insights, hidden patterns, and innovation from massive amounts of data. Yet the market started to question in the early 2020s if any of these promises had even been real as nearly all consumer and SaaS startups were still bleeding nearly a decade later. Out of nowhere, ChatGPT was released and AI became Silicon Valley’s next big thing. Every tech company is now an “AI company”, every Fortune 500 needs an “AI strategy”,