Great Business Stories Archiv

To clarify the title- I don’t love the Webvan story because it failed- I don’t like to see any company fail, but because the story behind Webvan is the story of the internet boom, those 5 years from 1995-2000 when me and my friends were young, eager, hungry and the internet opened up so many opportunities for us. And the Webvan story, it’s ambition, it’s scale, it’s stated purpose to replace grocery shopping- yes pretty mundane but also hugely impactful, and it’s demise was so fast a, it makes for a fascinating story set in a time that I have nothing but very fond memories of- enjoy, it’s a cracker.

At age nine, Jensen Huang couldn’t speak English and was scrubbing toilets in a Kentucky reform school. By 35, he’d taken Nvidia public. And by 60, he’d built the most valuable company on Earth.

How?

By betting everything—twice—on markets that didn’t even exist yet. First gaming. Then AI.

He convinced Sega to pay him not to deliver a chip. He built a million-selling chip in eight months, when the industry standard was two years. Now, with Nvidia powering the AI revolution, the world runs on chips bearing his vision.

This is the story of Jensen Huang. And it’s a cracking episode—enjoy.

Have you even heard of Victor Posner? I hadn’t but if you’re a fan of this show, you’ll know that one of mine and Keith’s favorite books of all time is Barbarians at the Gate, a rip roaring story about a leveraged buy-out and attempted hostile take over of RJR Nabisko from the 1980’s. So I love the drama around hostile takeovers, and I wanted to find out- who first started hostile takeovers in the 20th century, and it turned out to be this guy Victor Posner, I can say that I’d never come across such a lowlife. If you're ever looking for a person that symbolises everything that’s wrong with capitalism- and just to note- I’m a fan of capitalism overall- then Posner is your poster boy.

In 2012, Russian special forces arrived at Pavel Durov’s door—automatic rifles in hand. He didn’t answer and curiously, they left. They were there because Durov had built VK, Russia’s answer to Facebook, and was refusing Kremlin demands to take down certain pages. It made him a symbol of resistance. Or so the legend goes.

The truth? It’s difficult to say with any certainty. He called himself a defender of privacy, but quietly handed over user data in India. He raised $1.7 billion for a blockchain dream, only to have it shut down by the SEC. And in 2024, he was arrested in Paris for failing to stop criminal abuse on his platform.

He’s part visionary, part myth maker—equal parts privacy evangelist and pragmatic businessman.

This is the story of Pavel Durov- whatever the full truth is, it makes for a cracking episode—enjoy.

I love this story and I kinda love Estee lauder

In 1953, she told the world she’d found a secret recipe that she called Youth Dew —gifted by her uncle to a Russian princess. In truth? It was bath oil from an ex-boyfriend's lab. But the scent was sultry, the price was right, and women couldn’t get enough. And Youth dew would go on to pull in $150 million a year.

She claimed her father was a European aristocrat who wore gloves on Sundays. Actually? He ran a hardware store in Queens.

But she was one of the sharpest business minds of the 20th century, driven by a belief in herself, but also in a belief that she was empowering women.

From mixing creams in a shed to building a billion-dollar dynasty, the story of Estée Lauder is a cracker—enjoy.

What if I told you that the greatest cinematic universe of the 21st century almost went out of business because of the views of an influential psychiatrist. Or that in 1996 it went bankrupt because of the reckless ambitions of the guy behind Revlon, the cosmetics brand?And that one of the bondholders during the bankruptcy proceedings included the legendary and feared corporate raider Carl Icahn, who ended up getting outsmarted by the guys who eventually sold Marvel to Disney for $4 billion.

This isn’t just the story of superheroes. It’s the story of scrappy pulp magazines, of American culture in the 20th century, it’s the story of the creation of comic book characters that were turned into a multi-billion dollar licensing business, and it's a cracking story, enjoy. 

For all non Irish and UK listeners who mightn’t be aware of Mike Ashely, the billionaire retailer, than you're really in for a treat from alcohol fuelled meetings, to corporate espionage, this story of one of the UK’s most successful businessmen is a cracker, enjoy

This is the story of Palmer Luckey the guy who single handedly kickstarted modern virtual reality barefoot, in a garage, surrounded by a Frankenstein mess of hacked GameCubes and government-surplus headsets.

He then sold his 2 year old company to facebook for $2 billion and was then controversially kicked out of Facebook. But he bounced back by founding a defense tech company named after Aragorn’s sword in Lord of the Rings—a startup now worth $28 billion, quietly rewriting the rules of modern warfare with AI-powered drones and virtual border walls.

This is the fascinating story of a flip-flop-wearing, conspiracy-loving massively controversial tech disruptor who also happens to have the world’s largest video game collection in a missile silo 200 feet underground. Enjoy—it’s a cracker.

This is such a great story, like the very first Atari product was a wooden cabinet, with two knobs, and a piece of paper stuck onto it that read “Avoid Missing Ball For High Score.” Their first expansion plan involved literally sawing a hole in the wall to steal office space next door. 

And what if I told you that the same man who invented modern gaming also created the Chuck E Cheese chain of pizza joints. And he also turned down the opportunity to invest $50,000 for one third of Apple. The story of Nolan Bushnell is a hell of a ride—enjoy.

Welcome to the story of Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia — a company born in a tin shed, raised on anti-consumerism, and transformed into one of the boldest business experiments of the 21st century. Buckle up.

This is fascinating episode where we do a brief history of diamonds- what are the biggest, most valuable diamonds, and then we dig into some of the key people -how Cecil Rhodes built De Beers into a diamond monopoly, how Ernest Oppenheimer transformed diamonds by more or less inventing the concept of the diamond engagement ring, how Beny Steinmetz  who built a $6 billion fortune has seen that dwindle and faces extradition and jail terms in different jurisdictions, and how the emergence of lab grown diamonds has exploded in the last decade- it’s a fantastic episode with so many different stories- enjoy.

I love covering stories where it’s just about how someone does something differently, has a different worldview, and then uses that to have such a big and positive impact. I came across Paul Graham when I read the excellent book The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby —it’s full of great stories from the world of venture capital. Before I read it, I had heard of Y Combinator, but I’d never dug into its foundation. But Mallaby, in his book, does—and it’s fascinating.

So I was so happy to do a bit more digging myself.Paul Graham set up Y Combinator, and over the years it has invested in 5,000 startups. These companies collectively hold a combined valuation exceeding $600 billion. Notably, more than 400 of these companies are valued at over $100 million, and over 100 have achieved valuations surpassing $1 billion. But it’s about more than money or numbers—it’s about this guy with huge intelligence, and a singular and very philosophical way of looking at business and startups, and how he revolutionised the sector.

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What if I told you that one of the biggest insider trading scandals in Wall Street in the 1980s wasn’t orchestrated by a hedge fund titan or a corrupt CEO, but by a charming underpaid journalist for the Wall Street Journal who ruined his ruined his promising career and sullied the reputation of the great Wasll Street Journal- and all for just a few thousand dollars. This is the story of  R. Foster Winans who was a rising star journalist in the heyday of the 1980’s, the era of “Greed is good.” This is not just a story of financial crime; it’s a cautionary tale where you might find yourself wondering: would I have done the same? It’s a cracking story, enjoy.

Subscribe now to access the longer co-hosted episodes released on the 1st of every month as well as lots of bonus episodes and ad free weekly episodes.

Subscribe via Spotify Subscriptions, Apple Subscriptions or on Patreon by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠clicking on this link ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠or going to patreon.com/greatbusinessstories

It might not sound thrilling, but what if I told you the world’s most feared corporate investigator got his first big break from Spider-Man? And that this same man would go on to secretly chase billions in plundered wealth across five continents—uncovering Saddam Hussein’s Parisian investment, and billions in missing gold reserves of the fallen Soviet Union? From Wall Street dealmakers, to Pulitzer-winning journalists, to governments - they all came to Jules Kroll, the man who turned private investigation into a billion-dollar business empire—and became known as “the CIA of Wall Street.” In this episode, we dive into the story of how Kroll built a global intelligence operation -and also a few of the great cases and stories that built his reputation and business- enjoy.

Subscribe now to access the the longer co-hosted episodes released on the 1st of every month as well as lots of bonus episodes and ad free weekly episodes.

Subscribe via Spotify Subscriptions, Apple Subscriptions or on Patreon by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠clicking on this link ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠or going to patreon.com/greatbusinessstories