Great Business Stories

 I borrowed the title from a Bloomberg article on Singer where they also described him as aggressive, tenacious and litigious to a fault. I’ve wanted to cover Singer and his firm Ellliott management event since I read the The Caesar’s Palace Coup and the book mainly deals with how Apollo the hedge fund, led by Leon Black who I also did an episode on a few months ago. The book shows how Apollo is the big beast on Wall Street and uses it’s reputation to intimidate other firms and creditors, except for 1 firm- Elliott management founded by Paul Singer. In this episode we find out how Paul Singer built Elliott to become the most powerful and feared activist hedge fund in the world- and feared not just by CEO’s and company boards, but also by countries. This really is a fascinating story- enjoy. 

This is a story I was completely enthralled by when it broke back in 1995. Leeson’s face was splashed across every newspaper in the days after he disappeared, having brought down Barings Bank by concealing massive losses and then trying to trade his way out of trouble — only to end up losing £827 million- about $1.3 billion.It was nearly 30 years ago now, so I’d forgotten most of the details, which made revisiting it all the more fun. It’s a cracking story. Enjoy.

Like most of you, my perception of Parker was as a reckless party boy who somehow inserted himself into 3 of the most influential internet companies—Napster, Facebook and Spotify. Through the movie The Social Network, he's come to be seen as scheming and duplicitous. But that's not the guy I found when I dug deeper—the real Sean Parker is more nuanced and all the better for it. It's a cracking episode, enjoy.

This has been one of my favourite stories to research — because this story is just that good. It begins with a young engineer running a small construction company, he has an epiphany in the back of a New York taxi.From there, it unfolds through boardroom upheavals, aggressively structured deals, and a long-term vision that never wavered. What sets Arnault apart isn't just the finance or tactics — it's the creativity you rarely see in a business titan.It's a cracking story. Enjoy.

Promoted at just 26 to head AOL’s messaging platform, then spearheaded Facebook's growth helping to grow it from 15 million users to 840 million, buying 10% of the Golden State Warriors for just $25 million, being the public face of SPACs- a move that tarnished his reputation, co-hosting the massively popular All-In podcast, and just in the last few weeks, making billions from a very early AI investment- it’s a cracking story- enjoy. 

Here's a guy who won the equivalent of £350,000 on a horse race when he was just 16 years old, made international headlines at 21 for eloping with the daughter of one of the world's richest men, employed 400 people by the time he was 23, and went on to become one of the most ruthless and cunning corporate raiders in the US during the 80s, and then emerged in the 90s as one of the most prominent anti-globalisation and anti-EU voices, helping to lay the foundation for what would become Brexit. And all the while publicly juggling his time between his ex-wife, his current wife, and his mistress. It's a cracking story – enjoy.

I wanted to dig into Livermore’s story ever since i came across him in the episode we did on short sellers- and what a story this is- he became a full time trader the age of 16, he built his own system that earned him billions in today's money, but so many times he didn’t follow his own system and went broke and bankrupt many times. This is the guy who shorted the 1929 crash and made over $2 billion from it. It’s a fascinating story- enjoy 

Hsieh sold his first company when he was just 26 years old for $265 million. He then built Zappos into an online retailing giant from zero revenue to $2 billion dollars and in doing so he really did revolutionise online business by offering the type of customer service that was unheard of back- free shipping both ways, 365 day returns. He wrote a book that that stayed at number 1 for 27 weeks, and put $350 million dollars of his own money into redeveloping downtown las vagasBut behind the success was a man chasing something he could never quite catch—trying to engineer happiness, and this became an obsession that consumed him.

This is the amazing story of Yoshiaki Tsutsumi (tsoo-TSOO-mee)- who for 4 years solid from 1987-1990 was ranked the richest person in the world, the most powerful and probably revered business person in Japan throughout the 70’s and 80’s. And yet for all his wealth and power, there is very little known about him- but what we do know his rise and very public fall- because there is a big fall, make for a fascinating story- it’s a cracking episode - enjoy

I’m being a bit flippant here because this is a guy who worked hard for his money- he became a millionaire at 31 and then proceeded to build a company that had the most successful IPO opening day in history up to that point, and within 9 months of that IPO he sold the company for $5.7 billion becoming a billionaire- yet astonishingly at the time of the sale that company has revenues of just $40 million. How did he manage that?He then did what every sports fan would dream of doing and bought his favourite basketball team and turned them from also-rans into champions. He hasn’t been lucky all of the time- he’s had tussles with the SEC, got caught up in the #metoo movement, missed out on an investment that could have netted him $4.75 billion, but through Shark tank and other high profile investments, he’s now being mentioned as a potential presidential candidate for 2028. It’s a fascinating story- enjoy.

2001 was Sam Waksal’s year.Seven years after discovering Erbitux — the so-called wonder drug — everything seemed to be falling into place. The drug had made it onto the cover of Business Week, Waksal’s company ImClone’s stock was at record highs, and he was living like a celebrity. There were photographs of him with Mick Jagger, Lorraine Bracco, Matthew Modine. He was best friends with Martha Stewart, dated her daughter Alexis for years, and he’d just sold $111 million worth of shares.To anyone watching, Waksal looked like the golden boy of biotech — a scientist-turned-successful entrepreneur. But within months, he’d be kicked out of his own company, under federal investigation, and eventually sent to prison — dragging others, most famously Martha Stewart, down with him.And of course that moment didn’t come out of nowhere. It started years earlier, and to understand how he got there, we have to go back to the beginning.

It was the autumn of 1996. Jeff Bezos had just raised eight million dollars, putting Amazon’s valuation at around sixty million. Revenue that year was $15.7 million, small yes, but growing at a huge rate and it had caught the attention of two men who’d built an empire out of books the old-fashioned way — Leonard and Stephen Riggio, founders of Barnes & Noble.Their chain was the heavyweight of American bookselling: hundreds of superstores, nearly two billion dollars in annual sales, and a reputation for crushing smaller rivals.That autumn, the Riggio brothers invited Jeff Bezos to dinner in New York for what was described as a frank but cordial conversation. They told him they admired what he’d built, acknowledged that Amazon had the early lead online. But, they said plainly, if Barnes & Noble launched its own e-commerce site, their scale and publisher relationships would allow them to “surpass Amazon easily” in both selection and price.They floated alternatives — a partnership, maybe a strategic alliance, maybe for Bezos to lead Barnes & Noble’s online strategy.Bezos declined. Steve Riggio left the dinner unconvinced and said after the meeting. “That purely virtual model won’t cut it in the long term.”Now… to understand how Bezos ended up across the table from the biggest booksellers in America just over a year after setting up Amazon, you have to go back to where it all began.

Throughout my 20’s Weill was a constant presence in the business magazines that I read because he was always doing deals, always adding a little bit more to his growing business and it all added up because by the turn of the century he had built the biggest bank in the world- a remarkable achievement- but he didn’t do it all on his own- he had his protege- Jamie Dimon, without doubt the most influential and powerful banker of the last 20 years. I dig into Weill's early years when he built his first business, sold it and then through acquisitions- some good, some bad, he built the biggest bank in the world with Dimon, we look at his relationship with Dimon, why he sacked Dimon, how that impacted his legacy- it’s a cracking story- enjoy.

I’m sure I’ll come across other people I admire for their business acumen but after researching Dell for this episode, he’s at the top- one of these people who is just brilliant at businessAt 16, he made more money in one summer than his teachers made all year.At 18, he was building computers in a dorm room with sales reaching up to $80,000 some monthsBy 27 he was the youngest CEO ever to lead a Fortune 500 company. He did it by always thinking about how to consistently eliminate unnecessary steps. But he’s tough as well- there were big battles with Carl Icahn where Dell comes out on top. And what I really, really love about Michale Dell is he does it all with no ego, no scandal, no politics- just great business. It’s a cracking episode, enjoy.

Most of us know who Reid Hoffman is- I thought I knew a good bit about him before we did that episode on PayPal, but it was while researching that episode that I found out just how smart and how strategic he is. He was one of the first people in silicon valley to understand the potential of the internet to build social networks- he was one of the very first investors in Friendster and in Facebook and of course he built LinkedIn, selling it to Microsoft for $26 billion. He was a founding investor in Open AI, one of the first investors in AirBnb- this guy has had so  much success but it hasn’t been all plain sailing- he got caught up in his own Jeffrey Epstein story- it’s a cracking episode- enjoy.

He was once the second richest man on Earth — richer than Bezos, Arnault, Buffet. He left school at 15 and over the last 50 years he has built a huge empire spanning ports, power plants, airports, his success fuelled by risk, relentlessness, and a powerful friendship with India’s prime minister.I knew about Adani for a while but it only when I mentioned him briefly when I was talking about the Hindenburg Group in the episode on Short Sellers that i thought I’d love to cover this guy- and his story is so well worth it- there’s billions, there’s a kidnapping, there’s a terror attack, there’s a lot of alleged corruption- it’s a cracking episode — enjoy.

Black made billions with junk bonds, complex financial engineering, buying bankrupt companies and turning them around- he was aggressive, ruthless and very good at what he did.He was Michael Milken’s right hand man. After Milken went to jail, Black built Apollo - an asset manager overseeing $850 billion. He bought the painting The Scream for $120 million. And now he’s forced to explain why he paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million —after Epstein had served jail time.It’s a cracking episode—enjoy.

I love business stories from any time- as long as it’s full of drama, success or failure, interesting characters, I don’t care if it a year old or 1000 years old, and the Tulip Bubble from the 1700’s has drama in spades- I’ve always wanted to dig into it because tulipmania is remembered as the first market bubble. I mean picture the scene, january of 1637, in taverns across Holland, fortunes were made and lost on flowers that bloomed for just one week a year. Men traded houses, farms, for a single bulb. The story has been told for centuries as the world’s first great financial bubble—the madness of crowds overtaken by financial speculation. It’s a tale of greed, folly, and overnight collapse.But there’s a twist in this tale and who doesn’t love a good old twist?It’s a cracking story—enjoy.

Khashoggi has been on my radar since I was a teenager-because he was always in the photos at the best parties- this 5 foot 4, bald Saudi businessman surrounded by the rich, the famous and of course beautiful women. Back then he was described as being one the richest men in the world —  he was certainly the biggest spender. He threw the biggest parties, owned 3 jets and built the world’s most expensive yacht.But behind the glamour was something darker. He brokered billion-dollar arms deals, sent escorts to charm world leaders, and helped dictators stash their stolen fortunes and as a result, he got caught up in some of the biggest scandals of the 80’s.Khashoggi was a networker, a fixer, a man who lived on the thin line between business and crime. Presidents, kings, and CEOs all needed him, and that was his ultimate protection. It’s a fascinating story- enjoy

I wanted to cover this story because I’m a huge Formula 1 fan—and if you follow F1, you can’t ignore Red Bull. And I knew the bones of the story, about how Mateschitz took a weird Thai tonic for truck drivers and turned it into a multi billion dollar global empire.But he did more than just launch a product- he created a whole new category—and then to promote it, he didn’t just attach red bull to extreme sports- Red Bull became a part of extreme sports to such an extent that they created their own extreme sports.And the most extraordinary thing about it all, and I’m saying this as someone who drinks Red Bull, is that the product itself doesn’t really taste nice- how did he do it?It’s a cracking episode—enjoy.