Beyond the Case

Send us Fan Mail Matt Widdoes’s journey from entrepreneurial parents and professional poker to leading growth teams and founding MAVAN reveals a consistent approach: pursue learning, build trusted relationships, and make thoughtful decisions without waiting for certainty. He credits mentors with shaping his career choices, including his decision to join OPM after a recommendation from Chris Yeh. Having completed Unit 1, Matt found unexpected depth in subjects he already knew and began protect...

Send us Fan Mail This conversation with Prashant Kandoi is largely about family business, entrepreneurship, succession, values, and learning through experience. Prashant grew up watching his father build an electrical business from the ground up after leaving his job in 1983. Seeing his father work intensely made Prashant’s own path feel natural: he studied electrical engineering and joined the family business in 1992. A defining part of his development was his father’s willingness to give hi...

Send us Fan Mail In our living group, Richard was often seen as the wise one, the person we looked to for a thoughtful, well-researched view of a case. His reflections in this conversation reveal why: he has learned to turn experience into a personal philosophy for making decisions, recognizing patterns, and responding with greater clarity. One of his most powerful insights is that he is now “more lured to philosophies” than stories. Stories may inspire us, but principles help us act repeated...

Send us Fan Mail Jay Shah’s journey reflects the power of combining deep expertise with curiosity, resilience and an openness to change. Influenced by his father’s commitment to excellence, Jay built a career at the intersection of architecture and technology, eventually creating Kaizen AI to improve real-estate design and decision-making. Along the way, he learned that innovation requires more than a strong product. It demands patience, human understanding, supportive relationships and the w...

Send us Fan Mail Pedro Thompson's life philosophy was shaped long before he became a CEO, investor, or entrepreneur. Growing up in a family that had once been wealthy but lost everything taught him an early lesson that external success is fragile, while character, perspective, and inner conviction endure. In this conversation, Pedro reflects on how that experience transformed his relationship with money, risk, and ambition. He shares why having "enough" matters more than having everything, ho...