Schultz's Bold Turnaround Turned Near‑bankrupt Starbucks Into $100B Empire
Recently re-listened to the Acquired Podcast with Howard Schultz. Not many people remember that in 2008, Starbucks was SEVEN MONTHS from insolvency. Market cap fell from ~$28B to ~$5B. Schultz came back and saved it: - Closed 1,000 stores. Starbucks had never posted a negative same-store-sales quarter in company history. Now they had several in a row. - Stood in front of the entire company and cried. "I've let you down. I'm doing my best. We're trying to save the company." - Closed every U.S. store for an entire afternoon to retrain baristas. - Flew 10,000 store managers to New Orleans. - Schultz said the company against his CFO’s advice - "We have 7 months until we go insolvent." - Ran the math and figured out each store needed 10 more customers per day Today the company is worth $100B+.
Billion-Dollar Ideas Lurk in Free PubMed Data
Martin Shkreli came on MFM a while back and told Shaan and I something interesting: PubMed has 40M+ biomedical papers. It's the government database of every medical innovation ever logged. And it's 100% free. He told us if you sit there and read long...
From 5‑cent Tonic to $40 Billion Empire
On this day in 1886 the inventor of Coca Cola sold his first glass of the cocaine infused “brain tonic” meant to cure headaches and addiction at a pharmacy in Atlanta. His name was Dr. John Pemberton. - He sold a glass...
Reformat Proven Products, Unlock Billion‑Dollar Valuations
Chad Janis just sold his gummy company Gruns to Unilever for $1.2B. His thesis is taking a tried and true concept, and packaging it in a new format. Example: Greens powder works, but it's a frothy mess on your countertop. So Chad turned...
Even After Early Struggle, I'd Build Again
“Knowing what you know today, would you still build your business?” Someone on my team asked me this question recently. My first few years of running entrepreneurship, I was miserable. I wasn’t making much money and I was jealous of my...
Ferrari's Founder Launched Icon at 50 After Setbacks
Enzo Ferrari didn't found Ferrari until 1947. He was almost 50. Before that he was: - a kid with limited education whose dad and brother both died when he was 18. - rejected for a job with fiat - which he famously cried over -...
Investing Habits Are More Genetic than Learned
In 2014 a researcher an interesting study that looked at whether your investing habits were genetic or learned. In Sweden they’re obsessed with twins and money. They have a national database where they track all the twins born. And they go...
Leaders' Casual Slurs Are Performative, Not Authentic
I 100% agree with this. When leaders say "retard" publicly - in most every case, its super lame. If saying retard or any other offensive word makes the joke land 10x, then yeah, say it. But tossing it around like...
Great Results Need Patience, Not Perfect Timelines
Maybe I'm just slow. But a bit of founder wisdom I've really learned these past 3 years: Every successful company initiative we've done...it takes 3-6 months longer than I predicted it would take. Often, as a founder I can accurately predict...
AI Becomes Boss: Dorsey Envisions No Middle Managers
Jack Dorsey went on Brian Halligan’s podcast (ex-HubSpot CEO). Here’s what he said about AI: - Most founders use AI as their junior assistant intern, something that reports to them - Jack thinks the opposite, and AI is the boss - He thinks the...
From Garage VR to $2B Exit, Staying Humble
Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for over $2B. We had him on MFM awhile back. His story: - At 14, scrubbed boats at a boat yard for minimum wage. On the side, bought broken iPhones on eBay, fixed them, and resold...
Bold Pricing and Mystery Beat Taste in Branding
When Dietrich Mateschitz launched Red Bull, early taste tests were a disaster. People hated the flavor. His response: "Taste is of no importance whatsoever." He priced it at $2/can when everything else was $0.50-$0.75. Wanted to CREATE a new category above the...
HubSpot Sponsorship Sparks Interest in Future Runs
Woah @kippbodnar and @dharmesh -- hubspot sponsored this? Tell me the next time you sponsor a running event...I wanna go!
Hand‑drawn 80s Sesame Street Books Feel Warmer than Digital Editions
Why do 1980's Sesame Street books look so much better than modern versions? Look at the first 3 images vs the last. The first has warm colors, tiny details in background, imperfect shapes, background is packed with cool things to find. In the...
27‑Year‑Old Founder Turns Crisis Into $300M Fintech
My buddy Victor dropped out of Stanford, moved from Venezuela at 18, and started a fintech company called Slash. They make virtual corporate cards. Started with sneaker resellers. Then Yeezy collapsed and they lost 80% of revenue overnight. Most people would've quit but...