Palmer Luckey: The Rebel Engineer Behind America’s AI Army.
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.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
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Nolan Bushnell: The Godfather of Gaming
This is such a wild 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.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
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Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia: Blacksmith, Climber, Capitalist (Sort Of).
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.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
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Sparkle and Sin: The True Story of Diamonds
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.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
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Paul Graham of Y Combinator: The Best Investor Ever
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.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
A great business story thoroughly researched . 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 - patreon.com/greatbusinessstories
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