Today, we are breaking down The National Football League or, as most know it, The NFL. It’s a sport that dominates American Sundays from late summer into early winter. Behind what happens on the field is a $15 billion dollar business with a unique operating and ownership structure and many stakeholders. To help break down the NFL, Jesse Pujji is joined by Jay Kapoor. Jay is currently General Partner of venture fund VSC Ventures, and prior to his career as an investor, Jay worked in the League St...
Dec 15, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 39
I’m Zack Fuss and today we’re breaking down NextEra Energy. NextEra is America’s most valuable energy firm and consists primarily of two businesses; a high-quality regulated utility and a renewables business that is the world’s largest generator of wind and solar energy. To help break down the business, I’m joined by Mark Tomasovic, an investor at Energize VC. In our conversation, we discuss the structure of the energy market, what’s changed in the renewables space over the past twenty years, an...
Dec 08, 2021•43 min•Ep. 38
Today, we’re breaking down Novocure, a global oncology company that has pioneered a new approach to cancer treatment. For over 100 years, the tools used to fight cancer have largely remained unchanged, but there are promising signs of a renaissance and Novocure is at the vanguard of that charge. To explain the state of cancer research and how the business has developed over the past twenty years, I’m joined by Bill Doyle – Novocure’s Executive Chairman. Please enjoy this breakdown of Novocure. F...
Dec 01, 2021•58 min•Ep. 37
I’m Zack Fuss, and today we’re breaking down AutoZone, the leading retailer and distributor of auto parts in the Americas. From the outside, AutoZone might look like a dull business in a mature industry, but once you dive into the details, you quickly realize it’s a hidden gem that echoes the best of Walmart and Costco, earns some of the highest returns on capital in retail, and has a long history of outsized shareholder returns. To help break down the business, I’m joined by Freddie Lait, found...
Nov 24, 2021•55 min•Ep. 36
I’m Jesse Pujji and this is Business Breakdowns. Today we are doing a different kind of breakdown. We are covering an entire category, Amazon Aggregators. These are the companies that are buying up hundreds of Amazon’s third-party sellers. The concept of Amazon Aggregators is relatively new, tracing back to 2018 with the founding of Thrasio, but the ecosystem is already huge and growing. Most recent numbers peg it at around $300bn dollars in revenue and growing faster than Amazon itself. These a...
Nov 17, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 35
Today, we’re breaking down HelloFresh. HelloFresh delivers weekly meal kits to people’s homes. With eight million active customers, the Berlin-based business is the most popular company of its kind in the world. To break down HelloFresh, I’m joined by its CEO and co-founder, Dominik Richter. We discuss the challenges of scaling an operationally intensive business, why HelloFresh is more like CPG companies than grocery stores, and what he’s learned about brand building. Meal-kits are a notoriousl...
Nov 10, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 34
I’m Jesse Pujji and today we’re breaking down MongoDB. The MongoDB story traces back to 2007 when the founding team was running DoubleClick, a large adtech business now owned by Google. They could not find an existing database software with the agility and scalability that the internet requires. Today, MongoDB has over 25,000 customers across 100 countries. To help break down Mongo, I'm joined by Ro Nagpal, an investor at Holocene Advisors. Listeners will recognize Ro from our breakdown of Twili...
Nov 03, 2021•45 min•Ep. 33
Today we’re breaking down Universal Music Group. As one of the largest music businesses in the world, UMG is home to many of the world’s greatest artists, including Taylor Swift, U2, and The Beatles catalog. A discussion on UMG requires a deep dive into the history of music itself, how it was historically monetized, the shift from physical to digital, and what streaming has meant for the various pieces of the ecosystem. Our guest, Arman Gokgol-Kline, a partner and investor at Ruane, Cunniff & Go...
Oct 27, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 32
Today, we’re breaking down Uber. Despite a corporate history that spans just over a decade, the ink spilled on Uber could have its own wing in a library. So rather than record with our typical Breakdown format, we decided to host two portfolio managers and familiar guests on the podcast, Mario Cibelli, and Ram Parameswaran, to walk through their bull cases on Uber stock. Uber is the case study for network effects in two-sided marketplaces but a controversial corporate culture, ongoing regulatory...
Oct 20, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 31
Today, we are breaking down John Deere. With a history dating back almost two centuries, Deere has been a mainstay in the agriculture industry for generations. And despite its rich history as an incumbent, Deere is also on the leading edge of technology and innovation in ag-tech. To help break down John Deere, Zack Fuss is joined by Matt Coutts. Matt comes from a multi-generation family of farmers, and brings a unique ability to connect finance and farming. During our conversation, we discuss wh...
Oct 13, 2021•47 min•Ep. 30
Today, we are breaking down the cloud and SaaS trailblazer, Salesforce. Founded by Marc Benioff in 1999, Salesforce has grown rapidly to become the global leader in the $100 billion CRM market. The business has 150,000 customers, including 90% of the Fortune 500, and is currently valued north of $270 billion. To break down Salesforce, Patrick O’Shaughnessy is joined by Matt Garratt, general partner at VC firm CRV and former head of Salesforce Ventures, where he led investments in companies like ...
Oct 06, 2021•49 min•Ep. 29
Today, we are breaking down Solana. Founded in 2017 by an ex-wireless engineer from Qualcomm, Solana is a layer one blockchain like Bitcoin and Ethereum that has been built to process transactions as quickly and cheaply as possible. Where Bitcoin can process about ten transactions per second and Ethereum around 30, Solana can handle over 60,000 transactions per second, and it can do so at a fraction of the cost. Unsurprisingly, Solana’s network has attracted huge interest from developers, users,...
Sep 29, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 28
Today, we are breaking down Taboola, a company you may not know but one you’ve definitely seen. When you read articles on CNBC, Bloomberg, or the Independent, Taboola powers the sidebar and banner recommendations for what you should read next. The company works with publishers and advertisers to help readers discover what’s new and interesting. Founded in 2007, Taboola recently went public and is now the leading recommendation engine for the open web, serving over 500 million users a day. To bre...
Sep 22, 2021•48 min•Ep. 27
Today, we are breaking down Sky Mavis, the company behind the NFT-based game, Axie Infinity. Built by a team with a long history in gaming, Axie Infinity was launched in 2018 with the idea that a blockchain-based “play-to-earn” model could create more aligned incentives between game creators and game players long-term. Axie is one of the most incredible examples of speed-to-scale I’ve seen, with the game reporting $100,000 of revenue in January, over $190,000,000 of revenue in July, and over $36...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 26
Today, we will be breaking down Datadog. If you've ever used Control-Alt-Delete to force quit a frozen application - you've experienced the Activity Monitor on your own computer. Datadog is that Activity Monitor for all of a business’s systems across its apps, tools, databases, and servers. It is a SaaS-based monitoring platform that gives enterprise IT teams real-time visibility into the performance of their entire software stack. Datadog was founded in 2010 and has repeatedly out-developed com...
Sep 08, 2021•45 min•Ep. 25
Today, we will break down Wyndham Hotels, the world’s largest and most diverse hotel franchisor with more than 9,000 hotels across 20 brands in over 80 countries. Wyndham is a brilliant example of a ubiquitous business that often goes unnoticed. In this breakdown, we’ll start by looking at just how vast Wyndham’s portfolio of hotels and brands is, how the Highway Act of 1956 played an important role in developing that scale, and explore the economics of hotel ownership, both from the franchisee ...
Sep 01, 2021•56 min•Ep. 24
Today, we will break down Dexcom. Founded in 1999, Dexcom makes best-in-class continuous glucose monitors to help diabetics manage their blood sugar levels. With close ties to growing obesity rates, the diabetes market is big, expensive, and expanding. In the US alone, one-third of Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic, and the cost of treating diabetes is expected to double over the next decade. To break down Dexcom, Zack Fuss is joined by Aneal Tenjarla, an associate portfolio manager at Sofi...
Aug 25, 2021•58 min•Ep. 23
Today, we will be breaking down SmileDirectClub, the oral care company known for its affordable clear aligner treatment. SmileDirectClub was founded in 2014 as a direct-to-consumer alternative to metal braces. It has since expanded to serve over 1 million customers in both the US and abroad. To help break down the business, host Jesse Pujji is joined by current CFO Kyle Wailes. In this breakdown, we discuss how SmileDirectClub differentiates itself relative to metal braces and clear aligner comp...
Aug 18, 2021•48 min•Ep. 22
Today, we will be breaking down ZoomInfo. Founded as DiscoverOrg in 2007, ZoomInfo is a go-to-market software & data solution for B2B sales. When a sales rep gains access to ZoomInfo, they gain access to a database with over 130 million contacts. The ZoomInfo platform assists in finding potential customers, contacting those potential customers, and refining each phase of the workflow. To help break down ZoomInfo, host Jesse Pujji is joined by its CEO, Henry Schuck. Henry founded DiscoverOrg and ...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 21
Today, we will be diving into Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Founded in 1985 as a boutique M&A advisory business with $400,000 of seed capital. The firm now manages over $600 billion across private equity, real estate, credit, and hedge fund strategies. In this breakdown, we will start by discussing Blackstone’s business model and how it has taken advantage of a structural tailwind in the form of low bond yields. Then, we’ll dive into the different ways Blackstone ear...
Aug 04, 2021•44 min•Ep. 20
Today, we will be covering the endlessly fascinating market of Space. While we typically focus on an individual company for Business Breakdowns, we thought an industry primer was the best approach for this expanding market. With Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos directing so much energy to the promise of space, it is impossible not to dream about what lies ahead. To cover this endless topic, I’ll be joined by a previous guest, Tren Griffin. While Tren’s full-time job is a director at Microsoft, his exper...
Jul 28, 2021•55 min•Ep. 19
Today, we will be breaking down pet care giant, Petco. Founded in 1965 as a mail-order business, Petco has evolved into a one-stop-shop pet care solution across its nearly 1,500 locations. To help break down Petco, I am joined by Greg Kamstra, current CEO of pet care provider, Riverdog and former private equity investor. We will discuss how Petco evolved into its current big-box model, how pet care store economics differ from grocery economics, and what impact e-commerce has had on the industry....
Jul 21, 2021•39 min•Ep. 18
Today, we will be diving into Cardlytics. Founded in 2008, Cardlytics operates as an advertising platform integrated with the digital channels of banks. It allows advertisers to identify potential customers from their spending habits and reach those customers directly within their mobile banking applications. Today, Cardlytics is one of the largest digital ad platforms, seeing data on 50% of every card swipe in the US. To help break down Cardlytics, I will be joined by Cliff Sosin, founder of CA...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 17
Today, we will be diving into energy giant, Exxon Mobil. The origins of Exxon date back to John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Exxon was spun out in 1911 as the Standard Oil of New Jersey, and in 1998, Exxon merged with Mobil, which was the original Standard Oil of New York. To break down the rich history of Exxon, I am joined by Arjun Murti, a long-time energy analyst, and investor. During our conversation, we dive deep into the supermajor business and how that drove Exxon’s century-long succ...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 16
Today, we will be diving into Facebook. A business that requires little introduction, Facebook was launched in 2004 from Marc Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room. Zuckerberg has since grown Facebook into the largest social network in the world and continues to operate the business today. To break down Facebook, I am first joined by Robert Cantwell, founder and CIO of Upholdings. Rob’s unique background makes him an ideal person to speak on Facebook. Rob shared a dorm with Zuckerberg, went on to work ...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 15
In today's episode, we introduce another unique format for Business Breakdowns. We will be diving into the iconic global motorsport brand - Formula One. To break down F1, I will be joined by CEO Stefano Domenicali and investor, Arman Gokgol-Kline. To start the conversation, Arman and I frame the business of Formula One with a high-level overview of how the league operates and generates revenue. Then Arman joins me to speak to Stefano who was appointed CEO of F1 in late 2020, after the league and...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 14
Today, we will be diving into Moderna. Founded in 2010, Moderna and its innovative RNA platform made headlines after developing one of the first COVID vaccines. We treated this Breakdown slightly different than our other episodes. I’m joined today by two guests. First, I am joined by Jason Kelly, CEO of Gingko Bioworks. He gives us a primer on the biotech industry, genetic modification, and how Moderna’s platform represents a new breakthrough in the industry. Then, I talk to Matthew Harrison, a ...
Jun 16, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 13
Today, we will be breaking down Pinduoduo. Founded in 2015, Pinduoduo used a ‘team buying’ social network concept to build what is now China’s largest e-commerce platform measured by annual active users. In this breakdown, we’ll explore Pinduoduo’s value proposition to a niche but incredibly large merchant segment and its role in the daily lives of hundreds of millions of consumers. We’ll cover what made Pinduoduo attractive to buyers and how the team buying concept creates scaled demand. We’ll ...
Jun 09, 2021•56 min•Ep. 12
Today, we will be breaking down Invisalign. Founded in 1997, Invisalign pioneered clear aligners as an alternative to metal braces. Today, Invisalign generates over $2bn of revenue and accounts for roughly 20% of the orthodontic market. To break down Invisalign, I am joined by Nick Greenfield, CEO of Candid. Nick co-founded Candid in 2017 as an e-commerce solution to teeth aligners. Candid now offers a broad range of clear aligners and teeth whitening solutions across retail, e-commerce, and the...
Jun 02, 2021•59 min•Ep. 11
Today, we will be breaking down Wix. Founded in 2006, Wix was created to make building websites easier. Fifteen years later, the Wix platform boasts over 180 million registered users and 4.5 million premium subscribers worldwide. In this breakdown, we will explore how the company helped to lay the rails for small businesses to get on the internet. We cover the development strategies that linked Wix to the creator economy. We touch on the evolution of the freemium business model, and we analyze w...
May 26, 2021•49 min•Ep. 10
