Pretty amazing Howard Schultz profile from 60 minutes below (12 minute video)
Schultz talks about how he went from living in public housing and selling his blood to get through college, to creating a $29 billion corporation that doubles sales every 3 years. He also dives into some of the unique marketing practices Starbucks used to create such a dominant brand, and how how he managed to get investors back in 1987.
Pretty interesting background on the creator of Red Bull. Austrian entrepreneur and former marketing executive Dietrich Mateschitz actually discovered the drink in Thailand, which was previous called Krating Daeng (see below)
Dietrich found the concoction to be a great deterrent against jet lag during business trips, and thus used his marketing skills to change the flavor a bit and launch it globally, after realizing these revitalizing syrups did very well in Asia.
Krating Daeng drink creator Chaelo Yoovidhya, who Dietrich partnered with for all the secret ingredients, is now the wealthiest person in Thailand with an estimated net worth of $4 Billion.
More on Dietrich, founder of Red Bull HERE.
Wealth comes in many forms. Below is the inspiring story of the life of start-up social entrepreneur Scott Harrison. Scott started the non profit Charity:Water, which provides clean drinking water to people in Liberia.
Scott describes his reasons for starting the charity and his success in launching and branding it.
Branding Charity Water
Scott’s Reinvention
more on Charity Water HERE.
Below is a great brief interview of Larry Leight as he describes the beginnings of upscale eye wear brand Oliver Peoples. Larry basically started as an apprentice, networking and learning the intricate design components that piece together metal eye wear. As a salesman for retailers, he eventually knew what sold to customers and what didn’t. So after being continually frustrated by seeing designers creating models he knew would not sell, he decided to branch out. Most importantly, Leight explains why his brand, in a very competitive market, continued to spread and maintain growth.
You may have to hit the “play” button twice on the video player below.
Below is an outstanding video on the behind the scenes rise of MMA apparel brand TAPOUT. Co-founder Dan Caldwell is interviewed and details the beginnings of the company and the various problems he faced, like credit card companies halting expansion once large amounts of orders began rolling in. Not having a business model at the time, Dan sought the help of music Mogul Marc Kreiner who actually co-signed with his own money to get the credit card companies off their back. With the help of the reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter boosting the popularity of MMA, Tapout reaped the benefits of staying loyal to this previously unknown sport. The company is now represented by talent agency CAA, has 160 employees and generates over $200 million in sales .
Read more about the TAPOUT Brand HERE.
The below link is an entertaining brief interview by Men’s Fitness with Mike Repole, the co-founder of Glaceau Vitamin water, which was bought out by Coca-Cola for 4.1 Billion Dollars in 2007. Repole discusses his “coaching” style, and also what he looks for in an employee. A great read for anyone interested in brand development or marketing. You can read the interview HERE . Read more about Coca-Cola’s acquisition HERE .
With stocks plummeting due to the AA+ rating, there are a lot of tasty cheap stocks out there. I am personally tracking WFC, BP, AFL and to a lesser extent ECA and JMBA. With many undervalued stocks, I wanted to see which investors (including Buffett) would be most likely to capitalize on this current market [...]
Even though WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE was probably the worst movie I have ever seen, Spike Jonze’s rise to wealth is truly remarkable (and he HAS made some great films like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION etc). This video below gives a comprehensive look at his talents and entrepreneurial career. Most interesting to note is [...]
Harvard Business School professor William Sahlman gives an entertaining and informational presentation on Opportunity Recognition and Leveraging One’s Experience. Very interesting to hear him describe opportunities no one would ever consider, like creating a profitable business in electric candy. This guy knows what he is talking about, having received an MBA and also a PHD [...]
Wanted to share this interesting video from WSJ’s new segment “WSJ Money,” which details the worlds most cash rich city: Singapore. The stability of the city-state attracts many tastemakers. Looks like DUBAI is now a thing of the past
One of the funniest books I have read this year by far was The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort. The book details Jordan’s rise to wealth (and subsequent fall that sent him straight into prison) as the owner of the notorious brokerage firm Statton Oakmont. At one time his book was optioned with [...]
Entertaining profile video below on Elon Musk, which delves into the intricacies of his amazing business endeavors and examines his risk taking.
With Qatar winning the 2022 World Cup Bid, I thought it would be interesting to delve into who are some of the current entrepreneurs living in this country and also what is the status of it’s business. As one might assume, land development would probably be the countries biggest business right now. Thus I stumbled [...]
