This is Dom Cooke and today we are breaking down the world’s fastest growing sports league, The Indian Premier League. The Indian Premier League, often shortened to IPL, is a cricket competition that takes place in India every year between the end of March and end of May. There are 10 teams, 74 matches in total, and the competition starts and ends within 2 months.    The biggest sports leagues tend to come with long histories. You can trace the NFL back to 1920, the NBA to 1946, and Formula 1 to 1950. In stark contrast, the IPL and its teams were founded in 2008. This year’s tourname ..read more

This is Zack Fuss, an investor at Irenic Capital, and today we’re breaking down Wise. Wise helps individuals and small businesses move money across borders. It offers significantly faster and cheaper international transfers than traditional banking routes because of its innovative closed-loop system. Twelve years after its founding, Wise serves six million customers and earned close to £1 billion in income last year. Investors currently value the business, which is listed in London, at £6 billion. To break down Wise, I’m joined by former payments exec and now investor at Sydney-based TDM Growt ..read more

This is Zack Fuss, an investor at Irenic Capital, and today we’re breaking down Constellation Software. Constellation is a conglomerate which owns more than five hundred vertical market software businesses. It was founded by Mark Leonard in 1995 and has delivered remarkable returns to shareholders since going public on the Toronto stock exchange in 2006. To break down Constellation, I’m joined by Chris Cerrone, a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Akre Capital Management. We discuss Mark Leonard’s genius, why Constellation is the gold standard for employee compensation plans, and how the busines ..read more

This is Dom Cooke and this week is a little different. It’s Super Bowl week and to get in the mood, we’re doing a sports special as we break down the business behind 3 iconic sports - The NFL, Formula 1, and the PGA Tour. Now, these are not new episodes. We have covered each of these sports over the past two years on Business Breakdowns. But for this episode, we have condensed those conversations into 100 minutes of action, focusing on the similarities and differences between these major leagues. In terms of revenue, the NFL dwarfs the other two sports. But in terms of eyeballs, Formula 1 is t ..read more

This is Zack Fuss, an investor at Irenic Capital, and today we're breaking down Qualcomm. When you think of semiconductors, Qualcomm isn’t necessarily the first name that comes to mind but its size and utility in our lives is truly striking. The business has an enterprise value of $150 billion and set the standards for 3G, 4G, and 5G mobile connectivity that we rely on so heavily in our daily lives today. I bet that if you don’t have a Qualcomm product in your pocket right now, you most certainly have one in your home. To break down the business, I’m joined by Jay Goldberg, a semiconductor ind ..read more

This is Matt Reustle and today we are breaking down the fitness franchise, Orangetheory. I have wanted to do a deep-dive on franchising for a while now and I always knew who the guest would be. I’m joined by a man fully dedicated to all things franchisee and franchisor - the Wolf of Franchises. We talked through the origin story of Orangetheory and the tech-enabled concept that helped differentiate them during the boutique group fitness boom. Wolf walks me through the economics for both the franchisees and the franchisor – and he helps compare this to the rest of the franchise system throughou ..read more

Today, we’re breaking down one of the most important apps in the world, WeChat. WeChat is the default operating system for life and business in China. Founded inside of Tencent in 2011, it is the original super app and its 1.3 billion monthly active users can order food, message friends, play games, pay bills, shop, and more on the service. To break down WeChat, I’m joined by Connie Chan. Connie is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and is well-known across Silicon Valley for her deep knowledge of the Chinese consumer technology landscape. We discuss WeChat’s legendary founder, how trust ..read more

This is Matt Reustle, and today we are breaking down the personal care giant, L'Oreal. Founded in the early 1900s by a French chemist, L'Oreal and its long list of iconic brands have been driving cosmetics innovation for over a century. To break down the business, I am joined by Zehrid Osmani - Head of the Long-Term Unconstrained team at Martin Currie. We cover the history of brand innovation, global expansion, and all of the dynamics that played a role in L'Oreal's success. I'd mention this episode is an excellent pairing with our Founders podcast episode 217 on Estee Lauder. The two dominant ..read more

This week is the second half of our mini-series on the two major levers to reduce the impact of climate change. Last week, we covered Carbon Removal with Nan Ransohoff. Today we're focused on Carbon Reduction. To break down the business of decarbonization, I'm joined by Christian Anderson. Christian is the co-founder of Watershed, which helps companies like Monzo, Spotify, and Walmart measure, report, and act on their emissions. We discuss the impact on financial statements, why debt financing is key, and why people say no to climate programs. Please enjoy this breakdown. For the full show not ..read more

This week and next week we will break down the two biggest levers we have in the fight against climate change. Carbon reduction and carbon removal. Today, we will focus on carbon removal. To break down where we stand and what needs to be done, I’m joined by Nan Ransohoff. Nan is Head of Climate at Stripe and she also leads Frontier, which is an advanced market commitment of some $1 billion to kickstart a market for carbon removal solutions. We discuss the broad climate picture, the state of technology today, and the potential for good if we can scale up low carbon energy sources. Please enjoy ..read more