Podcast · Business

Great Business Stories

by Caemin · English · Business

A great business story thoroughly researched and brought to life by Caemin. New episode released every Wednesday .

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 31 min
Latest: 14 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026 · 31 minNew

General Magic: Right Product, Wrong Time

I had heard about General Magic over the years- and it was always held up as this almost mythical startup- the company that more or less developed the smartphone but was years too early, and then just 2 weeks ago I came across a documentary on it- it’s simply called General Magic- and it’s really good- well worth watching. So i did a b it more digging, found great articles and additional interviews with the founders. This is the story of how 1 guy had this vision for a new handheld device, how he got the top talent from Apple to join him, how they got the biggest tech and telecom companies…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

7 Oct 2026 · 31 min
Olympus: A Very Japanese Scandal
I have a very clear memory of this story because it became public 15 years ago in 2011, and I remember watching the news and seeing Michael Woodford, the whistleblower being mobbed by the media in Tokyo after he had found out and exposed a 20 year $1.7 billion dollar fraud in Olympus the company where he had just been promoted to the CEO role. And what I love about this story is that it gives us a great insight into Japanese corporate life, how saving face was, and maybe still is prioritised over everything else. This story has drama, strong characters and even the hint organised crime in…
30 Sep 2026 · 29 min
Ken Griffin: Wall Street’s Ultimate Competitor
Griffin has been on my list from day 1- like he’s the 32nd richest person in the world with a net worth of $60 billion, but I was in no real rush to cover him, until about 2 weeks ago when I finally got round to watching Dumb Money- the movie about the GameStop short squeeze-and it’s a pretty good movie. But in the film the 2 or 3 times when Griffin's name is mentioned, it’s followed by the word “prick”- so that got me really interested- is he that bad or is it simply jealously as a result of his success because, even compared to the other Masters of Universe on Wall, Griffin is seriously…
23 Sep 2026 · 29 min
Ben & Jerry’s 1978-2026 RIP
The RIP part, well you’ll see what I’m getting at by the end of the episode. I wanted to dig into this story for a while now because like most of you, I knew the outline -you know, 2 hippy type guys who did things a bit differently, who were never really interested in money or success and yet they built one of the biggest and best known ice cream brands in the world. But the details of how they did this- through just being totally authentic, following their sense of fun, getting a lucky break, and then when they become successful they do everything they can to spread the wealth, to develop a…
16 Sep 2026 · 32 min
Brian Chesky and Airbnb: The $100 Billion Bad Idea
Look, I’d be lying if I said I’d always wanted to cover Chesky and Airbnb. I hadn’t really read much about either of them. The business itself sounds pretty humdrum. People renting out apartments, spare rooms. Nothing really new or exciting there. And Chesky himself has always flown under the radar. But each week the story I pick just depends on what catches my fancy and last week, for whatever reason, I thought, you know what, I know absolutely nothing about this guy. I want to dig into it. And what a story. Because Chesky and his co-founders basically took one of the crappiest business…
9 Sep 2026 · 31 min
Peter Thiel: 1967–2002
As regular listeners will know, I’ve wanted to cover Thiel for some time now. He’s going to warrant a three-parter at least because, love him or loathe him, Thiel is without doubt one of the most interesting, controversial and polarising people in business over the last 30 years. For listeners who don’t know him, Thiel was part of what became known as the PayPal Mafia - this group of supersmart guys who founded and built PayPal. The company survived the dot-com crash, it almost went under because of Russian fraudsters and they eventually cashed out in 2002. And then a lot of the people…
2 Sep 2026 · 32 min
Enzo Ferrari: The Obsession Behind the Prancing Horse
Now I’m not a big petrol head, but as some of you might know, I love Formula 1, and I think it's fair to say that Formula 1 wouldn’t be where it is today without Ferrari—so I was really keen to dig into this. And what a story. Enzo Ferrari wasn’t your typical business guy. Most people think of Ferrari as a company that builds expensive road cars and also happens to race. But for Enzo Ferrari, the road car business was really secondary—those beautiful, expensive cars were made for one reason only—it was to fund his obsession with racing. And it was an obsession. He valued his engines more…
26 Aug 2026 · 30 min
Bernie Ebbers & WorldCom - When The Tide Goes Out…
The whole WorldCom scandal never really registered with me- because it happened straight after the dotcom bubble burst, so myself and my cofounders were just dusting ourselves off and slowly realising that we weren’t going to suddenly become business tycoons and on top of that whole Enron scandal had exploded just a bit before so that was the story that consumed me back then - so when WorldCom went bust, I didn’t really give it a lot of time, but I knew in the back of my mind that there was great story here- Bernie Ebbers, this 6 foot 4, honest to goodness church-going cowboy who kind of…
19 Aug 2026 · 33 min
The Rise and Ruin of the Barclay Twins
This is the remarkable story of how David and Frederick Barclay went from painters and decorators to owning the most prestigious hotels in London: the Ritz, Claridge's, the Connaught, the Berkeley. They bought the Telegraph Newspaper Group, they bought an island and built a £100 million castle on it, their fortune was estimated to be £7 billion pounds as late as 2020. But these guys, man, they were secretive, underhand — these guys pulled some very sneaky shit. And then it all came crashing down when the twins turned on each other, culminating in the Ritz Hotel bugging scandal. This is a…
12 Aug 2026 · 32 min
Microsoft 1994-2000: How Bill Gates Turned a Browser War Into an Antitrust Disaster
This is, without doubt, one of my favourite stories ever. And look, I'll be doing a good few episodes on Gates and Microsoft, but why I decided to start off with this one is because it's a fantastic standalone story. You have Bill Gates and Microsoft, in the mid-90s at the height of their power, and then along comes Marc Andreessen and Netscape, who develop a browser that really launches the World Wide Web. And this is an existential threat to Microsoft. They try to bully Netscape into a deal, but Netscape fight back, and this sets in motion an antitrust case that brings out Gates'…
5 Aug 2026 · 30 min
John Foley and Peloton: What Went Wrong?
I wanted to dig into this story purely because what I knew of Peloton really was just from the headlines. During the pandemic, stock pickers and the business media crowned Peloton the business of the future. It was called the Apple of fitness. You had the Obamas, Usain Bolt, Leonardo DiCaprio, dozens of high-profile celebrities as customers, and some of Peloton's live classes had bigger audiences than Madison Square Garden. And then, just as quickly, the same press that had lauded him turned on him. Foley and Peloton became the poster child for pandemic-era hubris. A company that reached a…
29 Jul 2026 · 30 min
Yuri Milner: From Russia With Billions
I've wanted to cover Milner ever since I first came across him in Sebastian Mallaby's excellent book, The Power Law, where Mallaby introduces Milner with the following: "At the start of 2009, the CFO at Facebook took a call from Moscow. A soft Russian voice announced that he wanted to invest in Facebook. The caller had a gentle but insistent style. He had a slight build, a nose bent to his right, and an oval face crowned by a smooth dome. He wanted to meet in person. Facebook did not accept capital from just anyone." The CFO told Milner bluntly: "Don't come all the way here just to see me."…
22 Jul 2026 · 33 min
Steve Ballmer: 1956–2000
And let me start with a quote: "I didn't pull you out of Stanford Business School to bankrupt the company" — that's Bill Gates, early on, arguing with the man he'd just hired as Microsoft's first ever business manager. That man of course was Steve Ballmer, and the two of them would go on to build one of the most valuable companies in history together, through huge arguments, a legendary contract with IBM, and a decade of ruthless sales tactics that got Windows onto practically every computer on the planet. This episode takes Ballmer from his childhood right up to becoming Microsoft's CEO in…
15 Jul 2026 · 31 min
BlockBuster: The Men & Moments Behind Its Rise and Fall
There are so many great characters in this story — I dig into the founder, David Cook, a guy who sold the business for $12 million but could have made $300 million if he'd stayed on for just a few more years. And then Wayne Huizenga, the guy who turbo-charged the business, after building his first fortune in the rough and tumble of the waste management business in the 70s and 80s. There's the now legendary meeting where Blockbuster's executives had the chance to buy a fledgling company called Netflix for $50 million but more or less laughed the Netflix founders out of the room. And then, as…
8 Jul 2026 · 31 min
Carlos Slim: The Numbers Genius Who Built an Empire
This is a guy whose father fled Lebanon with almost nothing and today is worth $120 billion. I examine how he built his fortune buying up distressed businesses during Mexico's economic collapse of the 1980s, and how a controversial privatisation deal for the national phone company turned him into the richest man in the world. I also look at the huge criticism he's faced for monopolistic practices that cost ordinary Mexicans billions and also held back the development of an entire country, and how he's used that fortune combined with this intrinsic and intangible gift for numbers to make…
1 Jul 2026 · 32 min
CZ and Binance: The Man Who Built Crypto's Biggest Empire
This is a guy who grew up in a village in rural China with no running water and today is now worth $110 billion. I examine his relationship with Sam Bankman Fried- and his subsequent involvement in the multi billion dollar collapse of Bankman Fried’s company FTX. I also look at how he tried to keep Binance away from any type of regulation, and this ultimately led him to serve time in jail but then very controversially get a presidential pardon. It's a cracking story — enjoy.
24 Jun 2026 · 33 min
Hyundai Part 1: Chung Ju-yung, The Founder
I nitially I had intended to do just 1 episode on Hyundai, focusing mainly on the car business and it’s current leadership, but the story of Ju-yung is just too remarkable to be consigned to a footnote- this is a guy who, from nothing, built a conglomerate that at it’s peak in the 90s was one of the biggest companies in the world, with revenues of $90 billion, 200,000 employees, operating in everything from semi conductors, to cars, to ship building, to construction, to retail outlets- you name it, they did it and Ju-yung built it all through wars and military rulers, it’s a cracking story,…
17 Jun 2026 · 31 min
Calvin Klein:An American Icon
Now, I’m not into fashion and I really didn’t know anything about Klein before I did my research for this episode and I found him to be such a fascinating character-how he, together with Ralph Lauren and Ann Klein, no relation, dragged American fashion out of the shadow of Paris and made it stand on its own two feet. How he didn’t do it on his own- Calvin Klein the business was always 2 people- Klein and Barry Schwartz, how Klein pioneered designer jeans, how he built his company while partying in Studio 54 and burning the candle at both ends, and how the business was just days from…
10 Jun 2026 · 31 min
David Sacks: Silicon Valley's Rainmaker
Sacks is a very interesting and powerful figure. He started his tech career with PayPal, and it was Sacks, together with other PayPal founders, who organised the coup that got Elon Musk fired as PayPal's CEO. He went on to start up Geni.com and Yammer, selling Yammer for $1.2 billion dollars. He then set up a venture firm and has risen to prominence through the All In podcast, and then in 2024 was made President Trump's AI and Crypto Tsar. It is he who is advising Trump on the type and the amount of regulation required for AI — an extremely powerful and important position. So who is Sacks,…
3 Jun 2026 · 32 min
Roberto Calvi: Italy’s Corruption Laid Bare
This is a story that I’ve wanted to get to the bottom of for years- for those of you who aren’t aware of who Calvi is- he was known as God’s Banker- the guy who managed the vatican;s money back in the 70’s and early 80’s and who was found hanged under Blackfriars bridge in 1982, and here's an excerpt from the BBC on Calvi: "Calvi was at the centre of an incredibly complex web of international fraud and intrigue. It involved the Italian banking world, the underworld, the Mafia, Freemasonry and, most startling of all, the Vatican. The banker's death would trigger a wide-ranging political and…
27 May 2026 · 31 min
Steven A. Cohen: The Master of Edge
The edge in the title refers to an advantage that Cohen had over the rest of the market-because he is considered without doubt one of the best intuitive traders ever- good enough that he took home $3.5 billion last year, rich enough to lose more than $1.5 billion in the whole Gamestop short squeeze and shrug it off but is his wealth and success all down to skill or does he cross the line, as prosecutors have tried to prove numerous times? It’s a cracking story enjoy
20 May 2026 · 30 min
Michael O Leary: The Jumped-Up Paddy Who Doesn’t Give a Shit
I chose this episode not only because it’s brilliant, but also because my youngest listener and favourite nephew has been bugging me to do the story of a leary for a long time now I’ll start with an excerpt from a profile the journalist Philip Watson did on O Leary: “Through a series of audacious business moves and a decidedly gunslinging approach to his opponents, Michael O Leary made Ryanair the most profitable low-cost carrier in Europe. As one business associate bluntly puts it: "When he goes into battle he boots the shit out of anyone or anything that gets in his way." And to give you…
13 May 2026 · 34 min
Sam Altman: 1985-2023
I’ll open up with an excerpt from a fantastic New Yorker article on Altman: "Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart- and according to an OpenAI board member: “He’s unconstrained by truth. He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.” So in this episode I look at Altman’s progression from app developer…
6 May 2026 · 30 min
Philip Green: The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism
I’m going to kick it off with this excerpt from Oliver Shah’s excellent book on Green called Damaged Goods : “Mr Toad-like in appearance, with a bulging belly and a mischievous grin, Green turned into a business celebrity, often spotted on the front row of fashion shows between Kate Moss and Anna Wintour. Nut-brown from the Riviera sun, his silver hair slicked back into a rat’s tail, he relished the role he had carved out for himself as the retail industry’s roguish uncle. Bankers from Goldman Sachs and HSBC fell over themselves to offer him money and advice. Simon Cowell and Ronnie Wood…
29 Apr 2026 · 33 min
Bill Ackman: 1966–2008
I’m breaking up Ackman’s story into three, maybe even four parts because, like him or loathe him, Ackman is a very interesting character. I’ll kick it off with a quote from Carl Icahn, the legendary Wall Street investor who has tussled with Ackman on more than one occasion, and this kind of encapsulates the core of Ackman’s character: “I would be a very happy man in life if I could be as certain of just one thing as he is certain about everything.” And really, that’s Ackman in a nutshell—supremely, annoyingly confident, to the point of arrogance. Yet it is this confidence, combined with…
22 Apr 2026 · 36 min
Ross Perot: Shorty Got Game
I’m having a bit of a dig at Ross Perot’s height, but for a little guy, this guy had a lot of game—not just as a businessman. This guy could have been the US President. Here is a quote from Time Magazine from 1992, when he threw his hat into the ring to become president: "It's hard to envision a seriously short guy who sounds like a chihuahua as a charismatic threat to democracy, but it is delicious to watch the thrills of horror running through the establishment at the mere thought." Because as we’ll see in the story, Perot came this close to becoming the President of the United States in…
15 Apr 2026 · 32 min
Boeing 747: The Plane That Shrank the World
I’ll start with a quote from 2023 at a ceremony to announce and celebrate the retirement of the jumbo jet: ""“It is the most well thought out and safest aircraft ever built. Even when you understand the science behind flight, there’s nothing like seeing a 747 take flight to remind you that there’s also magic here.” So spoke John Travolta, the actor and plane nut — he’s a licensed 747 pilot and a huge fan of the plane. He actually has a house with a runway, and his planes, which include a 707, are parked outside. You really have to Google this — it's pretty amazing. But what I find even more…
8 Apr 2026 · 30 min
Friendster: How They Blew It
I just love this story - it has everything - Jonathan Abrams, a young, smart coder from Canada, moved to California because he wanted to be at the very heart of the internet boom. And on nothing more than an intuition, a feeling of how things should be online, he comes up with the framework for a social media platform, the very same model that MySpace, Facebook and all the others then learnt from or copied. But Abrams and Friendster were first, and for a brief moment, they were the hottest property in Silicon Valley - Google tried to buy them. VCs were desperate to invest with them - and…
1 Apr 2026 · 32 min
Kerry Packer: The Billionaire Who Played the Biggest Hands
I’ve wanted to dig into Packers life for a long time now, because one thing I’ve come to know from over 35 years of reading business stories is that when it comes to big characters with the most drama- the media tycoons always win hands down. And so it is with Packer we’re talking getting into an actual brawl with heavies hired by Rupert Murdoch, transforming televised sport, having his name dragged into rumours about drug trafficking and even murder, winning and losing tens of millions in casinos in London and Las Vegas. Packer was without doubt one of the larger than life figures ever in…
25 Mar 2026 · 30 min
BCCI: The Most Corrupt Bank in the World
This is the remarkable story of how Agha Abedi built BCCI, a global bank founded in Pakistan that was revered by its ordinary customers and employees. Abedi was seen as more than just a banker- a visionary and philanthropist. But there was a second bank within the bank called the Dark Network, and this secret side of the bank provided special services for corrupt politicians, funded wars, washed Pablo Escobar’s drug money, facilitated the murky dealings of MI6, the CIA among others and then it all came crashing down from an undercover operation straight out of the movies . It’s a fascinating…

About Great Business Stories

A great business story thoroughly researched and brought to life by Caemin. New episode released every Wednesday .

Great Business Stories is a English business podcast from Caemin. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Caemin
Language: English
Category: Business
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 31 min
Latest episode: 14 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1728626597
Rights: Caemin

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