Mysterious billionaire Thomas Tull's journey from laundromats to a $3.5 billion Hollywood production company. Topics include Moneyball strategy for movies, international appeal, data analytics, business lessons from the UFC, and selling feelings for box office success.

Thomas Tull, founder of Tulco and former CEO of Legendary Entertainment shares valuable lessons on learning from our own mistakes, asking difficult questions, and protecting our intellectual curiosity.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Thomas Tull is founder of Legendary Entertainment, Tulco, part-owner of Pittsburgh Steelers, and guitarist for the band Ghost Hounds. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit – ROKA: https://roka.com/ and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order – InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off – Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil – Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings EPISODE LINKS: Tulco: https://tulcoholdings.com/ Ghost Hounds: https://www.ghosthounds.com/ Pittsburgh Steelers: https://www.steelers.com/ Legendary Entertainment: https://www.legendary.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (07:14) – Legendary Entertainment (23:56) – James Cameron (25:50) – Storytelling (36:02) – Allure of movies (39:56) – Future of American industries (58:48) – Tulco (1:03:58) – Intellectual honest and life lessons (1:14:30) – Colossal (1:18:28) – Warren Buffet (1:27:10) – The Rolling Stones (1:45:20) – Greatest guitarist (1:53:33) – Thomas Tull’s music (2:03:00) – Football (2:13:56) – Advice for young people (2:19:42) – Mortality and death

My guest today is Thomas Tull, the founder of Tulco LLC, an investment holding company that invests in businesses with high growth potential and helps them apply machine learning and data analytics. Thomas is also the founder and former CEO of Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind the Dark Knight, Hangover, Inception, 300, and many more iconic movies which he sold in 2016. In our discussion, we cover the movie industry’s value chain, the recipe for trying to make a successful movie and how Legendary pioneered the use of data analytics to improve those odds, and Thomas’ concept of the new physics of business and why it matters for what he’s now building at Tulco. Please enjoy my conversation with Thomas Tull. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossusShow Notes[00:03:06] - [First question] - His overarching career philosophy and theme[00:04:07] - Attacking a previously established industry in a new way[00:05:20] - The origin story of Legendary and stepping into the film industry[00:07:56] - Stakeholders involved in producing a movie and pre-existing profit pools when Legendary was founded[00:12:44] - Topline and downstream revenue distribution of intellectual property from then versus now[00:19:46] - Lessons learned about intellectual property writ large  [00:19:03] - What makes Chris Nolan such an exceptional storyteller[00:23:42] - Power and defensibility of cinematic universes and transmedia storytelling[00:22:21] - Applying quantitative data analysis to film production and marketing[00:25:55] - Competitive frontiers in movie studios and his advantageous skillset[00:28:10] - Potential investment opportunities in media or media adjacent businesses[00:29:26] - Interesting new tools that could be developed in entertainment technology[00:31:00] - His favorite mind-blowing and awe-inspiring movies[00:32:41] - Telling Jackie Robinson’s story in the film, 42[00:35:30] - Jackie Robinson and Chadwick Boseman’s quiet dignity[00:36:56] - Building the holding company Tulco [00:39:02] - The new physics of business that can’t be ignored[00:42:40] - Modern velocity in the current era of business[00:46:03] - Interweaving an antifragile mindset into the company culture[00:47:55] - Who Tulco Labs is and what they do[00:49:12] - What gets him most excited about exploring a new business for the first time[00:50:48] - Unique characteristics he seeks out in a management team[00:52:31] - Trends that make him feel worried about the future[00:57:47] - Trends that make him feel optimistic about the future[00:58:49] - An important lesson learned from his career on a personal level[01:00:15] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him

Billionaire investor Thomas Tull & Palantir Co-Founder Joe Lonsdale discuss emerging technologies, AI, synthetic biology, the rise of China, COVID-19 impact, and the collaboration between private and public sectors for innovation in an episode of 'The Money Maze Podcast'.