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 success. We address the past decade of underperformance and examine the key drivers of Exxon Mobil moving forward. Arjun gives helpful overviews on how the energy market has changed across fossil fuels and renewables throughout our conversation. I hope you enjoy this breakdown of Exxon Mobil. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.----- Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:02:25] - [First question] - What is Exxon Mobil and its business scale[00:04:46] - Various metrics to understand their scale and their revenue streams[00:07:37] - How many people on average Exxon’s oil touches[00:08:31] - Ways to think about how a barrel of oil can be used[00:09:42] - The supply chain of oil and gas and why Exxon chooses to be integrated[00:10:48] - What a non-integrated supply chain looks like in comparison[00:14:33] - How technology has impacted the exploration and discovery of oil[00:17:22] - Once the land is bought and the oil is coming out of it, what next?[00:19:04] - Overview of what a refinery does to crude oil and its economics[00:23:58] - Final steps of the non-integrated oil supply chain[00:25:23] - The history of the oil industry and John D. Rockefeller[00:29:51] - Why Exxon isn’t the largest market cap in the world these past few years[00:38:20] - Some of Exxon’s bad capital allocation decisions[00:43:06] - Thoughts on the XTO acquisition and rough cost[00:44:12] - Would Lee Raymond have been able to figure out a better way forward[00:46:36] - Exxon’s bet on renewables and climate change and whether or not it paid off[00:51:19] - The size and consumption of the energy market today and its size[00:55:17] - Units costs of oil and coal versus wind and solar and their trends[00:59:16] - How this will play out on a fifty-year time horizon[01:02:06] - Exxon’s peer set during their long career[01:04:14] - Other factors that may have contributed to Exxon’s recent downturn[01:06:32] - COVID-19’s impact on the oil industry[01:09:20] - Opportunities for the future and what could cause a double in market cap [01:12:07] - What could have contributed to a smaller market cap in the future[01:12:52] - Lessons for builders and investors[01:17:05] - Resources for learning more: The Prize & Titan

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 at Elevation Partners, a large private investor in Facebook, and eventually became CFO of Everlane, where expansion was closely tied to the growth of Instagram and its advertising tools. We touch on how Facebook successfully navigated the transition from desktop to mobile, what drives the value of the network, and where Facebook may drive value in the future. I am then joined by Jesse Pujji, a familiar voice as a host of Business Breakdowns. Jesse’s time as co-founder and CEO at Ampush make him ideal to break down the advertising business of Facebook. During our conversation, Jesse outlines the basic dynamics of the Facebook ad ecosystem, the economic proposition to an advertiser, and how to assess risks to Facebook's control of the digital ad market. Facebook is such an interesting business, and we could likely speak for hours on the potential opportunities for growth. We decided to focus on the core advertising business today, given it represents 98% of revenue. In the future, we want to dedicate individual Breakdowns to WhatsApp, Oculus, and potentially other Facebook initiatives that are worthy of their own deep dives alone. I hope you enjoy this conversation on Facebook. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Part 1[00:03:20] - [First question] The size and scale of Facebook and how we interact with it[00:04:59] - The best way to describe what their true core business is[00:07:21] - Observing Facebook’s growth as an operator and how it impacts his view of it [00:10:46] - The ad model that they offered that wasn’t historically available before[00:12:49] - Competitive advantages they have today that makes theory moat impenetrable[00:15:44] - Potential impacts of the decentralization of the internet[00:19:20] - One of the biggest risks to Facebook over the coming years[00:23:33] - Future asset optionality that investors should be excited about[00:28:16] - Thoughts on whether or not Facebook abuses its power given its size[00:31:19] - Whether or not plans to establish themselves as a super app holds true[00:34:14] - What Facebook is today and where they’re goingPart 2[00:36:25] - Why Facebook has such an effective ad system for digital marketing[00:41:28] - Overview of how an advertiser uses their ad platform[00:45:39] - Key dynamics that impact bidding on certain keywords and customers[00:49:22] - The types of companies that are being built on top of Facebook’s ad railway[00:52:13] - What data they have and common misconceptions about it[00:56:15] - Things Facebook could learn about cross-app system tracking  [00:59:07] - The competitive landscape of digital advertising today[01:01:52] - What would have to play out in order for them to stop growing[01:04:05] - The ways in which commerce plays into Facebook’s story today[01:07:39] - How having access to a user's payment information is a value unlock[01:08:55] - The most important thing to Facebook and lessons to be learned from their story 

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 teams agreed to their latest Concorde Agreement which governs stakeholders across the ecosystem. We touch on Stefano’s own story growing up with Formula One, how the team, driver, and ownership worlds align, and what gets him most excited for the brand moving forward. Arman and I then wrap up by diving into the white space opportunities for F1 and what key lessons for builders and investors. The origin story of Bernie Ecclestone founding and operating F1 is fascinating – and I admire how Liberty has been able to push the brand further into the spotlight. You can see a clear focus on building an aligned ecosystem across the fans, teams, and league officials. This was an incredibly fun episode where you hear from both an inside and outside view. I hope you enjoy this breakdown of F1. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Part 1[00:03:00] - [First question] - The overall size of the F1 fanbase[00:05:22] - Three key buckets of revenue and their percentage split[00:07:21] - Business economics of the race tracks and promoter incentives[00:11:22] - Thoughts on expanding the annual race and track count[00:13:49] - Business economics of the race broadcasts[00:18:59] - Business economics of sponsorships and partnersPart 2 [00:21:21] - Where Stefano found his early passion for motorsport[00:23:32] - What it was like to run an F1 team[00:27:14] - Why they decided to open up social media to drivers and partnering with Netflix[00:33:07] - The Concorde Agreements and what made 2021’s agreement unique[00:35:24] - How the budget is so crucial to a driver and their engineering team’s success[00:38:13] - Key factors define a great winning engineering team[00:42:26] - What makes a driver great and stand out over time[00:46:14] - Thoughts on the motorsport industry in a world aiming for environmental sustainability[00:48:48] - What will be most different about F1 five years from now[00:52:09] - Stefano’s most memorable moment across his entire career Part 3[00:53:10] - Biggest whitespaces in F1 that present great monetization opportunities[00:58:49] - Unique team dynamics and how teams are built and developed[01:02:39] - The story of Lawrence Stroll and Aston Martin [01:04:35] - Why BMW dropped out of F1 and why a manufacturer would choose to quit[01:07:34] - Reasons why Porsche has never stepped into the motorsport space[01:09:40] - Major costs centers of the business today[01:11:25] - The history of Bernie Ecclestone And F1 racing[01:14:08] - Lessons one could pull from F1 and unlocking value [01:15:30] - Areas of content production that F1 has done well[01:17:10] - Additional ways F1 could monetize the relationships between teams and fans[01:21:25] - Lessons that business builders can take away from F1’s story[01:23:00] - Lessons that investors can take away from F1’s story[01:24:25] - Where to learn more; Drive to Survive; Concorde Commercial Agreement

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 biotech analyst at Morgan Stanley. We will cover what differentiates Moderna’s business model, how Moderna’s science could lead to faster and higher efficacy drug development, and key takeaways for investors and operators. I hope you enjoy this Breakdown of Moderna. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes - Part 1: Jason Kelly[00:02:31] - [First question] - What is a biotech company?[00:03:50] - Defining Moderna as a company in the biotech space[00:05:15] - Bridging the gap between biotech and genentech[00:06:02] - Overview of the history of learning to program cells[00:07:46] - Big milestones from the discovery to the human genome project[00:10:03] - Technical process and tool of how one modifies and copies genes[00:11:45] - The scale and tools of modern DNA design[00:14:05] - What the Moderna vaccine is and how it works[00:17:24] - The first engineered drug of its kind [00:18:24] - Other areas where synthetic biology appears in everyday life[00:22:19] - How many sectors this type of technology will disrupt[00:23:32] - The history of Moderna and how they came to be[00:24:41] - What problem Moderna tries to solve and how they approach it[00:27:11] - Unique deal components in therapeutics and the FDA[00:29:06] - Key factors that will make Moderna a dominant player in the near future [00:30:01] - How Genentech became as big as they did [00:30:53] - Competitive and compounded advantages for biotech companies[00:32:09] - Lessons for investors and entrepreneurs in studying Moderna’s story Show Notes - Part 2: Matthew Harrison [00:34:10] - What is Moderna and how it got started[00:36:10] - Typical route taken for a drug maker and how Moderna is different[00:37:16] - What separates Moderna from others in the biotech space today[00:39:12] - The role software and technology has played a role in Moderna’s success[00:41:42] - Cementing their position through breakthroughs and capitalizing on them [00:42:58] - How Moderna generates their revenue [00:44:45] - Overview of cost of sales, expense buckets and gross margin[00:46:20] - Factors involved in how one valuates a biotech company[00:47:15] - How many drugs are in Moderna’s pipeline compared to others[00:51:26] - Risks of drug development and their market potential[00:54:01] - Internal operations of drug development and what separates Moderna[00:57:17] - Comparing Moderna’s mRNA to others on the market [00:59:44] - High level breakdown of pharmaceutical R&D[01:01:33] - Other P&L and financial components that arise given the nature of biotech [01:03:09] - Contrast between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine[01:04:18] - What Moderna will have to get right in order to become the next Pfizer [01:05:38] - What Moderna would have to get wrong to limit their growth[01:07:24] - Company culture and the importance of management[01:08:06] - Lessons for builders and entrepreneurs in studying Moderna’s story

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 touch on their fascinating network dynamics, from the creation of trust ecosystems to the role of gamification in WeChat to the sheer scale of the digital and physical logistics required to make what Pinduoduo has made possible.  For this episode, I am joined by Xin Yi Lim, the company’s Senior Director for Corporate Development. Xin Yi’s experience as a financial analyst covering the sector prior to joining Pinduoduo makes her perspective particularly valuable. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:02:46] - [First question] - Overview and history of Pinduoduo[00:07:25] - Analysis of the user experience of social shopping  [00:13:22] - Using internal flywheels to optimize supply chain efficiency[00:16:10] - How Pinduoduo is a combination of Costco and Disneyland[00:19:47] - Overview of Pinduoduo’s business model and how it has changed over time[00:24:08] - How Pinduoduo Grocery fits in alongside their existing revenue streams[00:29:20] - Making large-scale decisions while managing such a vast infrastructure[00:32:44] - User base splits between secondary and primary cities[00:36:42] - What categories of goods their platform serves[00:40:06] - The relationship between discovery options and intentional buying[00:42:38] - How they manage to create such a deep experience with so many brand options[00:44:41] - The most defensible of Pinduoduo’s platform against competitors[00:47:53] - Growth objectives for the company as they look out to the future[00:53:38] - Learn more: Stories.Pinduoduo-Global.com, Agri Matters Podcast

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 professional market. Nick's experience in the industry makes him an ideal person to explore Invisalign. We dive deep into the origin of the business, the unique relationship between Invisalign and orthodontists, the economics of orthodontics, and how Invisalign successfully used its patents to maintain its lead in the clear aligner industry. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:02:43] - [First question] - Overview of Align Technologies and their scale[00:03:31] - What Invisalign is and the problem it solves[00:04:43] - The footprint Invisalign has in the dental industry[00:08:40] - Defining orthodontics and the size of the market[00:09:49] - Why market penetration may double over the coming years[00:14:42] - What the market was missing in the 90s and allowed Invisalign to arise[00:16:20] - Unit economics across the value chain of orthodontics[00:19:40] - Economics of an entire practice built on Invisalign[00:20:34] - How they came to dominate and cement their market position[00:22:44] - Vertical integration and other ways held a majority in the clear liner space[00:25:02] - Branding, distribution and further means of competitive advantage[00:27:05] - Why not move further up the value chain and buy orthodontic businesses[00:28:40] - Invisalign’s P&L in gross margin and major item categories[00:31:49] - What share of chair means and why it’s important[00:32:56] - How many cases can currently be handled by clear alignment trays[00:34:52] - Orthodontists will remain employed once aligners achieve widespread adoption [00:37:16] - Driving factors for Invisalign doubling over the next five to ten years[00:39:03] - China’s push for training orthodontists and clear aligner adoption[00:39:50] - Other reasons Invalisgn may double their market cap over the coming years[00:40:26] - Competitors and disruptors that may hinder their growth[00:42:01] - Joy dichotomy between patients and businesses[00:43:40] - What happened in 2017, how it changed the marketplace, and the road ahead[00:45:08] - Market share and penetration in today’s landscape[00:46:23] - An analog that can be used to explain Invisalign writ large[00:47:31] - What could revert Invisalign’s growth and market share[00:50:22] - uLab and orthodontists making aligners themselves [00:51:53] - Other potential threats to Invisalign[00:53:26] - Patenting your IP and gaining an advantage in healthcare[00:55:28] - Lessons for builders and entrepreneurs from the Invisalign story[00:56:39] - Lessons for investors watching Invisalign’s growth over the years[00:58:07] - Where you can learn more; dentaltown Podcasts

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 what differentiates Wix as a one-stop-shop from an increasingly competitive market. For this episode, I am joined by Dave Ambrose. Dave is a seed-stage software investor focused on the skills and knowledge economy. Dave focused on the digital creator economy well before it was a widely adopted investment thesis - and as a former co-founder and operator - he is an expert on web-based businesses. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:02:52] - [First question] - The customer journey on Wix[00:05:44] - How a businesses relationship with Wix progresses[00:09:24] - Revenue model for Wix [00:10:08] - The addition of the app marketplace to the Wix platform[00:13:06] - Their customer acquisition strategy[00:14:10] - A business that creates the rails for other businesses[00:16:52] - The stickiness of their customer base[00:18:47] - First major turning point - when Wix started charging customers[00:20:39] - Second major turning point - shift to mobile browsing and getting away from Flash[00:23:50] - The full landscape for website builders[00:28:13] - How the companies he invests in build their web presence and the challenges of building on Wix[00:30:52] - The Wix vs WordPress battle[00:33:41] - Wix’s horizontal integration strategy[00:37:14] - Being the rails for small businesses to get onto the internet[00:41:49] - What other business operators can learn from Wix[00:45:21] - What investors can learn from Wix

Today we will be breaking down Ethereum. Launched in 2015, Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based platform with a native cryptocurrency, Ether. Today, ETH stands as the second most valuable cryptocurrency to Bitcoin, and Ethereum is the preferred platform for blockchain projects.To help me break down Ethereum, I am joined by Justin Drake. Justin is a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. During our conversation, we cover what differentiates Ethereum from Bitcoin, the increasing number of projects being built on the Ethereum platform, and what a shift from proof of concept to proof of stake means for Ethereum. I particularly enjoy Justin’s framework for defining money and various analogies to better conceptualize the blockchain. I hope you enjoy this breakdown of Ethereum.For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:03:02] - [First question] - What a blockchain is on a fundamental level[00:04:36] - A core overview of Bitcoin and the Bitcoin blockchain[00:06:40] - Proof of work and why security is so important[00:08:38] - How much miners spend to secure the network[00:10:20] - Early days of Ethereum and what separates it from Bitcoin[00:12:02] - Vitalik’s role in the rise of Ethereum[00:13:14] - What can currently be built on top of the Ethereum blockchain[00:16:28] - Gas fees and an overview of ETH as a triple point asset[00:19:42] - What generates ETH and decides its value[00:22:36] - Defining proof of stake, how it works, and staking incentives[00:25:10] - Yields from staking ETH in the form of newly minted tokens and tips[00:29:15] - Load to power ratio of the Ethereum network[00:33:38] - Terms for staking your ETH and how much is expected to be staked[00:39:19] - Sequence of events when using ETH to buy an NFT[00:43:13] - Transaction fees how they’re calculated when buying and selling ETH[00:46:11] - Pros and cons of high network demand while trying to scale the Ethereum blockchain[00:50:41] - Defining money and why Ethereum’s design makes it optimized to become an economic engine[00:55:11] - Defi Pulse - The Decentralized Finance Leaderboard[00:55:47] - Ethereum’s rigorous decentralization standards and best in class proof of stake[00:58:57] - Overview of Bitcoin Wrapped and ETH as the native currency writ large[01:01:16] - A further in-depth analogy to better understand the Ethereum network[01:05:19] - Potential competitors and new DeFi blockchain innovation[01:08:27] - Key lessons for builders when studying Ethereum and decentralized finance[01:11:03] - Bankless, Epicenter.tv, Zeroknowledge.fm, Into The Ether

Today, we will be breaking down Calm. Founded in 2012, Calm is the leading app for sleep and meditation. Today, Calm has over 4 million subscribers and has been generating cash flow since its inception. In this Breakdown, we touch on how Calm used data to unlock a non-obvious source of demand, how the upfront subscription cost has allowed for pure operational focus, and what the competitive landscape looks like moving ahead. To break down Calm, I am joined by my brother, Vinny Pujji, Partner at Left Lane Capital, an early-stage investment firm. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:02:37] - [First question] - What is Calm and what its businesses do[00:03:31] - How people pay for it[00:03:55] - The top use cases and value proposition for customers[00:05:19] - Who started Calm and the unique insights that led them to create it [00:05:30] - Major inflection points that drove their business forward [00:07:54] - An investor’s perspective on freemium funnel models[00:10:01] - Key factors that led to Calm’s success [00:10:56] - Breaking down their subscription offer[00:12:34] - Analysis of customer retention and breakdown of unit economics[00:15:36] - The difference between their unit economics and other consumer businesses[00:17:28] - What’s unique about Calm from a cash flow perspective[00:19:40] - Capital efficiency when it comes to customer acquisition[00:21:02] - How they learned that sleep was a primary use case and making a shift to provide more content in that area[00:23:09] - Competing with and surpassing Headspace’s popularity [00:24:19] - Ways that the future might play out for Calm and the mental wellness industry[00:25:38] - Other insights that led to a shift from a meditation focus to a sleep focus[00:26:47] - Designing content with a utility and enrolling celebrities[00:30:06] - Productizing and monetizing on pre-existing consumer habits[00:32:07] - Variable versus fixed cost models[00:33:09] - App distribution and generating widespread brand adoption[00:36:28] - Simultaneously, a software and a consumer business[00:39:19] - COVID-19’s impacts on Calm and how it drove their growth[00:41:19] - Potential contributing factors to Calm’s growth over the coming years[00:44:12] - Practical brand extensions already being implemented [00:45:24] - Risks and challenges that may be faced in the coming decade[00:46:50] - Integrating new features and other risks that may need to be solved[00:49:27] - Whether or not switching behavior will affect Calm’s trajectory[00:51:09] - Bigger players in the ecosystem who could beat out Apple’s app store[00:53:02] - Lessons for builders and investors when studying Calm’s story[00:54:52] - Where you can learn more about Calm

Today we will be diving into Visa. Starting in 1958 as a BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California, it then became a non-profit consortium of banks that operated the Visa network. Over the first few decades of its existence, Visa became the protocol layer that allowed essentially all the banks in the world to communicate with one another. In 2007, Visa completed a corporate restructuring that took it public and now boasts a larger market cap than all of the banks that previously owned it as part of the consortium. In this Breakdown, we set the stage with Visa's role in a card transaction, describe the lifeblood of Visa’s revenue, interchange, and then dive into its unique history as a consortium turned multi-hundred billion-dollar public business. We then explore Visa’s unique moat and network effect, how Visa makes money today, and look at the potential threats from other businesses and macroeconomic forces. Visa is a fascinating business, and I recommend you check out our website at JoinColossus.com, where we provide additional articles, books, and podcasts for those who want to keep unpacking the Visa story. To help me break down Visa, I'm joined by Alex Rampell, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he focuses on investing in financial services. Prior to joining Andreessen, Alex co-founded multiple companies, including Affirm and TrialPay, which was acquired by Visa in 2015.  For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, 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: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:03:20] - [First question] - Key players and functionality of a credit transaction[00:05:50] - How $3 would be split up amongst the network after a $100 purchase is made[00:10:55] - How Visa came to be a central player and why banks don’t talk to each other[00:16:26] - Other businesses that have dominating protocol effects in fragmented sectors[00:19:47] - What the internals of a business like Visa looks like and [00:24:48] - Visa’s topline revenue is almost entirely exclusive to transaction fees[00:26:11] - Thinking of Visa as a tax and simultaneous enabler of commerce writ large[00:30:48] - Why concentration poses a risk to their business model[00:34:56] - How international standards may play a role in Visa’s future[00:41:52] - Would it be worth it for merchants to build something competitive [00:44:33] - Thoughts on new value transfer tech companies and their relevance to Visa[00:48:59] - Plaid’s role in the payment ecosystem and as a potential competitor[00:50:40] - Parallels between the crypto space, their protocols, and open-source payments [00:52:54] - Business lessons for entrepreneurs when studying Visa’s history[00:54:44] - Lessons learned that can be applied to investing when studying Visa’s history[00:55:37] - Books to learn more; A Piece of the Action, One for Many