David Senra

Ari Emanuel is the co-founder of Endeavor, executive chair and CEO of TKO, executive chairman of WME Group, and founder of MARI. We talk about his $4.2 billion bet on the UFC, the ESPN deal that proved it right, lessons from Egon Durban and David Geffen, and how constantly making calls creates opportunities you can’t plan for. Ari also opens up about dyslexia, decades of insecurity, and learning to enjoy his life without losing the drive that built his businesses.

Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/ari-emanuel

Made possible by

Ramp: https://ramp.com

AppLovin: https://applovin.com/senra

Deel: https://deel.com/senra

Chapters

(00:00:00) The UFC negotiation that blew up

(00:03:33) Meeting Egon Durban and buying IMG

(00:07:30) Betting $4.2 billion on the UFC

(00:15:16) Getting the ESPN deal done

(00:22:58) Taking over William Morris

(00:30:02) Starting Endeavor with a table and a phone

(00:32:53) Why you won’t remember the extra $400 million

(00:35:01) Stop telling yourself stories

(00:39:21) David Geffen: Get in traffic and get hit

(00:45:19) Why Ari rolls the calls

(00:49:35) Building your own school of entrepreneurship

(00:51:56) Learning from Elon Musk and betting on live events

(00:53:58) Learning from Hollywood’s greatest agents

(01:00:23) Outgrowing rage without losing ambition

(01:10:10) Psychedelics, purpose, and letting go of legacy

(01:18:18) How Entourage changed Ari’s life

(01:22:32) Ari never had a plan B
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy Stern is the editor-in-chief of Colossus, where he writes long-form profiles of leading entrepreneurs and investors. He goes behind the scenes of his reporting on Mark Zuckerberg, explaining how months of interviews revealed Zuckerberg’s fascination with Augustus, relentless competitive drive and commitment to building Meta for decades. Jeremy discusses why Meta’s distribution and infrastructure could give it an advantage in AI and why some founders seem incapable of walking away. He explains how a question about defense technology became his first profile, on Palmer Luckey, and why he brings the craft of fiction and poetry to writing about business. Jeremy also describes Scott Wu’s combination of mathematical genius, natural leadership and authenticity, and how Josh Kushner’s family history shaped his exploration of Thrive Capital and the American dream. The conversation closes with the story of Jeremy’s Russian professor, whose belief that people have an obligation to their gifts changed his life and helped shape how he sees the people he writes about.

Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/jeremy-stern

Made possible by

Ramp: https://ramp.com

Deel: https://deel.com/senra

AppLovin: https://applovin.com/senra

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Taubman is the co-founder and CEO of Long Lake, a company that buys established service businesses and uses AI to improve how they operate. He explains Long Lake’s $6.3 billion deal for American Express Global Business Travel, why deploying AI in the real economy is difficult and why he sees productivity gains creating more jobs as businesses grow. Alex describes how Nexus, Long Lake’s AI platform, connects models to business data and workflows, why its engineers work alongside employees in the field and why he wants to own businesses rather than sell software. He shares how his grandfather’s idea of “threshold resistance” applies to AI adoption, what he learned at Goldman Sachs and Oaktree and how investing in founder-owned businesses through Taubman Capital prepared him to build Long Lake. Alex also discusses the influence of Danaher, Henry Singleton and John Malone, why he values partners who make him more ambitious and why Long Lake plans to hold its businesses for decades. Including Amex GBT, he expects more than $4 billion in combined revenue the following year and explains why he believes long-term compounding could eventually build a trillion-dollar company.

Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/alexander-taubman

Made possible by

Ramp: https://ramp.com

AppLovin: https://applovin.com/senra

Deel: https://deel.com/senra

Chapters

(00:00:00) The $6.3 billion Amex GBT deal

(00:01:21) Bringing AI to the real economy

(00:06:17) Why greater productivity can mean more jobs

(00:11:29) A prepared mind and a tight acquisition filter

(00:16:01) Nexus and the AI platform behind Long Lake

(00:17:32) Put the engineers where the work happens

(00:20:36) Why own the businesses instead of selling software?

(00:22:28) Build tools people want to use

(00:25:24) A high bar for talent, acquisitions and technology

(00:28:03) What his grandfather taught him about removing friction

(00:36:40) Learning capital allocation at Goldman Sachs and Oaktree

(00:41:01) Buying founder-owned businesses with permanent capital

(00:44:35) How the Long Lake team came together

(00:47:26) The best partners make you more ambitious

(00:49:28) More than $4 billion in projected revenue

(00:53:32) Why going public could expand Long Lake’s ambition

(00:54:23) Henry Singleton and staying flexible

(00:55:57) John Malone and the businesses that will endure

(00:57:57) Why Long Lake doesn’t plan to sell

(01:00:13) Could Long Lake become a trillion-dollar company?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ronnie Fieg is the founder, CEO and creative director of Kith. At 13, he turned down an envelope of cash at his bar mitzvah to ask his cousin for a job, then spent 15 years working his way up from stock boy to buyer at David Z. He explains how growing up in Queens and working on 8th Street shaped his taste, how his first ASICS Gel-Lyte III collaboration landed on the front of The Wall Street Journal’s Pursuits section and why he still designs every product for himself first. Ronnie describes why Kith refuses to wholesale or license, why he opens new physical stores as online sales grow and why he believes luxury should mean how much people love what they buy. He also details how a failed white chocolate bread idea became Kith Treats, how he prices product so customers get more than they pay for and what he felt seeing all 1,800 of his shoe designs laid out in chronological order. Ronnie shares how an obsession with padel led to Kith Ivy, why he is expanding into hospitality with Ronnie’s and why growing up before the internet forced him to develop his own point of view.

Show notes: https://davidsenra.com/episode/ronnie-fieg

Made possible by

Ramp: https://ramp.com

AppLovin: https://applovin.com/senra

Deel: https://deel.com/senra

Chapters

(00:00:00) You can’t work backwards from money

(00:04:43) “Keep the envelope. I want a job.”

(00:10:25) Why the CEO is also the fit model

(00:18:43) The childhood shoe that launched his career

(00:20:52) The Wall Street Journal, a line down the block and a visit from Adidas

(00:26:48) Get rid of the crap

(00:31:09) What luxury should actually mean

(00:32:40) Why Kith doesn’t wholesale or license

(00:38:24) Building the opposite of an arrogant sneaker shop

(00:40:39) The Italian crook who registered Kith’s trademark

(00:52:02) How a $20 deli experiment became Kith Treats

(00:55:11) Serve your customers, don’t chase new ones

(00:59:35) Always give people more than they pay for

(01:02:41) Seeing 15 years of work laid out on the floor

(01:12:00) Growing up before the algorithm

(01:25:46) How a padel obsession created Kith Ivy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Rahal is the co-founder of RXBAR, David Protein, and Medici Brands. After selling RXBAR for $600 million, he tried investing and quickly discovered he was miserable watching other people run companies. He explains why he returned to protein bars, why founders must deeply understand their products and how he plans to build the most important food company of the 21st century. Peter describes the intelligence, beauty and discipline behind David's brand, how growing up with dyslexia shaped his competitive drive and why he channels anger and resentment into company building. He also details his approach to hiring former founders, building a culture of truth seeking and humility and treating the organization itself as a product. Peter walks through the acquisition of his critical ingredient supplier, Epogee, the supply agreements that protected his business and what he would change about communicating the decision to other entrepreneurs. He shares why he chose Greenoaks as an investor, why speed matters more than maximizing a fundraising valuation and how he is building a decentralized organization where leaders master their products, confront problems and earn their autonomy.

Made possible by

Ramp: https://ramp.com

AppLovin: https://applovin.com/senra

Deel: https://deel.com/senra

Chapters

(00:00:00) Life after selling RXBAR for $600 million

(00:07:29) Going all in and burning the boats

(00:11:48) Building the most important food company of the 21st century

(00:13:49) How a brand is like a human being

(00:21:07) Why Peter always chooses the hard path

(00:28:17) From zero to $300 million in two years

(00:29:59) Why Peter started selling frozen cod

(00:32:51) The organization is the product

(00:36:56) Why he recruits former founders

(00:41:15) Buying his supplier and victimizing his competitors

(00:51:56) How Neil Mehta and Greenoaks earned a spot on the cap table

(00:55:47) How Peter fundraises

(01:00:31) Running a business is like a river

(01:04:16) Why the company is named Medici

(01:06:28) Bureaucracy is not inevitable

(01:11:48) Why Peter has 25 direct reports

(01:16:06) Peter's principle of reactionary leadership support

(01:17:45) On divine discontent and loving the fight
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices