Koch's Vertical Integration Growth
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A story about how the Koch brothers transformed their father's oil company into America's largest privately owned business.
"The father started an oil company that was somewhat successful - making $30 million a year in today's dollars in profit. When the father died, the 31-year-old brother Charles took it over and turned it into the largest privately owned business in America, going from $30 million to probably $10 billion a year in profit.
They did this through vertical integration. They owned an oil refinery, and oil goes through this tower where it turns into gasoline. Then the leftover stuff turns into kerosene, then vaseline, then propane. They started selling all the leftover stuff and took those profits to buy different companies.
Now they make Bounty paper towels, paper that newspapers are printed on, and materials like Gore-Tex that Nike uses in shoes. They basically took one thing - oil - and expanded into making all these different products. Their operation strategy was to start or buy a ton of stuff, but it all originated from that one oil business."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.