#51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic

What I learned from reading Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Mel and Patricia Ziegler

---

Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. 

---

For every business, there is an appropriate scale [0:01]

Fundamentally Unemployable [5:18]

the prehistory of Banana Republic [10:02]

"We didn't have any money, we didn't have any technology, and we didn't have a plan." –Jack Ma [14:30]

A republic is born [18:13]

when something is not selling, increase the price [20:45]

relentlessly resourceful [25:45]

finding assets hiding in liabilities [28:30]

the catalog! [30:33]

Eddie Murphy on why you shouldn't have a backup plan [36:40]

media was the initial distribution strategy [42:15]

Understanding the internet before the internet existed. A lesson on publicity/attention [45:22]

when all else fails, expand [51:05]

selling the company [56:24]

the end of freedom [1:04:40]

Misfits, quotes from Steve Jobs and what this has to do with the podcast industry [1:08:00]

—

“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast