Business Breakdowns

Business Breakdowns

Learn how companies work from the people who know them best. Each episode dissects a single business - from its origins and model to its financials and competitive edge. Join hosts Matt Reustle and Zack Fuss as they uncover the lessons behind every success story. Learn more at www.joincolossus.com.

Episodes

May 29, 2026 48 mins
Today, we are breaking down Toast, a name we have covered before but are revisiting because the story has changed enough to be worth telling again. Most listeners will have tapped a Toast terminal without thinking much about the business behind it.  Our guest is Sean Barrett, founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of Counter Global, who holds Toast as one of his largest positions and walks us through how a restaur...
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Today, we are breaking down Auto1, and this is an interesting episode because we are tackling a business that most US listeners will not be familiar with, even though it resembles names they already know well. Our guest is Harrison Moot, co-founder and CIO of Sandstone, who walks us through Europe's largest vertically integrated online marketplace for used cars. Auto1 is often shorthanded as the Carvana of Europe, and the compari...
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Today, we are breaking down Opendoor, and this is a unique episode. We recorded with Kaz Nejatian, the CEO of Opendoor, shortly after the company reported its first quarter 2026 earnings, and we covered both what is happening inside the business right now and how he is thinking about Opendoor from the seat after coming over from Shopify.  The core of the conversation is how Kaz frames the company. He argues that Opendoor is a mark...
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Today, we are breaking down PriceSmart, the membership warehouse club operating across Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. I came away from this episode with a new appreciation for how a single retail concept and a single family have shaped the way much of the world shops. When you learn that Sol Price invented the modern club store, influenced Sam Walton, the founders of Home Depot, and the founders of Target, tha...
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Today, we are breaking down Altius Minerals, a Canadian royalty company that stands apart from the precious metals and oil and gas names that usually define the category. 17 people in Newfoundland control royalties over Canadian potash mines that supply 90 percent of the potash used in the US, along with 2.9 gigawatts of operating renewable power. I am joined by Luke Bridgeman, portfolio manager at Hosking Partners based in London...
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Today, we are breaking down Givaudan, the Swiss fragrance and flavor giant hiding in plain sight. I came away from this episode with a new way of seeing the world around me. When you learn that a single company is behind the scent of your shampoo, the taste of your burger, and the smell of your laundry, you start to realize just how much of daily life runs through a company most people have never heard of. I am joined by Jeremie F...
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This episode was originally recorded in March 2025.  ​Today, we are breaking down the  global alternative asset manager, Apollo. I reflected on my personal experiences with Apollo for this episode, and there's a saying that hard work can beat talent when talent doesn't work hard. Well, Apollo has talent, and Apollo works really damn hard. They will do everything they can to protect their capital, so if you're on the other side of t...
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This conversation was originally released in February of 2025. We’re replaying this episode because Cognex sits right at the intersection of AI and robotics. As the market focuses more on physical AI and automation in 2026, machine vision is becoming an increasingly important part of that story. Today we are breaking down Cognex, the leader in machine vision. Cognex builds the cameras, sensors, and software that allow factories an...
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This conversation was originally released in June of 2023. Today we return to the semiconductor value chain with one of the most important companies in modern technology: ASML. The company began life as an unwanted spin-out from Philips with no real product and little expectation of success. Today, it builds the only machines capable of manufacturing the most advanced chips in the world. To break down ASML, I’m joined by Tom Wals...
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 Today we are breaking down the cybersecurity giant, Cloudflare.  Today, Cloudflare controls over 20% of the world’s web traffic, and more impressively, absorbs 2.5mn cyber attacks per second. My guest is Sam Eden, Investor at Square Peg’s Global Tech Fund. And while I understood on the surface what Cloudflare does, Sam helped me get into the weeds on how the digital pipes actually work. So we go through the rise of Cloudflare a...
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Today we have a special episode breaking down how investors are using AI.  This is a question I get from many of you, and while there is no shortage of content on the implications of AI, I know there's an appetite to learn more about tangible use cases, how to make sure you're getting the most out of these tools, how to think about advancements in the technology, and ensuring that you're keeping pace with the innovation curve. So...
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Today we are breaking down Games Workshop. This episode is another examination of the business of IP. Whether it's Disney, Electronic Arts, or Nintendo, there are so many businesses built around core IP. And while Games Workshop and its Warhammer franchise may not be as familiar to our North America listeners - this episode will tell you why that may be changing very soon. My guest is Todd Wenning, President and CIO of KNA Capital...
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Today we’re breaking down Databricks, a $130B private company that helps companies collect, store, and process very large amounts of data, and then use that data to run analytics and train machine learning models. Databricks sits in the middle of modern data systems, connecting raw data pipelines to the tools teams use to analyze information and build AI. If you’ve worked on large-scale data or AI projects, there’s a good chance ...
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Today we are breaking down Amadeus, the dominant infrastructure powering global travel bookings. If you've used a travel agent or corporate booking system, you've likely interacted with Amadeus's technology—though most of what they do happens behind the scenes in airline operations, hotel inventory management, and logistics coordination. Ben Needham, portfolio manager at Ninety One Asset Management, explains how Amadeus built its ...
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Today, we are breaking down one of the more impressive B2B media businesses I have come across, Doximity. It's been called “the LinkedIn for doctors.”  Jim Jones, partner and analyst at William Blair Asset Management, helped explain exactly how Doximity works as a business. Jim gets into the community engine that works for and around medical professionals. And yes, there is a social network, but it's the add-ons, such as the requi...
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Today we are breaking down GE Aerospace. We did cover GE several years ago, but that episode focused on Larry Culp's turnaround of the conglomerate.  Ramesh Narayanaswamy, co-founder and portfolio manager of Tourbillon Partners, joins me to explore what is now a pure-play aerospace business. We discuss the unique dynamics of the aerospace supply chain and the long-cycle nature that differentiates this industry. We also explore the...
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 This is Matt Reustle. Today, we are back to talk about increased access to alternative investing. My guest is Josh Clarkson, managing director at Prosek Partners. You may remember that Josh joined us last year in our primer series on private credit. He is back today to discuss what this development could mean for all the counterparties involved. We put some numbers around the opportunity, cover what asset managers might be best p...
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This is Matt Reustle. Today we are breaking down Robinhood. My guest is Arthur Olson, founding partner at Ravenswood Partners. We get into how Robinhood grew from a mobile-native brokerage idea that faced many challenges along the way into the third-largest broker in the USA.  Arthur educates on how the business model has evolved and diversified away from a pure pay-for-order market. We discuss how product velocity is the foundati...
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This is Matt Reustle. Today we are breaking down CompoSecure, a company that manufactures premium metal credit cards and payment cards. My guest is Parsa Kiai, Managing Partner at Steamboat Capital. What really made Parsa the ideal guest is that he has a history with CompoSecure from before the Dave Cote era, which started sometime in 2024.  We get into all of this: the niche market of premium metal credit cards, how CompoSecure h...
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 This is Matt Reustle. Today, we are breaking down the industrial giant Amphenol. Amphenol pairs two of my favorite business frameworks that are often discussed on Breakdowns. Firstly, I am drawn to any company that specializes in selling mission-critical parts, which represent a small percentage of a manufacturer's total production cost. And secondly, Amphenol has a track record of M&A success underpinned by s decentralized model....
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