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The Empire Builders Podcast

The Empire Builders Podcast

Di: Stephen Semple and David Young
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A proposito di questo titolo
 Reverse engineering the success of established business empires.The Empire Builders Podcast Economia Gestione e leadership Leadership Management Marketing Marketing e vendite
Episodi
  • #281: Shipping Container – Yep People Are Living In Them

    #281: Shipping Container – Yep People Are Living In Them
    Nov 11 2026
    The Shipping Container innovation dropped shipping costs from $5.83 a ton to 16 cents. It made the world a smaller place. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So, here’s one of those. [Tappers Jewellers Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, and we’re telling you stories about empires and things that changed the world. And man, today’s topic changed your world. It changed your- Stephen Semple: Oh God, yeah. Dave Young: It changed everybody’s world, and it’s probably simpler than you think it ought to be. And it is the story of the shipping container, right? The big metal sea cans, the boxes that now people are living in them. Stephen Semple: It’s true. Dave Young: What can we turn this into? But for most of mankind’s history, ships were loaded by burly men lugging things up ramps. Stephen Semple: Well, we see those old movies where there’s a net with stuff in it being lowered down to the- Dave Young: Yeah. A big net lowered into a hole in the ship to get it down into the hold. And that’s just how it worked for forever. Stephen Semple: Well, it’s estimated that this innovation dropped shipping costs from $5.83 a ton to 16 cents. And this is- Dave Young: 16 cents a ton. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Which, all of a sudden, made it possible. There were all sorts of products that just you couldn’t ship because the shipping costs were just too high. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Right? Dave Young: That changes Tennessee Ernie Ford’s song completely, right? You load 16 tons, what do you get? $2.56 is what you get. It’s not another day older and deeper in debt, $2.56. Stephen Semple: So this is really the unsung story of globalization, and it’s funny. It’s funny how the world works because you just shared with me that somebody else is about to do something on this nonsense topic. Dave Young: Story, yeah. Stephen Semple: So just for the record, I didn’t- Dave Young: Yeah, here we are. Stephen Semple: Here we are. We’re ahead of them. So, what we’re going to be talking about is Malcolm McLean who founded Sea-Land in 1960. Now in 1969, he sold it to R.J. Reynolds for $530 million. Dave Young: When he’d… Stephen Semple: 1969. Dave Young: ’69 for half a billion. Stephen Semple: Half a billion, yeah. For half a billion in 1969. Not bad. Dave Young: I mean, it had taken off in ’69, but it nowhere near what it’s today. Stephen Semple: No. It was nine years after the launch, right? So, it was crazy. Dave Young: Yeah. So, R.J. Reynolds? Stephen Semple: Yeah, R.J. Reynolds bought it. Dave Young: The tobacco people on… Stephen Semple: Yeah. But remember, there was that time where tobacco companies were getting into absolutely everything under the sun. Dave Young: They were? Because people were starting to realize things. Okay. Stephen Semple: So, Malcolm McLean grew up in Northern California and he had started a trucking business in the 1930s, and he began with a single-use truck that he eventually built into McLean Trucking, and it was one of the largest trucking companies in America. So, he was already a successful trucker. And basically, there’s a famous story dating back to 1937 where McLean was delivering cotton bales on a New Jersey pier, and he spent hours waiting while dock workers were unloading cargo piece by piece. And this was simply how shipping worked. Truck arrived at the dock, cargo is unloaded, cargo went into the warehouse or onto the dock. Later, it was moved on the pallets. It was hoisted aboard a ship, removed from the pallets, stowed in the hole. And at the destination, the entire process happened again in reverse. Dave Young: Back into warehouses where later, you could put it on trucks and send it on its merry way. Stephen Semple: Right. So, McLean asked himself this question, “Why are we unloading the truck at all?” Dave Young: Why aren’t we...
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    19 min
  • #280: UGG –

    #280: UGG –
    Nov 5 2026
    Snippet Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Wagmore Garage Door Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here, got Steve Semple along here, and Stephen just whispered in my ear, he thought that this would be a brand that I was very familiar with for some reason. And then he said it’s a fashion brand. I’m like, so what about that word makes you think… Are we going to talk about Sears Garanimals or JC Penney? No, we’re going to talk about UGG boots. UGG boots. Stephen Semple: Yes. Yeah. Dave Young: Now, my earliest recollection, I think it might not even be UGG boots, is on a ski area maybe in the ’70s. And there were women walking around in these big furry, furry, furry boots. And I don’t know if those were UGG’s or not, but they were just as ugly as UGG’s. And UGG’s, they’re like a sheepskin boot made in Australia. Stephen Semple: They’re a sheepskin boot. Dave Young: And they’re kind of loose fitting or at least on the ankles and… Yeah. Stephen Semple: They came out of Australia, that’s the origin. And UGG does like $2.7 billion. They’re part of Deckers today. They’re basically sold to Deckers for 14 and a half million dollars. They were in 1995 and Deckers really grew the crap out of them. Dave Young: Okay. I don’t know who Deckers is. Stephen Semple: So Deckers is another shoe brand. Dave Young: Big multi-conglomerate shoe brand or a real shoe company? Stephen Semple: No, they’re a real shoe company, but with a number of different… But put in perspective, UGG is bigger than Hoka. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Right just to put- Dave Young: Hoka. I don’t know a whole lot about Hoka. We should do an episode because I wear almost exclusively Hoka’s these days. Stephen Semple: But we see Hoka all over the place. UGG is actually- Dave Young: But UGG is bigger. Stephen Semple: … bigger which surprised me. Dave Young: So people are wearing them undercover. Stephen Semple: This is what surprised me. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So today the company’s like, it’s a big global brand, but as you were talking about, the idea came out of Australia. And actually the idea came from an Australian accountant who was a surfer and basically was living in America. Dave Young: Okay. When was this? Stephen Semple: 1979 is when the business started. Dave Young: Okay. So the boots I was seeing weren’t UGG’s. They were just these way too fashionable for me- Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: … to even understand them. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So the business was started by Brian Smith and he built it to the point where he was doing 18 to $20 million worth of sales. So it gives you an idea that when he sold it at $20 million of sales, Deckers really blew the business up. But through the growth, it actually created a whole pile of challenges for him because he was having a hard time financing for orders and things along that line. So here’s where he starts. So Brian Smith is an Australian accountant and a lifelong surfer, and he came to California in the late ’70s because what he wanted to do was he wanted to find something in California that he could take to Australia because California was where all the cool things were happening. And what made him want to do that is one day he was listening to a Pink Floyd song, ‘Time’, right? Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And he basically, he had been doing accounting and had this safe career and been doing all this stuff for 10 years and he kind of felt stuck and he went, “You know what? I’m going to leave Australia. I’m going to head to LA and I’m going to hang out because LA’s cool and I’m going to find something in LA that I can bring back to Australia and that’s what I’m going to do.” Dave Young: Nice. And he didn’t realize that ...
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    22 min
  • #279: Square – Thinking Inside The Box

    #279: Square – Thinking Inside The Box
    Oct 28 2026
    Jim McKelvey looks at his iPhone and thinks this is a phone, a camera, a map, a music player and a camera… Why not a credit card machine? Audio: Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young and Stephen Semple is here with another fantastic story for us to intrigue us and entertain us, et cetera, et cetera. And he told me just before we started here that we’re going to be talking about Square. That wasn’t the Charlie Brown reference. He wasn’t square. No, we’re talking about the little credit card dongle. It’s a dongle company because I don’t think we’ve covered enough dongle companies. Stephen Semple: I think this is actually, have we covered anybody else who’s done something like that? I don’t think so. Dave Young: They probably didn’t… Well, I’m anxious to find out, because now the dongles are not a thing because you can tap- Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: For the most part. But let’s hear about Square. Stephen Semple: They were founded in 2009 by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey. They’re both from St. Louis and Jack Dorsey, of course- Dave Young: Jack Dorsey of, yeah. Stephen Semple: Twitter. Dave Young: Twitter. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. The co-founder of Twitter. Dave Young: So before Twitter or. Stephen Semple: After Twitter. Dave Young: After Twitter. Okay. Stephen Semple: So Jim McKelvey, he’s a computer programmer, an entrepreneur, and somewhat unusually, Dave, your heart is going to sing here, a glassblower. Dave Young: Oh, good for him. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah, so- Dave Young: Well, now I’m surprised that it worked. Stephen Semple: And the interesting thing is, what we hear in the story is part of his glassblowing experience is actually what led to the birth of this idea. Dave Young: I get it. Probably selling it at art fairs and things like that where you can’t take people’s money. Stephen Semple: Right. So the original idea is, what he wanted to be able to do is allow almost anyone to accept a credit card payment using a mobile phone. And the original product was a tiny Square reader that plugged into the headphone jack of the iPhone that you would then swipe your credit card through. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: Right? Dave Young: We had one for some reason. Stephen Semple: Oh, did you really? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So 2009, pretty radical idea, and it’s growing far beyond being a little reader. Today, Square has got payment processing, and point of sale, and invoicing, and payroll, and banking, and lending, and online commerce. It trades on the stock exchange under Block, is the company it trades under. They got 36 products, eight countries, and generated $3.9 billion in gross profit. That’s not just top line sales- Dave Young: Wow. Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah, from Square. And this is where things get confusing because people will think because it’s under the company name Block. Block did not buy Square. Square went public in 2015 and in 2021, Square Inc. changed its corporate name to Block because the company had become bigger than Square because it had- Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: A Cash App and Bitcoin related businesses and all those other things. Dave Young: It’s now cubed. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So Block is the parent company and Square is a business with inside that ecosystem. To me, I always found that, oh, did Block buy them? And it’s like, no, they just changed the name. Dave Young: No, they became Block. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So it’s this enormous financial technology company, but it didn’t actually begin with somebody saying, “Hey, let’s disrupt global payments.” It started with a guy who couldn’t sell an ugly glass faucet. Dave Young: Glass faucet? Stephen Semple: Yeah, so- Dave Young: He ...
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    24 min
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