Lens family
324 analyses · Business Model
Capital One Didn't Lend to Better People. It Just Knew Them Better.
Capital One
GEICO Doesn't Sell Cheap Insurance. It Buys Customers With the Money It Saves on Agents.
Geico
State Farm Has No Shareholders, No Independent Agents, and a $170 Billion Cushion. That's the Trap.
State Farm
UnitedHealth Pays Itself $151 Billion a Year. That's the Whole Machine — and the Whole Risk.
UnitedHealth
Intuitive Doesn't Give Away the Razor. It Sells the Blade a Chip Won't Let You Refuse.
Intuitive Surgical
23andMe Sold Spit Kits to Buy a Drug Company. The Drug Company Never Arrived.
23andMe
Comcast Isn't a Media Company. It's a Broadband Toll Booth Bankrolling One.
Comcast
Verizon Won the Network 35 Times Running. Then It Tried to Be Google.
Verizon
Fox Didn't Choose to Be a Live-Only Network. The FCC Chose for It.
Fox
Universal Music's Real Asset Isn't the Next Hit. It's the Songs Nobody Notices It Owns.
Universal Music
Live Nation Built a Loop Antitrust Law Couldn't Pry Open. It Took Two Decrees and a Jury to Try.
Live Nation
BuzzFeed Wasn't a Media Company. It Was a Spread Trade on Someone Else's Traffic.
BuzzFeed
Hermès Killed the Birkin Waitlist in 2010. The Scarcity Got Worse on Purpose.
Hermes
Kering Looks Like a Luxury Portfolio. It's a Leveraged Bet on One House's Mood Swings.
Kering (Gucci)
Chanel Doubled the Price of a Handbag in a Decade. Inflation Explains Almost None of It.
Chanel
Marriott Owns Almost None of Its Hotels. Then It Was Forced to Buy One for $500 Million.
Marriott
Hilton Owns Almost No Hotels. It Sells Owners the One Thing They Can't Get Anywhere Else.
Hilton
United Doesn't Sell Flights. It Sells Miles to a Bank — and Flies You as a Side Effect.
United Airlines
Lockheed Built a Money Machine That Runs on a Jet That Can't Fly Most of the Time
Lockheed Martin
Ford's EV Division Isn't a Startup. It's a Money Machine Running in Reverse.
Ford
Verizon Sells the Best Network in America. The Receipts Only Half Agree.
Verizon
BYD Didn't Build Batteries for Its Cars. It Built Cars for Its Batteries.
BYD
BYD Doesn't Win on Subsidies. It Wins Because It Builds the Car Backwards.
BYD
Tesla's Best Business Costs Almost Nothing to Make. It Isn't a Car.
Tesla
BMW Found the Exact Line Premium Buyers Won't Cross — and Stepped Over It.
BMW
Domino's Didn't Become a Tech Company. It Built a Wall.
Domino's
McDonald's Didn't Fix Its Value Problem for $5. Coca-Cola Paid $4.6M to Patch It.
McDonald's
Yum Didn't Get Born Asset-Light. It Borrowed Its Way There.
Yum Brands
Hilton Owns Almost No Hotels. That's Not a Headline — It's the Whole Machine.
Hilton
Chanel Nearly Doubled Its Most Famous Bag in Six Years. Then It Found the Ceiling.
Chanel