Profile 8 min read

Lessons from Jack Kokko

Jack Kokko, founder and CEO of AlphaSense, built a search engine in response to information overload as a financial analyst, focusing on reliable artificial intelligence for high-stakes decisions and the disciplines of data, enterprise software, and entrepreneurial risk.
Profile 10 min read

Lessons from Ivar Kreuger

Ivar Kreuger built an empire by lending to cash-strapped European governments for national match monopolies, but its collapse exposed accounting fraud and forged bonds, devastated investors, and helped prompt modern securities laws requiring honest corporate reporting.
Profile 9 min read

Lessons from Ivan Zhao

Ivan Zhao, co-founder of Notion, set out to help non-technical people build software tools, then responded to near failure by shrinking the company and rewriting its product from scratch—an instructive study in design, computing history, and lean operations.
Profile 7 min read

Lessons from Isadore Sharp

Isadore Sharp, founder of Four Seasons, grew a Toronto motor inn into a global hotel chain through an operating model grounded in the Golden Rule: treating employees well so they can provide better service to guests.
Profile 9 min read

Lessons from Ian Bremmer

Ian Bremmer, political scientist and founder of Eurasia Group, coined “G-Zero” for a world without a dominant leader and frames Chinese state capitalism, artificial intelligence, and power shifting beyond traditional states as tests of international stability.
Profile 8 min read

Lessons from Howard Lerman

Howard Lerman, a serial entrepreneur who led Yext to an IPO before launching Roam, argues that software should map to human behavior and tests contrarian management practices, including eliminating scheduled one-on-ones, across company building and distributed work.
Profile 8 min read

Lessons from Hiroshi Mikitani

Hiroshi Mikitani, founder of Rakuten, built Japan’s largest e-commerce platform by empowering merchants, using a company-wide English mandate and the “Rule of 3 and 10” to balance rapid growth, execution speed, and independent-seller partnership.
Profile 8 min read

Lessons from Hetty Green

Hetty Green, a Gilded Age financier, built her fortune through real estate, railroads, and lending, applying a contrarian value discipline and maintaining substantial cash reserves to seize opportunities during financial panics while preserving independence in a male-dominated era.

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