IKEA

A Swedish teenager’s mail-order catalog became the world’s furniture empire, flat-packed.

Watch the episode Episode notes →

COMPOUNDED · S01E08 · FRAME 0117 · 24FPS

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The Series

Every company is a compound of decisions.

All episodes →

NOW · E01 Netflix

A $40 late fee did not create Netflix. The real founding bet was quieter.

NOW · E02 Trader Joe’s

A corner-store owner saw 7-Eleven coming and built the opposite of a supermarket.

NOW · E03 Crocs

The ugliest shoe on earth nearly died, then became a cultural icon.

NOW · E04 Patagonia

A climber built a billion-dollar company, then gave the whole thing away.

NOW · E05 GoPro

A surfer strapped a camera to his wrist, built a fortune, then lost 95% of it.

NOW · E06 Square

A glassblower lost a $2,000 sale he couldn’t take by card, so he invented the reader.

NOW · E07 Starbucks

A salesman had an espresso in Milan and decided America was drinking coffee wrong.

NOW · E08 IKEA

A Swedish teenager’s mail-order catalog became the world’s furniture empire, flat-packed.

Hosted & narrated by

Andrew McGuire

Twenty-five years building and operating companies, now spent reverse-engineering the ones that compounded. Each episode is one company, one arc, and the handful of decisions that made all the difference.

IKEA

S01 · E08 · COMPOUNDED

8:24

IKEA

Every company is a compound of decisions.

The thinking that didn’t make the final cut.

Andrew McGuire