Compound Interest from Semafor Business

Vail CEO Rob Katz knows what you think of his business — and he thinks he can fix it

If you ski or snowboard, you probably have an opinion of Rob Katz’s business. The Vail Resorts CEO joins Liz and Rohan on Compound Interest to talk about the criticisms of crowding, lift lines, and pricing of the season pass that changed winter sports forever. Katz also explains why the company doesn’t hedge weather, how the industry’s high-end clientele complicates customer relations, why he isn’t hearing Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince’s bid to buy Park City, and the impacts of climate change on his business. Sign up to get the Semafor Business [https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/business] briefing in your inbox. This season of Compound Interest is in partnership with Amazon Business [https://business.amazon.com/]. Amazon Business is a trusted partner that transforms business buying by combining Amazon's vast selection, competitive pricing, and fast delivery with added tools and insights to help businesses simplify purchasing, manage spend, and buy smarter.

Joe Weisenthal on the business of business media and why AI won’t replace podcasters

Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast has been at the forefront of a new kind of business media for more than a decade. Co-host Joe Weisenthal joins Liz and Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith to talk about how the business of business media has evolved throughout his career and how he and Tracy Alloway approach making a podcast that gets into the weeds of supply chains for an audience that ranges from high schoolers to Wall Street executives. They also talk about why the website formerly known as Twitter is still the place to be for finance and tech watchers — but why Substack’s drive to monetize expert amateurism has made it worse — and why he’s optimistic that the age of AI may actually be good for journalism … or at least podcasts. This season of Compound Interest is in partnership with Amazon Business. Amazon Business is a trusted partner that transforms business buying by combining Amazon's vast selection, competitive pricing, and fast delivery with added tools and insights to help businesses simplify purchasing, manage spend, and buy smarter.

Who wants to own big law?

Chris Bogart spent years at Cravath before building Burford Capital into the world's largest litigation finance firm — turning lawsuits into investible assets. Liz and Rohan dig into the financialization of corporate fights, Burford’s $16 billion beef with Argentina, and what it would take to finally let private equity buy a piece of Big Law. This season of Compound Interest is in partnership with Amazon Business. Amazon Business is a trusted partner that transforms business buying by combining Amazon's vast selection, competitive pricing, and fast delivery with added tools and insights to help businesses simplify purchasing, manage spend, and buy smarter.

Wonder’s Marc Lore on vibe-coding restaurants, drone delivery, and his third act as the IPO guy

Marc Lore built Diapers.com, sold it to Amazon. Built Jet.com, sold it to Walmart. Now he’s trying something different: taking Wonder — his vertically integrated food-delivery startup — all the way to a public offering. Semafor Deputy Editor-in-Chief Shelly Banjo joins Liz to dig into how he’s betting that robots, influencers, and AI-directed meal plans can finally crack the code on profitable food delivery, what e-commerce taught him about attacking fat margins with automation, and why he’s also quietly searching for desert land to build a city from scratch. This season of Compound Interest is in partnership with Amazon Business. Amazon Business is a trusted partner that transforms business buying by combining Amazon's vast selection, competitive pricing, and fast delivery with added tools and insights to help businesses simplify purchasing, manage spend, and buy smarter. Image: Reuters/Mike Blake

Mark Cuban on his pharma fight, Dallas Mavs regrets, and the PE-ification of sports

Mark Cuban is on a mission to rid the US health care system of the middlemen he blames for soaring costs. Liz and Rohan dive into his approach with Cost Plus Drugs, which aims to disrupt the little-known middlemen driving up prescription drug prices. He also discussed soaring valuations in sports, his own regrets around the Dallas Mavericks sale, and offers a surprising assessment of TrumpRX. This season of Compound Interest is in partnership with Amazon Business [https://business.amazon.com/]. Amazon Business is a trusted partner that transforms business buying by combining Amazon's vast selection, competitive pricing, and fast delivery with added tools and insights to help businesses simplify purchasing, manage spend, and buy smarter. Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images