Feldman's Faves: November 3, 2025

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

A part of me died over the weekend……What a spectacular run our JAYS had this season. We were so freakin’ close. It is of course beyond disappointing that we didn’t win but this World Series was epic and so fun to watch. But I can’t just “get over it” so quickly. On the bright side (at least for me), I can start going to sleep at my regular bed time again….

In other news, I want to congratulate Michel and Ali along with the rest of TEAM GOODMANS on doing yet another spectacular job last week on our recruit. We say it all the time, but getting great young students who will become great lawyers is without question the most important thing we can do sustained excellence of our firm over the long term.

Finally, please join me in welcoming Michael to Goodmans and to our section (starting tomorrow). A great addition to our employment law group. We will be officially welcoming Michael on Wednesday at breakfast so please make every effort to be there.

This week’s theme is business legends.

BORN TO BE WIRED By: John Malone – In my ongoing quest to learn about the most interesting people in the world, I came across John Malone’s autobiography entitled Born to be Wired. Malone is known for his hard driving personality, being a spectacular deal maker and as a visionary for building a massive cable empire before anyone else did. He is also a really interesting guy with a complex personality and history. Add to that, his self description as someone who lives his life with ‘high functioning autism’ and the story becomes even more impressive and interesting, As one reviewer notes, “In this sometimes surprising self-portrait, Malone, a famously hard-driving corporate leader, recalls his decades atop major media companies, reflecting on some of his “hundreds of deals” and pausing for a relatable personal disclosure. Malone’s narrative focuses on building and running Tele-Communications Inc., or TCI, once America’s biggest cable TV provider, and Liberty Media, which with affiliated companies is heavily involved in broadcasting, satellite radio, pro sports, concert-ticket sales, and high-speed internet service. His opening pages recount education and jobs at elite establishments—Yale, Bell Labs, McKinsey—and, touchingly, learning to repair TVs by shadowing his father, an inveterate tinkerer. Subsequent chapters detail mergers, acquisitions, and other transactions that have yielded big returns for investors and stockholders. This is catnip for the business-minded—and potentially useful information for opponents of Malone’s beloved libertarianism. Readers interested in corporate taxation will want to eyeball his paean to so-called tracking stocks, complex financial instruments that offer “tax advantages” to moneyed interests. Alongside such financial particulars, Malone writes crisp, if very flattering, portraits of fellow moguls. Ted Turner is seen crawling around a corporate meeting space, pleading for support for his cable “superstation.” Malone, 84, reveals a somewhat recent realization—he is “a high-functioning autistic” and believes his father was too. North America’s second-largest individual landowner, he plans to ensure that “a vast portion” of more than 2 million acres remains “undeveloped forever.” Is this a calculated effort to soften his image? Maybe, but that doesn’t diminish its potential importance. Malone argues that tech’s biggest companies are so powerful that “we need a new regime of government regulations” to watch the industry. He might not be the best spokesman on this issue, having often chafed at government oversight of his own businesses. With surprising vulnerability, a formidable mogul’s boardroom recollections offer something to acolytes and detractors alike’.” Most people who follow Malone know he’s an empire builder. This book helps the reader see his human side as well. Here’s a good review from the WSJ- https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/born-to-be-wired-review-confessions-of-the-cable-guy-a8e12be9

ACQUIRED - Trader Joe’s - My happy place these days is COSTCO. I don’t know why I love it there so much – but I just do. Trader Joe’s is also a place that has a cult like following. The origin story of Trader Joe’s from 7 -11 to liquor store to the creator of California wine to the first real “private label” brands to health food as a category (including the introduction of almond butter to the world), etc., is well known and a classic business case in many MBA programs. It also brought good wine (for $2/bottle) to “the people”. So how can we not love this place? The boys from Acquired do a great job telling the story (as they always do). Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Trader Joe's breaks every rule of modern retail. They don't do e-commerce. They don't do delivery. No sales, coupons, or loyalty programs. They only stock 4,000 SKUs versus 50,000+ at normal supermarkets. Their parking lots are famously terrible and they're constantly out of your favorite items. Shoppers brave long lines and cramped aisles while overly-friendly employees in Hawaiian shirts try to chat them up. Everything about the Trader Joe's experience seems designed to drive modern consumers away. And yet they generate $2,000+ per square foot in sales — double their nearest competitor in Whole Foods and nearly 4x the industry average — and Americans are obsessed with them. How on earth did a company that so steadfastly refuses to participate in the 21st century build the most beloved grocery chain in America? Today we tell the full story: how “Trader” Joe Coulombe started out cloning 7-Elevens in 1960s Los Angeles, pivoted to slinging hard liquor, discovered the enormous market opportunities for California wine and health food before anyone else, and ultimately built perhaps the most counter-positioned business we’ve ever studied on Acquired by doing almost everything differently than the supermarket-CPG industrial complex. Tune in for a wild voyage on the high seas of grocery retail!” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/acquired/id1050462261?i=1000733630276

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon