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From Trash-to-Treasure, Literally
Darling Ingredients charges restaurants and meat processors to take away their waste, then transforms it into protein meals, renewable diesel, and gelatin supplements. They've created the ultimate business model : customers pay them for raw materials that competitors can't easily access.
What Happens When You Have Very Few Competitive Advantages
Hooker Furnishings scored 1.8 out of 5 on the NOOB Nine Powers framework—translation: they're competing on hope and history in a commodity business. Their century-long struggle proves that without structural advantages, even 101 years of experience can't save you from disruption.
The $6.8B Company Weaponizing Corporate Guilt About Plastic
Graphic Packaging doesn't talk about saving the planet. They talk about replacing 1 billion plastic packages. That specificity lets them charge McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and P&G premium prices for paperboard alternatives while competitors race to the bottom.
Printing Money With Plastic Pipes
Advanced Drainage Systems proves that physical distribution networks and manufacturing scale create long-term advantages that can be as solid viral growth loops or network effects. ADS generates tech-company margins through old-school competitive barriers that took decades to build and can't be copied overnight.
From Mining Crypto to Manufacturing AI in North Dakota: A $7 Billion Pivot
Applied Digital was bleeding money mining crypto when they realized what was seen liability to many, crypto data centers in ND, was actually their greatest asset. Two years later, they're an NVIDIA elite partner with a $7 billion CoreWeave contract.
This SaaS Company Just Agreed to Sell Itself for $2.5 Billion
Private equity giant Advent International paid an 64% premium for this 40-year-old Israeli software company. Despite facing giants like Guidewire, Sapiens carved out a profitable niche serving 600+ insurers globally with deep domain expertise and unbreakable customer relationships.
How Trip.com Built a $160 Billion Travel Empire (While Screwing Its Best Customers)
Chinese travel giant processes more bookings than Expedia employing a large network of physical stores. But it also got caught charging loyal users higher prices. Inside the playbook of the world's most profitable online travel agency that nobody in the West has heard of.