Smash Notes
Why Was Spending $44 Million on Buyouts the Greatest Deal Ari and Patrick Ever Did? · David Senra

David Senra

Channeling Rage, Rolling Calls & Building an Entertainment Empire | Ari Emanuel, WME & TKO

Ari Emanuel is the co-founder of Endeavor, executive chair and CEO of TKO, executive chairman of WME Group, and founder of MARI. We talk about his $4.2 billion bet on the UFC, the ESPN deal that proved it right, lessons from Egon Durban and David Geffen, and how constantly making calls creates opportunities you can’t plan for. Ari also opens up about…

People

Notes

  1. How Do You Get a Buyout Firm to Chase a Deal After You Tell Them They Have No Chance? at 5:10

    Egon flew down, asked to buy a piece of the company, and said he wanted to go after IMG. Full answer

  2. How Do You Get a Buyer to Move Off a Bad First Offer? at 15:20

    When Kevin Mayer called wanting the deal and the first offer was bad, Mark and his partner spent a weekend writing a letter on what they thought it was worth… Full answer

  3. How Do You Get Ten Episodes After the Buyer Already Agreed to Eight? at 17:15

    Dana rejects eight episodes and will not do the deal unless there are ten, even after being told there is nobody else. Full answer

  4. How Do You Become the Conqueror in a Merger? at 25:11

    Disruption and dissent inside the other firm made Patrick and his partner the conquerors. Once that opened, the deal moved in about six months. Full answer

  5. Why Was Spending $44 Million on Buyouts the Greatest Deal Ari and Patrick Ever Did? at 31:42

    They were not idiots burning $44 million on buyouts. That money bought a hundred-year-old agency with a huge roster. Full answer

  6. How Did Elon Shape the Idea Behind Mari? at 51:57

    Elon was talking about AI in 2007 and said the only thing in the entertainment business that can't be disintermediated by AI is live. Full answer

  7. Is This Rooted in Insecurity? at 1:08:33

    Yes, completely. It came from an immigrant father and a first-generation family where education was everything, while he could not read and was not great at it. Full answer

  8. Why Does Smoking 5MEO Not Make You Stop Working Hard? at 1:11:24

    You smoke 5MEO, go offline for ten minutes, and trip for about thirty. You see how small you are and call legacy bullshit, but not so you quit. Full answer

  9. How Do You Keep Working This Hard Once the Work Is No Longer About Legacy? at 1:14:25

    He still takes calls at five o'clock, works out, records another podcast, and heads to Montecito. The last three weeks have been incredible. Full answer

  10. Why Does Ari Emanuel Spend Two Hours on a Morning Routine? at 1:17:44

    He calls the routine his drug: about 40 minutes of stretching, dynamic warmups, sauna, and red light therapy, roughly a two-hour start, then one cup of coffee. Full answer

Related notes

Related episodes

Plays from this note through the rest of the episode.

Note

Weekly highlights

One letter a week.

The notes worth hearing, with the minute they were said.