Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Cornelius Schmahl — a college dropout who keeps finding his way into billion-dollar outcomes.
At 23, Uber sent him to markets nobody wanted. South Africa. Uganda. Ghana. No playbook. Figure it out or fail.
By 27, he was running Uber Russia. One problem: Yandex was winning.He helped engineer a 3.7 billion dollar merger — then walked away from operating entirely. Started writing angel checks. Lime. Liquid Death. BillionToOne.Climeworks. Four bets. Four unicorns.
What does this guy see that everybody else misses?
Cornelius thanks a lot for being on BILLIONS.
TIMELINE :
00:00:00 - 00:03:58: From college dropout to Uber's unwanted markets
00:03:58 - 00:09:02: The brutal reality of launching Uber in hostile territories
00:09:02 - 00:16:06: Engineering violent price cuts and discovering the utilization game
00:16:06 - 00:25:47: The Russia war - infiltrating Yandex and burning millions strategically
00:25:47 - 00:32:35: The $3.7 billion merger and why timing beat fundamentals
00:32:35 - 00:44:26: Angel investing reality check - why unicorns on paper don't pay bills
00:44:26 - 00:52:28: The three-step framework that creates billion-dollar companies
00:52:28 - 00:58:52: From billionaire dreams to therapy - the consciousness shift
00:58:52 - 01:01:48: Marc Benioff email scandal and building leverage through controversy
