I read two books this week, one I hated and one I loved, and neither would make a good episode.

So I wanted to republish one of my favorite episodes on one of my favorite books and one of my

favorite founders, which is Daniel Ludwig, who at the time was the richest person in the world

and no one even knew his name.

He started his company when he was 19 and he worked well into his 90s and Ludwig built this

massive conglomerate of 200 companies in 50 different countries. So he had this obsessive focus on

efficiency and cost control. He was notorious for eliminating any expense that didn't directly

contribute to his profits. And that's how you know that if he was alive

today, he'd be running his business on a ramp. Let me give you one example. He designed his ships

with thinner decks than the industry standard so he could reduce weight and fuel costs. And then he

famously snapped when someone asked why he didn't put grand pianos on his ships, like his Greek

competitors. He said, you can't carry oil on a grand piano. So one thing is very... when someone asked why he didn't put grand pianos on his ships, like his Greek competitors,

he said, you can't carry oil in a grand piano.

So one thing is very, very clear from studying hundreds of history's greatest entrepreneurs.

Anyone who's committed to being great at building their business is obsessed with watching

their costs and building an efficient company.

They did that because they understood that by doing so gives you a massive

competitive advantage. And Ramp helps you do so. So using Ramp becomes a competitive advantage.

Ramp gives you easy to use corporate cards for your entire team, automated expense reporting,

and cost control all on a single platform. As you're about to hear, Daniel Ludwig was constantly innovating in his industry.

Ramp is doing the same in their industry.

54% of their payroll goes to new product development and R&D.

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