C
434 companies
Carrefour Brazil
Retail
Carrefour Brazil illustrates the Red Queen hypothesis: you must adapt just to survive, not to win. The French hypermarket chain dominated Brazilian re...
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Fast-casual Restaurant
Chipotle marketed 'Food with Integrity' while deferring $2.3 million in annual food safety investments. The 2015-2016 E. coli and norovirus outbreaks...
Circuit City
Retail / Electronics
Circuit City was the second-largest electronics retailer in the United States with capital, infrastructure, and brand recognition. When the 2008 finan...
Corning Glass
Materials Science / Glass Technology
A 170-year-old glass technology company that exemplifies institutional knowledge preservation. Corning's ability to access 40-year-old research from P...
Canon
Photography & Imaging
When Kodak invented digital photography in 1975, it faced a classic signal transduction failure: detecting environmental change but blocking the respo...
Catholic Church
Religious Organization
With 1.3 billion members globally, the Catholic Church operates the oldest continuously functioning fractal organizational structure (~2,000 years). T...
China Evergrande Group
Real Estate Development
Once China's largest property developer by sales with peak assets of 2.3 trillion RMB ($358 billion), Evergrande collapsed into default in late 2021 w...
Chouinard Equipment
Climbing Equipment
Predecessor to Patagonia, founded by Yvon Chouinard to manufacture climbing gear. The company's 1972 decision to discontinue pitons despite comprising...
Clipper Ships (Industry)
Shipping
Clipper ships demonstrate selection pressure reversal and fitness landscape shifts. Dominant in 1850 transoceanic trade (20+ knot speeds, premium carg...
Coinbase
Cryptocurrency
Coinbase doubled revenue to $6.6 billion in 2024 while transforming from pure transaction exchange to diversified infrastructure platform—a textbook c...
Color Labs
Social Media / Photo Sharing
Color Labs represents a cautionary tale of germinating in shade. Founded by serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen, the company raised $41 million in March 2...
Costco
Retail / Warehouse Club
Costco disrupted retail not with technology or logistics, but with a $60 membership fee. When the company launched in 1983, conventional wisdom said t...
C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Transportation & Logistics
Logistics broker mapping optimal freight paths like slime mold finding food—connecting shippers with carriers through algorithmic tendrils. Digital pl...
Cabela's
Outdoor Retail
Outdoor retailer building destination lodges—massive stores with taxidermy mountains, aquariums, shooting ranges. Each location a beaver dam: creating...
Cabify
Technology
Latin American rideshare competing with Uber—adapting to regional regulations like urban pigeons to local architecture. Each city requires different l...
Cable One, Inc.
Cable & Broadband Services
Regional broadband provider controlling small-city territories—coaxial cables strung like spider webs capturing internet demand. Infrastructure moats...
Cabot Corporation
Chemicals
Specialty chemicals maker producing carbon black, performance materials—reinforcing rubber, coloring inks, conducting electricity. Extracts value from...
Cadence Design Systems
Electronic Design Automation
EDA software simulating chip designs before fabrication—testing billions of transistor interactions virtually. Prevents silicon failures like termites...
Cadillac
Luxury Automotive
GM's luxury peacock displaying chrome plumage—Escalades signaling wealth through size, Lyriq pivoting to electric sophistication. Brand heritage acts...
CAE Inc.
Aerospace & Defense
Flight simulator maker creating risk-free failure environments—pilots crashing virtual planes instead of real ones. Training mirrors wolf-pup play-fig...
Caesars Entertainment (2015)
Gaming/Hospitality
Caesars Entertainment's 2015 bankruptcy was the largest gaming industry bankruptcy, driven by $18 billion in debt from Apollo and TPG's 2008 leveraged...
Caesars Entertainment, Inc.
Gaming & Entertainment
Casino empire engineering sensory traps—no clocks, free alcohol, near-miss slot machines triggering dopamine. Each resort a pitcher plant: slippery en...
Cainiao Network
Logistics
Alibaba's logistics brain coordinating delivery across China—algorithms routing parcels through warehouse networks, last-mile carriers. Functions like...
Caixa Seguridade
Insurance
Brazilian insurance arm of Caixa bank—selling policies through 4,000+ branches to captive depositors. Distribution advantage mirrors bee colony access...
CaixaBank
Financial Services
CaixaBank completed the largest technological and commercial integration in Spanish banking history during 2021-2023, absorbing Bankia's 4.1 million c...
Cal-Maine Foods
Food Products
America's largest egg producer—44 million hens laying 1 billion dozen eggs annually in industrial barns. Factory farms mirror ant fungus cultivation:...
Calavo Growers
Food Distribution
Avocado grower cooperative pooling harvests from California, Mexico, Peru—sourcing across hemispheres to supply year-round. Seasonal migration mirrors...
Caldor
Retail
Caldor's 1999 bankruptcy and liquidation ended a Northeast discount chain that had expanded too fast with too much debt. The company grew from 145 to...
Calendly
Productivity Software
Meeting scheduler eliminating email tennis—available slots broadcast like bee waggle dances, invitees selecting times without coordination loops. Redu...
Caleres, Inc.
Footwear Manufacturing & Retail
Caleres is a leading footwear company managing a portfolio of iconic brands including Famous Footwear, Sam Edelman, Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl's Shoes, a...
California Resources Corporation
Oil & Gas
California Resources Corporation's July 2020 bankruptcy collapsed Occidental Petroleum's spinoff of its California conventional oil assets. The 2014 s...
Calix
Telecommunications Equipment
Broadband equipment maker building internet infrastructure—fiber optics, cloud platforms enabling rural ISPs. Acts like coral skeleton: providing stru...
Callon Petroleum
Oil & Gas Exploration
Permian Basin driller extracting oil from Texas shale—horizontal wells sipping trapped hydrocarbons. Operates like wood-boring beetles: tunneling thro...
Cambly
EdTech - Language Learning
English tutoring platform matching learners with native speakers—conversation practice mimicking songbird apprenticeship. Gig tutors scattered globall...
Camden Property Trust
Multifamily Real Estate
Sunbelt apartment REIT building rental colonies—Texas, Arizona, Florida complexes capturing migration flows. Tracks demographic hermit crabs seeking a...
CamelBak
Outdoor & Adventure
Hydration gear maker mimicking camel water storage—bite-valve reservoirs letting athletes drink while moving. Backpack bladders store liquid like hump...
Campari
Beverages
Italian aperitif displaying red warning coloration—bitter taste signaling sophistication through acquired preferences. Like monarch butterflies storin...
Campbell Soup (Crisis)
Food & Beverage
Campbell's struggles demonstrate how even iconic brands face irrelevance when consumer preferences shift. The soup maker watched frozen and fresh food...
Campbell Soup Company
Food Products
Soup canner preserving food like seed banks—tomatoes, vegetables suspended in salty brines, shelf-stable for years. Red-white labels act as territoria...
Camping World Holdings
Specialty Retail
RV retailer serving modern nomads—selling mobile hermit shells with plumbing, electricity, climate control. Superstores become tribal gathering points...
Canadian National Railway
Rail Transportation
Canadian transcontinental railroad moving freight coast-to-coast—Vancouver containers, Prairie grain, Montreal imports flowing fixed routes. Track mon...
Canadian Pacific Railway
Rail Transportation
Canadian Pacific railroad optimizing like circulatory systems—precision-scheduled railroading minimizing dwell times, maximizing asset turns. Each loc...
Canadian Solar
Solar
Solar panel manufacturer mimicking chloroplast engineering—silicon cells converting photons to electrons at industrial scale. Chinese factories churn...
Canadian Tire Corporation
Retail
Canadian retail empire preparing households for winter—snow tires, shovels, antifreeze in October; BBQs, camping gear in May. Seasonal inventory rotat...
Canoo Inc.
Electric Vehicles
EV startup building skateboard-platform vans—modular designs promising flexibility before capital ran dry. Burned through SPAC cash like mayfly metabo...
Canopy Growth
Cannabis
Canadian cannabis pioneer colonizing post-legalization terrain—growing, processing, retailing marijuana like opportunistic weeds after forest fire. Fi...
Canva
Software
Canva reached $42 billion valuation in August 2025 by turning graphic design from specialist craft into commodity capability. The platform hit $3.3 bi...
Canvas
EdTech - LMS
Learning management system connecting students, professors, assignments—digital substrate where education happens. Institutional adoption creates netw...
Capcom Co., Ltd.
Gaming
Japanese game studio cultivating multi-decade franchises—Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter growing like sequoias. Each title a new growth...
Capgemini
Technology
Capgemini's 342,700 employees in Q1 2025 distribute 60% offshore and 40% onshore—a deliberate geographic metabolism optimizing for cost efficiency and...
Capital City Bank Group, Inc.
Regional Banking
Capital City Bank Group is a financial holding company headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, providing a full range of banking and financial services...
Capital One Financial Corporation
Banking
Credit card issuer mining transaction data like spiders detecting web vibrations—spending patterns revealing creditworthiness, fraud, upsell opportuni...
Capital Southwest Corporation
Investment Management
Business development company funding small-cap enterprises—patient capital acting like seed dispersal, some investments germinating into profitable ex...
CapitaLand
Real Estate
Singaporean real estate conglomerate spreading across Asia—malls, offices, serviced apartments diversified by geography and asset type. Portfolio mirr...
Capitec Bank
Banking
Capitec Bank achieved what legacy banks declared impossible: serving 25 million clients (over half of South Africa's adult population as of August 202...
Capri Holdings
Luxury Goods
Luxury fashion house managing Versace, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors—three peacocks displaying different plumage patterns. Each brand signals status throug...
Carbon Engineering
Carbon Capture
Direct air capture startup mimicking tree photosynthesis—fans pulling CO2 from atmosphere, chemical reactions concentrating greenhouse gas. Reverses c...
Carbon Health
Primary Care
Tech-enabled urgent care treating non-emergency ailments—sprained ankles, flu tests, stitches without ER wait times. Acts like field medic ants: rapid...
CarbonCure Technologies
Carbon Utilization
Injects captured CO2 into concrete during mixing—mineralization strengthening cement while sequestering carbon. Mimics coral skeleton building: conver...
CarDekho
Auto Tech
Indian auto marketplace connecting buyers with dealers—price comparisons, reviews, financing options aggregated. Network effects compound like coral s...
Cardinal Health
Healthcare Distribution
Pharmaceutical distributor pumping drugs to hospitals, pharmacies—warehouse network circulating medications like arterial blood flow. Bulk purchasing...
Cardtronics
Financial Services
ATM operator placing cash-dispensing waterholes where liquidity-seekers congregate—gas stations, convenience stores, bars. Each machine a mineral lick...
Careem
Technology
Middle East rideshare pioneer adapting to regional norms—female-only rides, cash payments, cultural preferences Uber initially missed. Uber acquired i...
Career Education Corporation
Education Services
For-profit college teaching vocational skills—nursing, culinary, IT certifications targeting career-switchers. Acts like apprenticeship guilds: transm...
CareerFoundry
Education
Online bootcamp teaching design, data, development—mentor-guided projects mimicking apprentice systems. Career services act like fledging support: hel...
CareTrust REIT, Inc.
Healthcare Real Estate
Healthcare real estate REIT owning skilled nursing facilities—aging boomers requiring post-acute care creating inelastic demand. Properties act as ter...
Cargill Animal Nutrition
Animal Feed
Formulates livestock feed maximizing protein-per-pound—optimized grain ratios converting plant calories into beef, pork, eggs efficiently. Mimics rume...
Cargill, Incorporated
Food Products
Agricultural conglomerate controlling farm-to-fork—growing grain, crushing seeds, processing meat, trading commodities globally. Vertical integration...
Cargojet Airways
Airlines
Canadian overnight air cargo carrier—packages flying nocturnal routes while passengers sleep. Acts like night-migrating birds: exploiting temporal nic...
Carillion PLC
Construction & Facilities Management
Once the UK's second-largest construction and facilities management company, Carillion collapsed spectacularly in January 2018 - one of the UK's large...
Caris Life Sciences
Precision Medicine
Tumor profiling lab sequencing cancer DNA—identifying mutations to guide treatment selection. Acts like immune system recognizing antigens: matching g...
Carlisle Companies
Diversified Manufacturing
Industrial conglomerate making roofing, brakes, aerospace components—specialized divisions dominating narrow niches. Acquisition strategy mirrors tool...
Carlsberg Group
Brewing
Carlsberg's 2024 results reveal an organism in controlled expansion: DKK 75 billion in revenue ($10 billion), 125.7 million hectolitres of volume, and...
Carpenter Technology Corporation
Specialty Materials & Metals
Specialty metals manufacturer engineering alloys surviving extreme conditions—jet engines, medical implants, oil drilling requiring heat resistance. M...
Carr, Riggs & Ingram
Accounting
Facility services provider managing buildings across regions—HVAC, security, cleaning consolidated under single vendor. Operational efficiency mirrors...
Carrefour Group
Grocery & Supermarkets
Carrefour posted €87.3 billion revenue in 2024 across 14,000+ stores in 8 countries, processing 8 billion transactions from 80 million customers throu...
Carrier Global Corporation
Building Materials
HVAC giant climate-controlling buildings like termite mounds self-regulating temperature—air conditioning, refrigeration, fire systems maintaining opt...
Cars.com
Internet Services
Auto marketplace connecting buyers with dealers—listings, reviews, financing tools aggregated. Revenue model mirrors bee pollination: dealers pay for...
CARS24
Auto Tech
Indian used-car marketplace inspecting vehicles like cleaner wrasse examining fish—161-point checks signaling quality to wary buyers. Eliminates deale...
Carta
Fintech
Equity management platform for startups, investors, and employees managing cap tables. Provides valuation services and secondary trading marketplace....
Carter's, Inc.
Children's Apparel
Carter's dominates infant apparel like barnacles claiming prime tidal rock - first-mover on baby retail, deploying multiple brands (OshKosh, Skip Hop)...
Cartier
Luxury Goods
Cartier jewelry functions as peacock plumage - pure costly signaling. Its Love bracelet requires a screwdriver to remove, broadcasting wealth through...
Carvana
E-Commerce - Vehicles
Carvana demonstrates autophagy at corporate scale—the company nearly collapsed in 2022 under $7 billion debt, then consumed its own inefficiencies to...
Carvana (Decline)
Automotive
Carvana's stock collapsed 98% from its 2021 peak as the used car vending machine company burned cash faster than it could build sustainable operations...
Casa Systems
Telecommunications Equipment
Casa builds broadband infrastructure like mycelium threading through soil - invisible conduits moving data nutrients between telecom providers and mil...
Casella Waste Systems
Waste Management
Casella metabolizes Northeast waste like vultures cleaning carrion - converting refuse into methane energy and recycled materials, claiming exclusive...
Casey's General Stores, Inc.
Convenience Stores
Casey's colonizes small Midwest towns like ant colonies staking satellite nests - 2,600 self-sufficient stores making pizza from scratch, converting l...
Casino
Retail
Casino spreads retail formats across France and Latin America like bamboo colonizing forest gaps - hyper, super, and convenience stores adapting to lo...
Casino Guichard-Perrachon
Grocery Retail
Casino Group deploys multiple retail formats like invasive species claiming niches - hypermarkets to corner stores adapting to local markets, each for...
Casio
Consumer Electronics
Casio's G-Shock watches evolved radical shock-resistance like crocodiles surviving extinction events - timepieces enduring crushing, freezing, and sub...
Casper
Retail/Mattresses
Casper's arc from $1.1 billion valuation to quiet sale illustrates the fatal flaw in DTC retail's first wave: viral marketing without defensible unit...
Casper Sleep
Consumer Goods
Casper raised $340M and IPO'd at $1.1 billion to become 'the Nike of sleep.' But mattresses are purchased every 8-10 years, making customer acquisitio...
Catalent, Inc.
Pharmaceutical Development & Manufacturing
Catalent incubates drugs for 7,000+ pharma partners like parasitoid wasps nurturing offspring - providing development cocoons and delivery tech where...
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals
Biotechnology
Catalyst hunts rare neuromuscular diseases like archerfish targeting overlooked prey - small patient populations ignored by giants, where precision sh...
Caterpillar
Heavy Equipment Manufacturing
Caterpillar dominates heavy equipment manufacturing through economies of scale and global dealer network. Network effects via parts distribution and s...
Cathay General Bancorp
Regional Banking
Cathay serves Chinese-American communities like oxpeckers cleaning specific hosts - bilingual expertise and cultural fluency creating mutualistic bond...
CAVA Group
Restaurants
Mediterranean fast-casual spreading like bamboo shoots—200+ locations replicating hummus-bowl formula across suburbs. Customizable grain bowls mirror...
Cavco Industries, Inc.
Manufactured Housing
Cavco builds factory homes like termites constructing modular mounds - standardized components assembled into affordable dwellings, dominating the man...
Cazoo
Automotive & E-commerce
Cazoo expanded like cane toads into new territory - rapid digital growth burning capital faster than revenue could sustain, collapsing when the resour...
CBIZ
Professional Services
Business services firm acting as corporate cleaner-shrimp—handling accounting, benefits, insurance while clients focus on core operations. Removes par...
CBL & Associates Properties
Real Estate - Retail
CBL Properties' 2020 bankruptcy demonstrated how mall REITs were being destroyed by tenant bankruptcies and e-commerce. The company owned 94 malls pri...
Cboe Global Markets, Inc.
Exchange
CBOE created the VIX and runs America's largest options exchange - building coral reef habitat where volatility traders congregate, spawning derivativ...
CBRE Clarion
Asset Management
Real estate investment arm pooling capital across property types—office, retail, industrial diversification spreading risk. Functions like mycorrhizal...
CBRE Group (Logistics Division)
Warehousing & Logistics
Logistics real estate builder—massive distribution centers positioned near population hubs for same-day delivery. Each warehouse a leafcutter nest: go...
CCR
Infrastructure
Brazilian infrastructure conglomerate tunneling through concessions—toll roads, airports, metro lines extracting revenue from captive traffic. Monopol...
CD Projekt
Gaming
Polish game studio building elaborate digital bowers—Witcher and Cyberpunk worlds requiring years of obsessive detail. Cyberpunk 2077 launch mimicked...
CD Projekt Red
Gaming
Polish game studio building elaborate digital bowers—Witcher and Cyberpunk worlds requiring years of obsessive detail. Cyberpunk 2077 launch mimicked...
CDW Corporation
IT Solutions & Services
IT solutions aggregator connecting enterprises with tech vendors—servers, software, cloud services delivered through single throat to choke. Acts as c...
CEC Entertainment (Chuck E. Cheese)
Entertainment
Chuck E. Cheese's 2020 bankruptcy demonstrates how entertainment-dining hybrids faced COVID's existential threat. The pizza-and-games concept couldn't...
Cedar Fair Entertainment Company
Entertainment
Cedar Fair's parks (Cedar Point, Knott's) claim fixed territories like grizzlies with salmon streams - each location extracting seasonal revenue from...
Celadon Group
Transportation & Logistics
Celadon collapsed like drought-stressed trees - accounting fraud masking metabolic failure, capital reserves exhausted before operations could self-su...
Celanese Corporation
Specialty Chemicals
Celanese synthesizes acetyl chemicals and polymers like chemosynthetic bacteria at hydrothermal vents - converting raw molecules into engineered mater...
Celine
Luxury Fashion
Between 2018 and 2024, Hedi Slimane transformed Celine from €1 billion in annual revenue to €2.5 billion, vaulting it past Fendi to become LVMH's thir...
Celldex Therapeutics
Biotechnology
Celldex engineers antibody therapeutics like training predatory wasps to hunt specific prey - teaching proteins to recognize and bind cancer cells the...
Cellnex
Telecommunications
Cellnex owns 130,000+ European telecom towers like kapok trees hosting epiphytes - passive vertical infrastructure that carriers rent to broadcast sig...
Celsius Network
Cryptocurrency Lending
Celsius Network's July 2022 bankruptcy destroyed a crypto lending platform that had managed over $10 billion in customer assets. The company offered h...
Centivo
Health Insurance
Centivo routes patients through primary care gates like leafcutter ants directing colony traffic - algorithmic pathways reducing specialist overuse, c...
Central Bancompany
Regional Banking
Central Bancompany roots across Missouri like prairie dog colonies - dispersed branches with deep local knowledge, surviving regional shocks through r...
Central Group
Retail
Central Group's retail empire (department stores, Robinson, Tops) radiates from Thailand like banyan roots - each format claiming distinct niches, int...
Central Puerto
Electric Power
Central Puerto powers Argentina like electric eels generating current - thermal and renewable plants converting fuel into grid energy, diversifying fr...
Centum Investment Company
Investment & Private Equity
Centum invests across East Africa like fig wasps pollinating hosts - taking stakes in real estate, infrastructure, and financial services, enabling re...
Century 21
Retail - Department Store
Century 21's 2020 bankruptcy ended a New York retail institution that had operated for 60 years across the street from the World Trade Center. The dis...
Century Aluminum
Metals & Mining
Century Aluminum smelts primary aluminum like extremophile bacteria processing heat - energy-intensive facilities in US and Iceland converting bauxite...
Century Casinos
Gaming & Leisure
Century Casinos operates gaming sites across continents like trapdoor spiders waiting - fixed facilities extracting revenue from entertainment-seeking...
Century Communities, Inc.
Homebuilding
Century Communities builds entry-level homes across 17 states like beavers damming streams - standardized construction creating affordable housing whe...
CenturyLink (Lumen)
Telecommunications
CenturyLink's transformation to Lumen amid decline demonstrates how rural telecom faces extinction as population shifts and technology changes. The co...
Cepsa
Energy
Cepsa extracts and refines petroleum like chemosynthetic organisms at oil seeps - converting underground hydrocarbons into refined products that fuel...
CeraVe
Beauty & Personal Care
CeraVe disrupted dermatologist skincare like kudzu claiming pharmacy aisles - affordable ceramide formulas colonizing mass retail, MVE technology rele...
Cerebral (Decline)
Healthcare
Cerebral, the telehealth mental health company, saw its valuation collapse and faced DEA investigation for ADHD medication prescribing practices. The...
Ceres Power
Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
Ceres develops fuel cells like cellular powerhouses - Steel Cell technology converting hydrogen and gas into distributed electricity through solid oxi...
Ceridian
Human Resources Technology
Ceridian's Dayforce tracks employee lifecycles like ant colonies managing castes - payroll, benefits, and workforce data flowing through centralized H...
CEVA
Semiconductor IP
Contract logistics provider attaching to corporate supply chains—managing warehouses, transport, inventory for brands focused on products. Swims along...
CEVA Logistics
Transportation & Logistics
Contract logistics provider attaching to corporate supply chains—managing warehouses, transport, inventory for brands focused on products. Swims along...
CF Industries Holdings, Inc.
Chemicals
Fertilizer giant mimicking rhizobium bacteria—converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia that plants can eat. Industrial Haber-Bosch process feeds h...
CGI Inc.
IT Consulting
Canadian IT services firm embedding in client organizations—managing systems, applications, infrastructure while businesses focus upstream. Removes te...
Chainalysis
Blockchain Analytics
Chainalysis traces crypto transactions like bloodhounds following scent - analyzing blockchain data to track illicit flows, providing transparency inf...
Chalhoub Group
Retail
Chalhoub distributes luxury brands across the Middle East like remora riding sharks - attached to prestige labels (Chanel, Dior), gaining exclusive te...
Chanel
Luxury Goods
Chanel maintains luxury exclusivity like peacocks displaying impossible tails - artificial scarcity through limited production, price increases signal...
Char-Broil
Outdoor & Home
Char-Broil makes affordable grills like kudzu spreading through mass retail - infrared technology and volume distribution colonizing backyards where p...
Character.AI
Artificial Intelligence
Character.AI spawns AI personalities like bacteria reproducing exponentially - millions of daily users conversing with synthetic characters, each inte...
ChargePoint
Clean Energy - EV Charging
ChargePoint operates one of the world's largest EV charging networks with over 200,000 charging points.
ChargePoint (Decline)
Energy
ChargePoint, the largest EV charging network, saw its market cap collapse from $12 billion to under $1 billion by 2024 as EV adoption slowed and charg...
Charles River Laboratories
Contract Research
Charles River breeds research models and safety tests like specialized parasitoid wasps - providing laboratory animals and toxicology for pharma compa...
Charles Schwab
Financial Services
Charles Schwab is a discount brokerage founded in 1971 that demonstrated exemplary crisis alarm system management during Black Monday (October 19, 198...
Charlotte Russe
Retail
Charlotte Russe's 2019 liquidation closed 500+ stores of the young women's fashion chain. The company had filed bankruptcy in 2017, emerged, then file...
Charlotte Russe (Final)
Teen Apparel
Charlotte Russe's 2019 final liquidation after multiple restructurings demonstrates how teen retail faced generational shifts in shopping behavior. Th...
Charlotte Tilbury
Beauty & Personal Care
Charlotte Tilbury's makeup delivers red carpet glamour like bowerbirds displaying collections - Magic Cream and Pillow Talk promising transformation t...
Charm Industrial
Carbon Removal
Charm converts biomass into bio-oil for underground storage like squirrels caching nuts permanently - preventing agricultural waste decomposition, seq...
Charming Charlie
Retail
Charming Charlie filed bankruptcy twice - in 2017 and 2019 - before liquidating entirely. The accessories retailer organized stores by color rather th...
Charoen Pokphand Group
Conglomerate
CP Group integrates feed-to-retail like leafcutter ants farming fungus - livestock feed, aquaculture, 7-Eleven Thailand, telecom creating closed loops...
Chart Industries
Industrial Equipment
Chart manufactures cryogenic equipment like Arctic organisms storing energy - supercooled vessels containing LNG, hydrogen, and industrial gases at ex...
Charter Communications, Inc.
Telecommunications
Charter's Spectrum brand controls cable infrastructure like strangler figs - last-mile broadband pipes into 41 states, extracting subscription fees fr...
Chatham Lodging Trust
Hotel Real Estate
Chatham owns 40+ upscale hotels like decorator crabs claiming premium shells - investing in Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott properties, collecting rent from b...
Check Point Software
Cybersecurity
Check Point defends networks like pufferfish displaying spines - firewall technology identifying malicious traffic, creating security perimeters where...
Check Point Software Technologies
Cybersecurity
Check Point pioneered firewall security like pufferfish detecting threats - recognizing and blocking cyber attacks at network perimeters, protecting 1...
Checkout.com
Fintech
Payment processing platform providing infrastructure for online and in-person transactions. Processes hundreds of billions in payments annually for ma...
Chegg
Education Technology
Chegg provides student services like pilot fish following sharks - homework help, textbook rentals, tutoring riding alongside education institutions,...
Chemed Corporation
Healthcare Services & Home Services
Chemed combines hospice care (VITAS) and plumbing (Roto-Rooter) like organisms serving opposite life stages - comforting the dying while fixing homes...
Cheniere Energy
LNG
Cheniere liquefies natural gas like Arctic frogs concentrating glucose - supercooling methane into transportable LNG at Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi...
ChenMed
Primary Care
ChenMed provides primary care for low-income seniors like specialized pollinators serving specific flowers - preventive medicine targeting Medicare po...
Cherry (Car Wash)
Consumer Services
Cherry raised $9M for on-demand mobile car washing, then collapsed in 2013 when customers wouldn't pay enough to cover labor and water costs. The comp...
Cherry Bekaert
Accounting
Cherry Bekaert provides audit and tax services like oxpeckers cleaning hosts - middle-market firms depending on external accountants to navigate compl...
Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment
Real Estate Investment
Cherry Hill invests in mortgage securities like squirrels hoarding acorns - buying residential mortgage-backed securities and servicing rights, earnin...
Chesapeake Energy
Oil & Gas
Chesapeake's 2020 bankruptcy ended the fracking revolution's most aggressive evangelist. Aubrey McClendon built America's second-largest gas producer...
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation
Natural Gas & Electric Utilities
Chesapeake Utilities distributes natural gas and electricity like vascular systems - transmission pipelines and distribution networks delivering energ...
Chevrolet
Automotive Manufacturing
Chevrolet spans compact to truck segments like adaptive radiation - Spark to Silverado covering mass-market niches within GM's portfolio, competing th...
Chevron
Oil & Gas
Chevron's July 2025 completion of the $53 billion Hess acquisition added a 30% stake in Guyana's offshore Stabroek Block—one of the decade's largest o...
Chewy
E-Commerce - Pet Products
Chewy is the largest online retailer of pet products in the United States, competing with Amazon in pet category.
Chi-Chi's
Restaurants - Casual Dining
Chi-Chi's 2003 bankruptcy and closure was triggered by a hepatitis A outbreak that killed 4 people and sickened 660 at a Pennsylvania location. The co...
Chick-fil-A
Fast Food
Chick-fil-A specializes in chicken like giant pandas eating bamboo - privately-held chain focusing exclusively on poultry sandwiches, Sunday closures...
Chico's FAS
Apparel Retail
Chico's operates three brands (Chico's, White House Black Market, Soma) like adaptive radiation - each targeting distinct women's fashion segments, po...
Children's Place
Retail
Children's Place sells kids apparel like organisms exploiting early life stages - focusing exclusively on children 0-10, capturing parents during high...
Chime
Financial Technology
Chime provides mobile-first banking with no monthly fees. First-mover advantage in neobanking with exponential growth.
China Construction Bank
Banking
RMB40.29 trillion in total assets (5.14% growth) and RMB24.63 trillion in loans (6.7% growth) position China Construction Bank as the world's third-la...
China Life Insurance
Insurance
China Life insures a nation like herd immunity protecting populations - state-owned giant spreading life insurance and annuity coverage across 1.4 bil...
China Mengniu Dairy
Food & Beverage
Mengniu processes milk like ant colonies farming aphids - dairy operations integrated from pasture to retail, extracting nutrition from grasslands thr...
China Merchants Bank
Banking
CNY900 billion total sales and CNY300 billion revenue in 2023 (12% growth) crown China Merchants Bank as the dominant retail-focused joint-stock comme...
China Mobile
Telecommunications
Network effects at population scale create winner-take-all dynamics: China Mobile's 1+ billion mobile customers and 552 million 5G users (55% penetrat...
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)
Oil & Gas
Offshore specialization creates competitive moats through technical barriers analogous to deep-sea organisms evolving pressure tolerance—capabilities...
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec)
Oil & Gas
Sinopec refines crude into products like digestive systems - integrated from exploration to gas stations, converting raw petroleum into fuels that pow...
China Telecom Corporation
Telecommunications
China Telecom connects a nation like mycorrhizal networks underground - state-owned telecom infrastructure linking 390 million subscribers, providing...
China United Network Communications (China Unicom)
Telecommunications
China Unicom operates as state telecom infrastructure - mobile and fixed networks serving 310 million users, government-controlled pipes carrying data...
China Vanke
Real Estate
China Vanke builds residential developments like termites constructing mounds - systematic property development across Chinese cities, creating housin...
China Yangtze Power
Hydroelectric Power
China Yangtze Power is the world's largest hydropower company, operating the Three Gorges Dam and representing one of the largest sources of carbon-fr...
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.
Fast Casual Restaurants
Chipotle positions fast-casual Mexican food like species claiming quality niche - fresh ingredients and higher prices differentiating from fast food,...
Chiquita Brands International
Food Products
Chiquita grows bananas like monoculture plantation species - vast Central American farms producing single crop at scale, vertically integrated from pl...
Choice Hotels International, Inc.
Hotel Franchising
Choice Hotels franchises brands (Comfort, Quality, Clarion) like coral spawning polyps - asset-light model licensing hotel identities to independent o...
Chord Energy
Oil & Gas Exploration
Chord Energy extracts oil and gas like prairie dogs mining underground - drilling Williston Basin shale formations, converting buried hydrocarbons int...
Chorus.ai
Sales Technology
Chorus owns New Zealand's fiber infrastructure like root systems - government-separated network providing wholesale broadband, retail ISPs depending o...
Chr. Hansen Holding
Biotechnology & Food Science
Chr Hansen produces cultures and enzymes like bacteria farming - microbial strains for food production (cheese cultures, probiotics), providing invisi...
Christian Dior
Luxury Fashion
Tier 1 brand within LVMH hierarchy, generating €8B revenue with 28% operating margin. As a dominant brand, Dior can veto corporate decisions and contr...
Christmas Tree Shops
Discount Retail
Christmas Tree Shops' 2023 liquidation demonstrates how seasonal retail dependency creates boom-bust vulnerability. The discount chain owned by Bed Ba...
Christopher & Banks
Retail
Christopher & Banks' January 2021 bankruptcy ended a 65-year-old women's apparel chain targeting women over 40 in suburban and small-town locations. T...
Chroma
Database
Chroma provides embedded banking infrastructure like cleaner fish serving hosts - white-label financial services enabling fintechs to launch products,...
Chrysler
Automotive Manufacturing
Chrysler spans multiple segments within Stellantis - Jeep SUVs, Ram trucks, Chrysler minivans, Dodge muscle cars, each brand claiming distinct custome...
Chrysler (2009)
Automotive
Chrysler's 2009 bankruptcy was its second death in 31 years—the company had required government rescue in 1979 under Lee Iacocca. The 2009 collapse de...
Chrysler (Pre-Bankruptcy)
Automotive
Chrysler's 2009 bankruptcy—its second near-death experience after 1980—reveals the fragility of organisms that survive through repeated bailouts rathe...
Chubb Limited
Insurance
Chubb underwrites commercial and personal insurance like bees pooling risk - collecting premiums from policyholders, paying claims from collective res...
Chuck E. Cheese
Entertainment/Restaurants
CEC Entertainment's 2020 bankruptcy demonstrated how single-format entertainment businesses face existential risk when their format becomes impossible...
Church & Dwight
Consumer Goods
Church & Dwight deploys multiple brands (Arm & Hammer, Trojan, OxiClean) like ant colonies with specialized castes - each product targeting distinct h...
Churchill Downs Incorporated
Gaming & Horse Racing
Churchill Downs owns Kentucky Derby and casinos - horse racing's most prestigious event creating annual status ritual, gaming properties extracting va...
Chuy's Holdings, Inc.
Casual Dining Restaurants - Mexican
Chuy's operates Mexican restaurants with unique local decor - each location decorated differently like decorator crabs, made-from-scratch food positio...
Cielo
Fintech
Cielo processes payments across Brazil like vascular networks - card transaction infrastructure extracting fees from merchant-customer flows, dominant...
Ciena Corporation
Telecommunications Equipment
Ciena provides telecom infrastructure like root systems enabling forests - optical and packet networking equipment carriers depend on, invisible backb...
Cigna
Healthcare Services
Cigna merged insurance with Express Scripts pharmacy - vertically integrated health services controlling both coverage and drug distribution, managing...
CIMB Group
Banking
Malaysian banking network spreading through ASEAN like mycorrhizal fungi—branches in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia exchanging capital nutrients. Regi...
Cincinnati Financial Corporation
Insurance
Cincinnati Financial underwrites property-casualty through independent agencies - pooling premiums across business lines, distributing through agent n...
Cinemark Holdings, Inc.
Movie Theaters
Cinemark operates 500+ theaters like territorial species claiming catchments - each location monopolizing movie exhibition in radius, collecting rent...
Cineworld (Bankruptcy)
Entertainment
Cineworld's 2022 bankruptcy demonstrates how theater chains face streaming disruption accelerated by COVID. The world's second-largest cinema operator...
Cineworld Group
Entertainment
Cineworld's September 2022 bankruptcy collapsed the world's second-largest cinema chain. The UK company had acquired Regal Entertainment in 2018 for $...
Cineworld/Regal Cinemas
Entertainment - Theaters
Cineworld's 2022 bankruptcy dragged its Regal Cinemas subsidiary into restructuring, demonstrating how the theatrical exhibition industry faced existe...
Cintas Corporation
Industrial Services
Cintas provides uniforms and facility services like cleaner organisms - recurring B2B revenue from companies outsourcing identity apparel and workplac...
Cipla
Pharmaceuticals
Cipla manufactures generic drugs across India and emerging markets - affordable pharmaceuticals serving price-sensitive populations wealthy pharma ign...
Cirba Solutions
Battery Recycling
Cirba Solutions recycles lithium-ion batteries like decomposers processing waste - extracting valuable metals from dead batteries, returning materials...
Circle
Cryptocurrency Infrastructure
Circle issues USDC stablecoin like creating shared infrastructure - dollar-backed digital currency providing payment rails for crypto ecosystem, earni...
CircleCI
Developer Tools
CircleCI automates software deployment like ant colonies coordinating tasks - continuous integration pipelines testing and deploying code automaticall...
Cirrus Logic
Semiconductors
Cirrus Logic designs audio chips for smartphones - specialized semiconductors processing sound in iPhones and devices, narrow focus on signal processi...
Cisco
Technology / Networking
Cisco closed fiscal 2025 with $56.7 billion in revenue and a remarkable milestone: over 54% now comes from software and recurring subscriptions, up fr...
CIT Group
Financial Services
CIT Group's 2009 bankruptcy made it the fifth-largest in U.S. history. The commercial lender had received TARP bailout funds but still failed when it...
CITIC Group
Conglomerate & Financial Services
Chinese state conglomerate with tentacles in finance, resources, manufacturing, real estate—each division a specialized polyp. State backing acts as b...
Citigroup Inc.
Banking
The most profitable organism isn't always the largest - sometimes it's the one that prunes most ruthlessly. Citigroup operates in 95 countries with $2...
Citizen
Consumer Goods
Citizen makes watches spanning affordable to premium - Japanese brand offering Eco-Drive solar technology and diverse price points, balancing volume a...
Citizens Financial Group, Inc.
Banking
Citizens Financial provides regional banking across Northeast and Midwest - commercial and consumer banking through branch networks, local market know...
Citrin Cooperman
Accounting
Citrin Cooperman provides accounting and advisory to middle-market firms - audit, tax, and consulting services enabling companies to navigate complian...
Citroën
Automotive
Citroen designs quirky French cars within Stellantis - distinctive styling and comfort-focused engineering differentiating from sister brands, C3 to C...
Cityblock Health
Healthcare Services
Cityblock provides tech-enabled primary care for underserved urban populations - Medicaid and dually-eligible patients others avoid, community health...
Civitas Resources
Oil & Gas Exploration
Civitas extracts oil and gas from DJ Basin - Colorado drilling operations converting underground hydrocarbons into marketable energy, hydraulic fractu...
CJ CheilJedang
Food & Biotechnology
Korean food-biotech hybrid fermenting amino acids and food ingredients—lysine, nucleotides, seasonings produced through microbial cultivation. Industr...
CJ Corporation
Conglomerate
Korean conglomerate spanning food, biotech, logistics, entertainment—specialized divisions cooperating like Portuguese man-of-war polyps. CJ CheilJeda...
Claas
Agricultural Equipment
CLAAS manufactures agricultural harvesting equipment - German combine harvesters and forage equipment serving large-scale farming operations, speciali...
Clair
Financial Technology
Clair provides earned wage access for workers - employees accessing already-earned pay before payday, employers outsourcing financial wellness benefit...
Claire's Stores
Retail
Claire's March 2018 bankruptcy collapsed the teen accessory giant under $2 billion in debt from a 2007 LBO. Apollo Management had paid $3.1 billion, l...
Clara Foods
Precision Fermentation
Clara Foods produces animal-free proteins through fermentation - engineered microbes secreting egg proteins without chickens, precision fermentation c...
Clari
Sales Technology
Clari provides revenue operations platform - sales forecasting and pipeline management software using AI to predict deal outcomes, centralizing CRM da...
Clariant
Specialty Chemicals
Clariant produces specialty chemicals serving industries - catalysts, pigments, and additives enabling manufacturing processes, providing chemical int...
ClassDojo
EdTech - K-12
ClassDojo connects teachers, students, and parents - classroom communication platform used in 95% of US K-8 schools, network effects from class-level...
Clean Energy Fuels Corp.
Alternative Energy
Clean Energy Fuels provides natural gas for vehicles - compressed and liquefied natural gas stations serving fleet operators, cleaner-burning fossil a...
Clean Harbors, Inc.
Environmental Services
Clean Harbors handles hazardous waste like decomposers processing toxins - industrial waste management and environmental cleanup services, treating an...
CleanSpark
Bitcoin Mining
CleanSpark mines Bitcoin using renewable energy - data centers consuming electricity to solve cryptographic puzzles, converting power into digital cur...
Clear Channel Outdoor
Advertising
Clear Channel Outdoor emerged from its parent's 2008 LBO with $5.6 billion in debt, making it one of the most leveraged public companies in America. T...
Clear Secure (Decline)
Technology
Clear Secure, the airport biometric screening company, saw its stock collapse 75% as post-COVID travel failed to match projections and airports pushed...
Clearbit
Sales Technology
Clearbit enriches customer data like hounds tracking scent - B2B data API providing company and contact information, sales and marketing teams using i...
Clearwater Analytics
Financial Software
Clearwater provides investment accounting software - institutional asset managers outsourcing portfolio accounting and reporting, SaaS platform aggreg...
Clearway Energy
Renewables
Clearway owns renewable power plants - wind and solar generation assets selling electricity through long-term contracts, predictable cash flows from c...
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
Steel & Metals
Cleveland-Cliffs mines iron ore and produces steel - vertically integrated from Great Lakes mines to mills, controlling raw material supply for automo...
ClickHouse
Database
ClickHouse provides analytics database - open-source columnar database optimized for real-time queries on massive datasets, developers choosing specia...
Clicks Group
Retail & Healthcare
Clicks Group has engineered South Africa's most defensible retail niche: health and beauty positioned at the intersection of necessity and aspiration....
ClickUp
Project Management
ClickUp consolidates project management tools - all-in-one platform replacing disparate apps (tasks, docs, goals), network effects from team-level ado...
CliftonLarsonAllen
Accounting
CliftonLarsonAllen provides accounting and advisory - audit, tax, and consulting for middle-market firms, companies outsourcing compliance expertise t...
Climate Corporation
Agricultural Technology
Climate Corporation provides digital agriculture platform - field-level weather data, soil analysis, and yield predictions helping farmers optimize pl...
Climeworks
Climate Technology
Climeworks pulls CO2 from thin air like kelp farms harvest carbon from seawater - both concentrate dilute molecules through membrane interfaces. Where...
Clip
Fintech
Clip thrives in payment processing niches abandoned by big processors - the Mexican bodega, the taco stand, the market vendor. Like cleaner fish servi...
Close
Enterprise Software
Close built a CRM that turns inside sales into peregrine falcon hunts - power dialers and predictive dialers accelerate the strike, built-in calling e...
Cloud9
Esports
Cloud9 fields coordinated wolf packs across League, Valorant, and CS:GO - each game demands different pack tactics, but the organizational DNA stays c...
Cloudflare
Internet Infrastructure & Security
Cloudflare provides CDN, security, and edge computing services. Network effects where each new customer improves performance for all users with econom...
Clover Health
Healthcare Services
Clover deploys predictive analytics like meerkats scanning for threats - identifying at-risk Medicare patients before symptoms cascade into crises. Th...
Clubhouse
Media & Technology
Clubhouse bet everything on acoustic-only interaction - like Darwin's finches that abandoned visual displays for pure vocal communication. The format...
CMA CGM Group
Maritime Shipping
French container shipping whale gulping cargo between continents—23,000 TEU megaships filtering trade flows through hull plates. Alliance networks mir...
CME Group Inc.
Exchange
Derivatives exchange where price-discovery happens through electronic mating—buyers and sellers broadcasting intentions until matches occur. Futures c...
CNH Industrial N.V.
Machinery
Builds agricultural and construction equipment—Case tractors tilling soil, New Holland combines harvesting grain, excavators tunneling infrastructure....
CNO Financial Group
Insurance - Health
Life insurance provider pooling mortality risk across policyholders—healthy subsidize sick, young subsidize old. Functions like prairie dog alarm call...
Co-operative Bank of Kenya
Banking
Co-op Bank serves Kenya's cooperative societies like mycorrhizal fungi serving forest trees - capital flows to agricultural co-ops who lack access to...
Coal India
Metals & Mining
Coal India extracts fossil carbon like termite mounds excavate soil - vast scale, distributed operations, relentless harvest from defined territories....
Coca-Cola
Beverages
American multinational beverage corporation. Major case study demonstrating relationship-based territorial defense in the fountain market from 1950-19...
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated
Beverages - Non-Alcoholic
Coca-Cola Consolidated operates like ant colony distribution networks - centralized formula production, distributed bottling and delivery, territorial...
Cochlear Limited
Medical Devices
Cochlear Limited restores sensory transduction through bioengineered symbiosis - implanting electronic devices into human cochleae that convert sound...
Cockroach Labs
Database
CockroachDB mirrors planarian regeneration - cut the flatworm in half and both pieces regrow complete organisms. Lose database nodes and the system se...
Coda
Productivity Software
Coda fuses documents and spreadsheets into one surface - like slime molds that merge separate cells into a single hunting organism when resources dema...
Codecademy
Education
Codecademy teaches code through immediate practice - type, execute, see results, repeat. Like capuchin monkeys learning tool use through trial and err...
Codelco
Mining
Codelco mines copper at planetary scale - Chuquicamata, El Teniente, Radomiro Tomic are excavations visible from space. State ownership means extracti...
COFCO International
Agricultural Trading & Food Processing
Chinese state grain conglomerate controlling farm-to-table—growing, storing, processing, distributing food across nation. Vertical integration mirrors...
Coffee Stain Studios
Gaming
Coffee Stain builds games that celebrate absurdity - Goat Simulator weaponizes physics glitches, Satisfactory turns factory optimization into zen medi...
Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.
Telecommunications
Cogent operates Tier 1 internet infrastructure - a network that peers directly with other major networks without paying transit fees. Like mycorrhizal...
Cognizant
IT Consulting
Cognizant morphs to match client needs - healthcare IT one quarter, financial services transformation the next. Like mimic octopuses that shift form a...
Cohen & Steers
Asset Management
Cohen & Steers hoards real assets - real estate securities, infrastructure, natural resources. Like squirrels caching acorns for winter, they stockpil...
Cohere
Artificial Intelligence
Cohere develops large language models for enterprise applications. Platform economics with economies of scale in AI infrastructure.
Coherent
Industrial Technology
Coherent focuses photons into industrial cutting tools and scientific instruments - concentrated light energy that slices metal or excites molecules....
Coherent Corp (formerly II-VI)
Semiconductors
Coherent Corp makes photonic materials that enable light manipulation across wavelengths - the substrates that turn photons into signals. Like transpa...
Coherus BioSciences
Biotechnology
Coherus builds biosimilars - molecular mimics of expensive biologics that fool the immune system into equivalent responses. Like Batesian mimicry wher...
CohnReznick
Accounting
CohnReznick audits and advises on real estate, healthcare, and financial services - sectors where capital flows are large but complexity creates infor...
Coin (Card)
Consumer Electronics
Coin raised $15M for a single card that stored all your credit cards, eliminating wallet bulk. The company launched just as Apple Pay and contactless...
Colbún
Electric Power
Colbún generates Chilean electricity from hydroelectric dams, thermal plants, and expanding renewables - a hybrid energy strategy. Like hybrid respira...
Coldwater Creek
Retail
Coldwater Creek's 2014 bankruptcy collapsed a catalog and retail brand targeting women over 50. The company had thrived in the 1990s-2000s catalog era...
Coles Group
Retail
Coles blankets Australia with 800+ supermarkets in direct competition with Woolworths - a territorial duopoly where both chains occupy nearly identica...
Colgate-Palmolive
Consumer Goods
Colgate-Palmolive operates like baobab trees—slow-growing but nearly impossible to kill once established. The company holds 41.4% global toothpaste ma...
Collective Health
Health Benefits
Collective Health helps employers self-fund health plans - shifting insurance risk from carriers back to companies who accept exposure in exchange for...
Collins & Aikman
Auto Parts
Collins & Aikman's 2005 bankruptcy collapsed an auto parts supplier after aggressive acquisition strategy loaded debt it couldn't service. The company...
Colonial BancGroup
Banking
Colonial BancGroup's 2009 FDIC seizure made it the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history at $25 billion in assets. The Alabama-based bank had exp...
Colonial Bank
Banking
Colonial Bank's 2009 failure reveals how fraud can remain hidden until economic stress exposes it. Taylor Bean & Whitaker, Colonial's major customer,...
Coloplast
Medical Devices & Healthcare
Coloplast commands 30-40% of the global ostomy care market—a USD 3.9 billion sector growing at 5.5% annually—by specializing in products most companie...
Color Health
Healthcare Services
Color Health runs population-scale genetic screening - employer programs that test thousands for cancer risk, cardiac markers, and hereditary conditio...
ColourPop
Beauty & Personal Care
ColourPop launches makeup collections weekly through vertical manufacturing and social virality - trend-chasing at speeds traditional beauty brands ca...
Columbia
Outdoor & Adventure
Columbia makes accessible outdoor gear - waterproof jackets and hiking boots at price points where REI brands fear to tread. Like generalist species t...
Columbia Banking System, Inc.
Regional Banking
Columbia Banking System is a bank holding company operating through its subsidiary Columbia Bank, serving the Pacific Northwest with community banking...
Columbia Care
Cannabis
Columbia Care cultivates cannabis across fragmented state markets where federal prohibition creates isolated regulatory islands. Like populations sepa...
Columbia Sportswear
Apparel & Footwear
Columbia Sportswear diversified beyond its flagship brand into Sorel boots, Mountain Hardwear, and prAna - a portfolio strategy that hedges across pri...
Columbus McKinnon
Industrial Manufacturing
Columbus McKinnon makes hoists and cranes - mechanical advantage devices that multiply human force through pulleys and gears. Like trap-jaw ants that...
Com2uS
Gaming
Com2uS built Summoners War into a mobile gaming institution through relentless content updates that keep whales engaged for years. Like cleaner shrimp...
COMAC
Aerospace
COMAC's C919 program reveals the immense metabolic cost of challenging entrenched duopolies in capital-intensive industries. The company delivered 13...
Comcast
Telecommunications & Media
Comcast lost 226,000 broadband customers in Q2 2025, nearly double the 120,000 lost in Q2 2024. This isn't poor execution. It's habitat transformation...
Comerica Inc.
Regional Banking
Comerica focuses on middle-market businesses in Texas, California, and Michigan - regional concentration in high-growth markets. Like territorial fish...
Comfort Systems
Construction Services
Comfort Systems installs HVAC for commercial buildings - the circulatory and respiratory systems that make indoor environments habitable. Like termite...
Commercial International Bank
Banking & Financial Services
CIB dominates Egyptian private banking through scale and digital infrastructure where most banks still operate branches. Like cleaner fish that servic...
Commercial International Bank (CIB)
Banking
CIB built digital banking platforms in Egypt before competitors recognized mobile would dominate. First-mover advantage in payments and mobile banking...
Commercial Metals Company
Steel & Metals
Commercial Metals recycles scrap steel into construction rebar through electric arc furnaces - closing the metal loop by remelting cars, appliances, a...
Commerzbank
Banking
Commerzbank threads German corporate capital through regional branches that gather local credit intelligence. Like mycorrhizal networks connecting tre...
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Banking
Australia's largest bank at $178 billion market cap demonstrates keystone species dynamics across the financial ecosystem. With 17 million customers—n...
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Fusion Energy
Commonwealth Fusion pursues net-positive fusion through magnets that confine plasma hot enough to fuse hydrogen. Like extremophile bacteria with prote...
CommScope Holding Company, Inc.
Telecommunications Infrastructure
CommScope manufactures the physical layer of communication networks - fiber optic cables, wireless antennas, and copper infrastructure that data trave...
Community Bank System, Inc.
Regional Banking
Community Bank System is a financial holding company providing banking and financial services through Community Bank, N.A. and other subsidiaries acro...
Community Health Systems
Healthcare Services
CHS operates rural hospitals in markets too small for competitors - geographic monopolies where distance creates boundaries. Like territorial predator...
Community Healthcare Trust Incorporated
Medical Office Real Estate
Community Healthcare Trust owns medical office buildings leased to physicians and outpatient clinics - real estate capturing healthcare spending throu...
Compagnie Financière Richemont
Luxury Goods
Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels generated €15.3 billion in fiscal 2025—eight times the revenue of Richemont's next-largest division. The jewelry maison...
Compaq Computer
Technology
Compaq's 2002 merger with HP ended the company that had pioneered the IBM PC clone and later challenged IBM directly. Compaq had acquired Digital Equi...
Compass
Real Estate
Compass recruits top agents through upfront capital and tools, then captures transaction fees when properties sell. Like cleaner fish servicing large...
Compass (Real Estate)
Real Estate
Compass raised $1.5 billion to 'reinvent real estate' with technology but discovered that real estate agents can take their technology and leave. The...
Compass Diversified
Private Equity
Compass Diversified owns industrial brands across unrelated sectors - gun safes, tactical apparel, ammunition - where cross-subsidies buffer cyclical...
Compass Group
Food Services
Compass Group posted £42 billion annual revenue in 2024 with 10.6% organic growth globally and 10.5% in the US. This is not a restaurant business—it's...
Compound
Cryptocurrency
Compound matches crypto lenders and borrowers through algorithmic rates adjusting by the second. Like slime molds routing nutrients through optimized...
CompuGroup
Healthcare IT
CompuGroup builds electronic health records for European physicians - software capturing patient data for cross-practice sharing. Like bees encoding f...
CompUSA
Electronics Retail
CompUSA's decline and 2007 closure by Mexican retailer Grupo Sánchez demonstrated how electronics retail was being squeezed from multiple directions....
Computer Programs and Systems
Healthcare IT
CPSI sells hospital software to rural and community hospitals - markets too small for Epic and Cerner to service profitably. Like species thriving in...
CompX International Inc.
Industrial Components Manufacturing
CompX manufactures security locks and ergonomic slides for office furniture - niche hardware disappearing into finished products. Like nitrogen-fixing...
Conagra Brands
Food Processing - Packaged Foods
Conagra maintains shelf-stable brands through reformulation extending products beyond natural decay - chemical preservation defeating microbial breakd...
Concentrix Corporation
Business Process Outsourcing
Concentrix operates call centers and back-office processes companies want off balance sheets - tedious customer service outsourced to lower-cost locat...
Concrete Pumping Holdings
Construction Services
Concrete Pumping deploys truck-mounted pumps moving wet concrete from mixers to sites through hydraulic pressure. Like xylem vessels transporting wate...
Conduent
Business Services
Conduent processes government transactions - toll collection, unemployment claims, Medicaid enrollment - bureaucratic plumbing states want privatized....
Confluent
Data Streaming
Confluent commercializes Kafka - event streaming that moves data between systems in real-time through distributed queues. Like mycorrhizal networks sh...
Conn's
Specialty Retail
Conn's sells furniture and appliances on credit to subprime customers who can't access traditional financing. Like remoras attached to sharks, Conn's...
Connect Ventures
Venture Capital
Connect Ventures operates like a hummingbird—small body, extraordinary precision. Making only 8-10 investments per year while most seed funds spray ca...
ConocoPhillips
Oil & Gas
The $22.5 billion Marathon Oil acquisition completed in November 2024 doubled initial synergy targets, delivering $1 billion in operational efficienci...
Conseco
Financial Services
Conseco's 2002 bankruptcy at $61 billion in assets demonstrated how financial services companies can destroy themselves through acquisitive growth tha...
Conservis
Agricultural Technology
Conservis coordinates modern farms - tracking which fields got planted when, fertilizer applications, harvest schedules across thousands of acres. Lik...
Consolidated Edison
Utilities
ConEd powers New York through a century-old grid monopoly - underground steam pipes, electrical substations, and gas mains woven beneath Manhattan. Li...
Constant Contact
Email Marketing
Constant Contact enables small businesses to broadcast emails to thousands - the digital equivalent of spawning events where coral release millions of...
Constellation Brands
Beverages
A U.S. beverage company ($9 billion revenue, 2022) that exemplifies extinction avoidance through portfolio pruning - identifying and divesting busines...
Constellation Energy
Utilities & Power Generation
Constellation runs nuclear plants, wind farms, and natural gas generators - a portfolio approach to electricity production. Like hybrid respiratory sy...
Constellation Software
Software Holding Company
The Canadian holding company that solved the growth limit problem by refusing to integrate anything. Founded in 1995 by Mark Leonard in Toronto, Cons...
Construction Partners
Construction & Engineering
Construction Partners paves roads across the Southeast - asphalt production and placement that creates hardened arteries for vehicle movement. Like le...
Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL)
Battery Technology
CATL is the world's largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, supplying Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen,...
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL)
Batteries & Energy Storage
Energy storage at scale follows the same optimization constraints that govern ATP synthesis in mitochondria: maximize energy density per unit mass whi...
Contentful
Enterprise Software
Contentful separates content from presentation - a headless CMS where articles, images, and data live in APIs that feed multiple frontends. Like mycor...
ContentSquare
Technology
Contentsquare tracks every mouse movement, click, and scroll on websites - behavioral surveillance that reveals user intent through micropatterns. Lik...
Continental
Automotive Supplier
€41.7 billion in sales, adjusted EBIT up 6% to €2.8 billion, and a strategic autotomy that would make a lizard envious. Continental is shedding its Au...
Continental Baking Company
Food
Continental Baking, original maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess cakes, was absorbed through conglomerate mergers. ITT acquired Continental in 1968; Ral...
Continental Building Products
Building Materials
Continental Building Products cooks gypsum into wallboard - hydrated calcium sulfate sheets that become interior walls. Like coral polyps secreting ca...
Conversica
Sales Technology
Conversica sends automated follow-up emails to sales leads that went cold - AI persistence hunting where software chases prospects through multi-week...
Convoy
Digital Freight Brokerage
Convoy built a freight marketplace connecting shippers and truckers, then collapsed when network effects failed to materialize fast enough to sustain...
Convoy (Trucking)
Logistics
Convoy raised $1 billion to be the 'Uber of trucking' but shut down in 2023 when the freight recession exposed that digital freight brokerage couldn't...
Coop Group
Retail & Supermarkets
Coop Switzerland operates as a consumer cooperative where shoppers are also owners - profits distributed back to members as dividends. Like eusocial b...
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
Tire Manufacturing
Cooper Tire molds rubber into pneumatic cushions that absorb road shock while maintaining traction - engineered interfaces between vehicles and asphal...
Cooper-Standard Holdings
Auto Parts & Equipment
Cooper Standard manufactures automotive seals - rubber gaskets that create boundaries between air, water, and sound. Like cell membranes with selectiv...
Copart
Commercial Services
Copart auctions wrecked and totaled vehicles to salvage buyers who harvest parts and scrap metal. Like hyenas cracking bones after lions finish, Copar...
Copper
Enterprise Software
Copper builds banking APIs for fintechs - white-label infrastructure that handles deposits, transfers, and compliance so startups can launch financial...
Copy.ai
Generative AI
Copy.ai generates marketing text through language models trained to mimic human writing patterns - statistical parrots that produce grammatically corr...
Core & Main
Distribution & Wholesale
Core & Main distributes pipes, valves, and HVAC equipment across fragmented contractor markets - the circulatory infrastructure for water and air syst...
CoreCard Corporation
Financial Technology
CoreCard builds white-label card processing engines that banks rebrand as their own - the substrate layer beneath consumer-facing payment apps. Like m...
CoreLogic
Data & Analytics
CoreLogic aggregates property records, tax assessments, and flood risk into datasets that real estate can't function without. Like honeybees that scou...
CoreSite Realty Corporation
Data Center Real Estate
CoreSite builds data centers in carrier-dense locations where fiber converges - internet exchange ecosystems. Like termite mounds that regulate temper...
Corinthian Colleges
For-Profit Education
Corinthian Colleges' 2015 collapse after regulatory action demonstrated the for-profit education sector's vulnerabilities. The company operated over 1...
Cornershop
Technology
Cornershop dispatched shoppers to grocery stores within minutes of orders - human foragers optimizing across inventory, distance, and time. Like army...
Cornerstone Building Brands, Inc.
Building Products Manufacturing
Cornerstone makes vinyl siding, metal roofing, and trim - the commodity exterior that wraps tract housing and commercial boxes. Like earthworms that p...
Cornerstone OnDemand
Human Resources Technology
Cornerstone tracks employee skills, training compliance, and performance reviews - institutional memory for human capital management. Like chimpanzees...
Correos (Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos)
Postal Services
Correos maintains Spain's universal postal network - a state monopoly on last-mile delivery that private carriers can't profitably replicate in rural...
Corsair Gaming
Consumer Electronics
Corsair sells RGB keyboards, high-DPI mice, and liquid cooling rigs to gamers who treat hardware as identity signaling. Like bowerbirds that decorate...
Corteva Agriscience
Seeds & Agrochemicals
Corteva engineers corn and soybean seeds resistant to its own herbicides - a chemical lock-and-key where crops survive poisons that kill everything el...
COSCO Shipping
Maritime Shipping
Chinese state shipping leviathan moving containers along predictable routes—Asia to Europe, trans-Pacific trade lanes. Megaships filter cargo like bal...
Cosi Inc
Restaurant
Cosi's September 2016 bankruptcy collapsed a fast-casual chain known for its signature flatbread sandwiches. The company had been public, achieving 15...
CoStar Group
Professional Services
CoStar aggregated commercial real estate data into a single reservoir, then monetized scarcity through access control. Like beavers who dam streams to...
Coterra Energy
Oil & Gas
Coterra drills for oil and gas in Permian Basin and Marcellus Shale - extracting fossil energy from underground deposits. Like vampire bats that locat...
Cotopaxi
Retail & E-commerce
Cotopaxi sells colorful outdoor gear tied to social impact claims - apparel as moral signaling where buyers broadcast values through purchases. Like p...
Coty
Beauty/Cosmetics
Beauty company that acquired P&G's beauty brands (Wella, Clairol, CoverGirl, Max Factor) for $12.5B as part of P&G's 2014-2016 portfolio decomposition...
Country Garden Holdings
Real Estate
Country Garden expanded across Chinese cities through debt-fueled construction - building residential towers faster than demand could absorb. Like kud...
Countrywide Financial
Financial Services
Countrywide was America's largest mortgage lender and the poster child for subprime excess before its 2008 distressed sale to Bank of America. The com...
Coupa Software
Supply Chain Software
Coupa centralizes corporate purchasing - routing requisitions through approval workflows where spending becomes visible and controllable. Like meerkat...
Coupang, Inc.
E-commerce
Coupang built its third logistics center in Taiwan in 2024—before the market became profitable—because ecosystem engineering requires infrastructure f...
Course Hero
Education
Course Hero lets students upload lecture notes and homework solutions in exchange for access to others' uploads - a knowledge commons built on recipro...
Coursera
Education
Coursera streams university lectures globally - cultural transmission that decouples learning from campus proximity. Like chimpanzees that learn nut-c...
Cousins Properties Incorporated
Office Real Estate
Cousins Properties owns office towers in Sunbelt cities - territorial real estate where location value depends on proximity to corporate concentration...
Covenant Logistics
Transportation & Logistics
Covenant hauls refrigerated freight across highways - optimizing routes where fuel, driver hours, and cargo value create complex constraints. Like wil...
Covestro
Chemicals
Covestro produces polyurethanes and polycarbonates - the polymer building blocks for foams, coatings, and plastics that manufacturers assemble into fi...
Covetrus
Animal Health
Covetrus distributes pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and surgical supplies to veterinary clinics - the logistics layer beneath pet healthcare. Like clea...
CP Foods
Agribusiness
Thai agribusiness controlling shrimp-to-supermarket—hatcheries, feed mills, processing plants, distribution vertically integrated. Industrial aquacult...
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.
Casual Dining Restaurants & Retail
Cracker Barrel clusters locations along interstate highways where road-trip families need predictable meals - territorial restaurant strategy. Like sp...
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Legal Services
Cravath Swaine hires top law graduates into brutal apprenticeship where partnership takes a decade - costly screening that signals elite capability. L...
Crawford & Company
Insurance Services
Crawford adjusts insurance claims - third-party verification where carriers won't trust policyholders to self-report damages. Like cleaner fish that i...
Creandum
Venture Capital
Creandum operates like a giant sequoia—quietly growing massive while flashier species grab attention. Co-leading Spotify's Series A in 2008 when strea...
CRED
Fintech
Indian credit card app where spending earns status—CRED coins, exclusive deals, member-only events signaling financial sophistication. Invitation-only...
Credence Resource Management LLC
Business Process Outsourcing
Credence manages timber harvests, wildlife surveys, and habitat restoration for landowners navigating environmental regulations. Like beavers whose da...
Credera
Management Consulting
Credera consultants enter client organizations to diagnose process inefficiencies and technology debt - extracting problems that internal teams are to...
Crédit Agricole
Banking
Crédit Agricole is the world's largest cooperative financial institution with 12.1 million mutual shareholders owning 2,383 local banks, which own 39...
Credit Suisse Group AG
Banking
Credit Suisse's 166-year lifespan ended March 19, 2023 when UBS acquired the failing bank for CHF 3 billion in a state-brokered rescue - a cautionary...
Creditas
Fintech
Creditas unlocks Brazilian home equity through digital lending platforms where property titles become collateral for consumption loans. Like beavers t...
Cresco Labs
Cannabis
Cresco cultivates cannabis genetics tailored to Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio - each state a regulatory island demanding different compliance, testing,...
Crestwood Equity Partners
Midstream
Crestwood owns pipelines and storage terminals that gather natural gas from wells and deliver it to processing plants - the circulatory system for ene...
Crete Carrier Corporation
Transportation & Logistics
Crete hauls refrigerated freight where temperature control prevents spoilage - continuous cold chains from packinghouses to distribution centers. Like...
CRISPR Therapeutics
Biotechnology
Gene-editing biotech wielding bacterial immune systems as precision scalpels—CRISPR-Cas9 cutting DNA like restriction enzymes. Therapies mimic horizon...
Criteo
Technology
Criteo tracks users across websites through cookies and tracking pixels, then serves retargeting ads for products they viewed but didn't buy. Like Por...
Crocs
Apparel & Footwear
Crocs operates like a cuttlefish deploying adaptive camouflage—what started as utilitarian foam footwear ridiculed for aesthetics became cultural curr...
Cronos Group
Cannabis
Cronos grows cannabis in Canada where federal legalization created ecological release - removal of prohibition constraints that opened niches for comm...
Cropio
Agricultural Technology
Cropio analyzes satellite imagery and field sensors to detect crop stress before farmers see symptoms - early warning systems for irrigation, disease,...
Crosley Motors
Automotive
Crosley's 1952 closure ended Powel Crosley Jr.'s attempt to sell Americans on small, fuel-efficient cars. The Crosley was decades ahead of its time -...
Cross Country Healthcare
Healthcare Staffing
Cross Country places travel nurses and temporary therapists where hospitals face staffing shortages - nomadic labor that fills gaps. Like cuckoos that...
CrowdStrike
Cybersecurity
The July 2024 global outage—8.5 million Windows machines crashing simultaneously, $10 billion in customer losses—should have destroyed CrowdStrike. In...
Crowe
Accounting
Crowe audits financial statements for mid-market companies too large for regional firms but too small for Big Four attention - a scale niche where inf...
Crowley Maritime Corporation
Maritime Shipping
Crowley operates shipping routes and port terminals connecting Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Latin America to the mainland US - hub-and-spoke logistics for...
Crown Castle International Corp.
Telecommunications Infrastructure
Crown Castle owns 40,000 cell towers that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile rent antenna space from - infrastructure monopolies where carriers need vertical...
Crown Holdings, Inc.
Packaging
Crown makes aluminum beverage cans and steel food cans - protective packaging that extends shelf life by excluding oxygen and light. Like nautilus she...
CRRC Corporation
Railway Equipment
CRRC is the world's largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock, producing high-speed trains, metro vehicles, locomotives, and freight cars, dominat...
Cruise
Autonomous Vehicles
Cruise's October 2023 San Francisco incident—autonomous vehicle struck pedestrian, dragged 20 feet, pinned under wheel—triggered regulatory phase tran...
Cryoport
Life Sciences Logistics
Like the alaskan wood frog freezing solid each winter, Cryoport suspends cellular time itself. Its cryogenic supply chain moves gene therapies at -150...
Crypto.com
Cryptocurrency
Crypto.com spreads like fungal networks underground - invisible infrastructure suddenly surfacing through stadium naming rights and Formula 1 sponsors...
CSG Systems
Software
Billing software provider grooming telecom and cable companies—managing subscriber accounts, usage tracking, payment processing. Removes backend paras...
CSL Limited
Biotechnology & Healthcare
CSL Limited at $115 billion market cap operates the world's largest plasma collection network—a biological infrastructure extracting immunoglobulins,...
CSX Corporation
Rail Transportation
Eastern US railroad network moving freight along fixed rails—coal, chemicals, containers flowing predictable routes. Track monopolies mirror mycorrhiz...
CTT
Logistics
Portuguese postal service adapting like carrier pigeons to email extinction—pivoting from letters to parcels, banking, express delivery. Legacy infras...
CubeSmart
Real Estate Investment Trust - Self Storage
CubeSmart is a leading self-storage real estate investment trust owning and operating self-storage properties across the United States. The company pr...
Cubic Corporation
Aerospace & Defense
Cubic builds defense training systems like the archerfish perfecting its hunting - iterative simulation creating muscle memory without live ammunition...
Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc.
Regional Banking
Cullen/Frost Bankers is a financial holding company and one of the 50 largest U.S. banks by asset size. Through its subsidiary Frost Bank, the company...
Culture Amp
Technology
Culture Amp reads organizational sentiment like prairie dogs listening for alarm calls. Its employee engagement platform detects cultural tremors befo...
Cummins Inc.
Machinery
Cummins engines convert fuel to motion like mitochondria power cells - controlled combustion transforming chemical bonds into rotational force. Its hy...
Cumulus Media
Media
Cumulus Media's November 2017 bankruptcy made it the second-largest radio bankruptcy after iHeartMedia. The company had assembled 400+ stations throug...
Curaleaf
Cannabis
Curaleaf's vertical integration mirrors bamboo's explosive growth strategy - controlling every stage from cultivation to retail. Its dispensaries spre...
CURO Group
Consumer Finance
Payday lender extracting blood from paycheck-to-paycheck hosts—short-term loans at triple-digit APRs. Feeds on financial desperation like ticks detect...
Current
Financial Services
Current targets the young and fast-moving like r-strategists colonizing fresh territory. Its mobile-first banking spreads through viral referrals, eac...
Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Aerospace & Defense - Components
Curtiss-Wright builds aerospace components with the redundancy of vital organs - backup systems for backup systems, because failure at altitude means...
Customers Bancorp
Banking
Customers Bancorp thrives in the cracks between giants, specializing in multi-family lending like remoras feeding where sharks won't bother. Its niche...
Cuts Clothing
Retail & E-commerce
Cuts strips wardrobe essentials to their Platonic ideal - the peacock's iridescent feather of t-shirts. Its premium basics strategy mirrors costly sig...
CVB Financial
Banking
California community bank serving Inland Empire businesses—commercial real estate, SBA loans, deposit accounts for local enterprises. Functions like p...
CVS Health
Healthcare Services
CVS operates integrated healthcare through vertical integration of pharmacies, insurance (Aetna), and clinics. Network effects from retail locations a...
CyberArk
Cybersecurity
CyberArk guards privileged access like tortoises withdrawing into shells. Its identity security systems detect credential anomalies through signature-...
CyberArk Software Ltd.
Cybersecurity Software
CyberArk guards privileged access like tortoises withdrawing into shells. Its identity security systems detect credential anomalies through signature-...
Cymer
Semiconductor Equipment
ASML subsidiary based in the USA that produces EUV light sources using pulsed lasers to generate plasma emitting EUV light. Cymer is part of ASML's ve...
CyrusOne Inc.
Data Center Real Estate
CyrusOne data centers regulate temperature like naked mole-rat colonies - massive underground infrastructures maintaining constant climate through sop...