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120 companies
Spotify
Music Streaming / Technology
When Daniel Ek launched Spotify in Sweden in 2006, record labels viewed streaming as legalized piracy - micro-payments devaluing music far below CD sa...
Samsung
Conglomerate (Electronics, Shipbuilding, Insurance, Theme Parks)
Samsung is a $240 billion conglomerate spanning electronics, shipbuilding, life insurance, theme parks, and hotels - 270,000+ employees operating acro...
Stripe
Financial Technology / Payments
Stripe made payment integration take seven lines of code instead of six months and $100,000. But that simplicity required 10× more engineering effort...
Shopify
E-commerce Platform & Technology
Shopify started when Tobias Lütke wanted to sell snowboards online and found every platform inadequate. So he built his own - then realized the infras...
Safaricom / M-Pesa
Mobile Financial Services
Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile operator, launched M-Pesa ('mobile money') in 2007, creating one of the most successful examples of business symbios...
SAP
Enterprise Software
A €34.18 billion enterprise software organism operates as ecosystem engineer at global scale, where 77% of transaction revenue worldwide touches SAP s...
Sony
Consumer Electronics & Gaming
Sony is a study in contrasts: brilliant at sensing market shifts, vulnerable to breaches of trust. When Kodak failed to act on its own digital camera...
Starbucks
Coffee Retail
Starbucks' Australian failure represents the definitive case study of the Phenotype Fallacy - copying the visible expression of success without unders...
SABMiller
Beverages/Brewing
SABMiller's $107 billion acquisition by AB InBev (completed October 2016) represents the largest-scale corporate digestion in brewing history—and a ma...
Sears
Retail
Sears' extinction is a masterclass in how dominant species die - not from catastrophic events, but from ignoring incremental environmental shifts. Onc...
Siemens
Industrial/Medical Equipment
Siemens is a 177-year-old German industrial conglomerate that demonstrates how large organizations scale without collapsing under coordination costs....
Signify
Lighting
Signify is a lighting company spun off from Philips Lighting in 2016. The company pioneered 'light as a service' for commercial customers, retaining o...
Skanska AB
Construction/Engineering
Skanska, one of the world's largest construction and project development firms founded in Sweden in 1887, builds projects where acoustic communication...
Slack
Technology/Enterprise Software
Slack entered the enterprise software market with a weapon competitors didn't expect: color. In a landscape dominated by boring blue-and-gray tools, S...
SoftBank Group
Investment / Conglomerate
SoftBank appears as the crucial capital provider enabling Grab's ecological release strategy. SoftBank invested $2 billion in Grab's Series B - the la...
SpaceX
Aerospace
SpaceX's valuation exploded from $200 billion in mid-2024 to $800 billion by December 2025—quadrupling in 18 months while remaining private. This expo...
Standard Oil
Oil & Gas
John D. Rockefeller's company that from 1870-1911 established and maintained an industry-wide pecking order controlling 90% of US oil refining. The bi...
Sabena
Aviation
Sabena's 2001 bankruptcy ended Belgium's 78-year-old flag carrier and triggered Swissair's collapse. The airline had been chronically unprofitable for...
Safeway
Retail Grocery
Grocery chain that planned partnership with Theranos for 800 locations before the technology fraud was exposed. Lost hundreds of millions when Therano...
Safran
Aerospace
CFM International delivered 729 LEAP engines in H1 2025, up 10% year-over-year, with each engine containing Safran-built components that took decades...
SAIC Motor Corporation
Automotive
Joint venture dependence creates obligate mutualism vulnerability: SAIC's 2024 wholesale volume fell 20.07% to 4.01 million vehicles as partnerships w...
Saint-Gobain
Industrial
Saint-Gobain posted €47.9 billion revenue in 2024 with record 11.4% operating margin and €4 billion free cash flow, selling construction materials acr...
Salesforce
Technology/Enterprise Software
Agentforce processed 3.2 trillion tokens in its first 90 days and closed 9,500 paid deals by December 2025. This explosive adoption mirrors bacterial...
Sam Goody / Musicland
Retail
Musicland's 2006 bankruptcy collapsed Sam Goody, Suncoast, and Media Play stores after Best Buy sold the chain for $408 million less than it paid. The...
Sambo's Restaurants
Restaurant
Sambo's collapse from 1,117 locations in 1979 to bankruptcy in 1981 demonstrates how brand toxicity can kill organisms rapidly. The restaurant's name...
Sampo Group
Insurance & Financial Services
Sampo Group operates as Nordic insurance infrastructure with €10.8 billion revenue, demonstrating how risk-pooling mechanisms enable economic activity...
Samsung Electronics
Technology/Electronics
Samsung Electronics is one of the world's largest technology companies, headquartered in Suwon, South Korea. The company exemplifies sophisticated mod...
Samsung SDI
Battery Manufacturing
Samsung SDI recorded operating losses through Q1-Q3 2025 while committing $3.5 billion to a General Motors joint venture in Indiana (36 GWh annual cap...
Sanchez Energy
Oil & Gas
Sanchez Energy's August 2019 bankruptcy collapsed an Eagle Ford shale operator that had grown through aggressive drilling and acquisition. The company...
Sandvik AB
Mining & Construction Equipment
Sandvik's SEK 123 billion in 2024 revenue with 19.2% EBITA margin masks the strategic shift from selling equipment to capturing lifecycle value. Minin...
Sanlam
Insurance & Financial Services
Sanlam's SanlamAllianz joint venture reveals coalition formation at intercontinental scale. In 2024, the company merged its pan-African insurance oper...
Sanofi
Pharmaceuticals
Sanofi generated €41.1 billion revenue in 2024 (up 9%) with Dupixent blockbuster drug hitting €15.125 billion (up 22%), while simultaneously deploying...
Santos Limited
Energy
Santos operates as a classic source-sink organism, extracting concentrated energy reserves from geological deposits and distributing them across Asia-...
SAP SuccessFactors
Technology/Enterprise Software
Cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software platform, originally founded as SuccessFactors in 2001 (performance management software), then acq...
Sasol
Energy & Chemicals
Sasol's Fischer-Tropsch technology performs metabolic alchemy: transforming coal and natural gas—low-value, abundant feedstocks—into liquid fuels, spe...
Saudi Aramco
Energy / Oil & Gas
The world's largest oil company - valued at $2+ trillion, producing 10+ million barrels daily - proves that in capital-intensive industries, size isn'...
Scale AI
Artificial Intelligence
Scale AI provides data labeling for training AI models. Platform economics with economies of scale in annotation services.
Scentre Group
Retail Property
Scentre Group manages 42 Westfield shopping centers across Australia and New Zealand with $50.7 billion in assets under management, maintaining 99.8%...
Schibsted ASA
Media & Publishing
A 183-year-old media institution split itself in June 2024 like a cell entering mitosis, separating news operations from digital marketplaces to creat...
Schindler
Elevators & Escalators
Schindler discovered what Otis and KONE also learned: elevator economics reward service contracts over hardware sales. Founded 1874, the company gener...
Schneider Electric
Electrical Equipment
Schneider Electric posted €38.15 billion revenue in 2024 (8.4% organic growth) with €4.2 billion free cash flow and 18.6% adjusted EBITA margin, drive...
Sea Limited
Technology & E-commerce
Sea Limited is Southeast Asia's leading internet company with three core businesses: Garena (gaming), Shopee (e-commerce), and SeaMoney (digital finan...
Seacoast Banking Corporation
Regional Banking
Community bank holding company providing integrated financial services through Seacoast Bank. Serves individuals and businesses in Florida with tradit...
Sears Holdings
Retail
Sears' 2018 bankruptcy ended a 132-year run that once made it America's largest retailer. The company's collapse wasn't sudden—it was a 30-year extinc...
Secret
Social Media
Secret's 2015 shutdown after raising $35 million demonstrates how anonymous apps face rapid user exodus when novelty fades. The anonymous sharing app...
See's Candies
Confectionery Retail
See's Candies operates 240+ stores concentrated in California and the Western United States, generating consistent cash flow for Berkshire Hathaway si...
SelectQuote
Insurance Distribution
Direct-to-consumer distribution platform for insurance products helping consumers comparison shop for coverage. Specializes in senior health, life, an...
Sephora
Beauty Retail
Sephora isn't a retailer—it's a constructed ecosystem where beauty brands compete for shelf space, customer attention, and survival. As part of LVMH's...
Sequoia Capital
Venture Capital
In 2025, Sequoia Capital managed approximately $56 billion in assets and announced two new funds totaling $950 million: a $750 million early-stage fun...
ServiceNow
Enterprise Software
Market dominance through ecosystem entanglement: ServiceNow's 44.4% market share in IT service management isn't defended through product superiority a...
ServisFirst Bank
Commercial Banking
Commercial banking institution providing business banking services primarily in the southeastern United States. Focuses on relationship banking with c...
Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd.
Retail & Convenience Stores
Seven & i Holdings operates the 7-Eleven convenience store chain and various retail businesses globally. The company is the world's largest convenienc...
Seventh Generation
Consumer Goods/Household Products
Seventh Generation is mentioned as a Unilever acquisition demonstrating modular brand portfolio management where acquired brands maintain autonomy in...
SF Holding
Logistics & Delivery
SF Holding is China's leading express delivery and logistics company, known for premium service quality with integrated air cargo, ground transportati...
Shake Shack
Fast-casual Restaurant
Shake Shack discovered the ultimate competitive advantage isn't better burgers—it's lower operating costs at scale. Under CEO Rob Lynch (May 2024), th...
Sharp Corporation (Crisis)
Electronics
Sharp's 2016 sale to Foxconn after near-bankruptcy demonstrates how display panel overcapacity can destroy technology leaders. The Japanese pioneer in...
Shein
E-commerce
Shein generated $38 billion revenue in 2024 (up 23% year-over-year) by perfecting metabolic speed no incumbent could match. The company produces 37 ti...
Shell plc
Energy
Shell navigates ecological succession from oil-age climax to energy transition pioneer—but shows symptoms of mature-stage blindness. The Anglo-Dutch e...
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
Chemicals
Shin-Etsu Chemical occupies oligopolistic niches across two unrelated markets: global #1 in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and silicon wafers. This dual dom...
ShipBob
Logistics
Third-party logistics (3PL) provider recommended for seed-stage e-commerce companies. Charges $3-6/order all-in, representing 20-30% infrastructure ta...
Shiseido
Cosmetics/Consumer Goods
Japanese cosmetics giant with over 150 years of history, facing classic power law challenge of extreme SKU proliferation. Analysis revealed approximat...
Shopee (Sea Limited)
E-commerce
Shopee is Southeast Asia's leading e-commerce platform, part of Sea Limited, offering C2C and B2C marketplace services. The company has grown to domin...
Shopko
Retail
Shopko's January 2019 bankruptcy collapsed a Midwestern discount department store chain serving small towns that Walmart and Target ignored. The compa...
Shoprite Holdings
Retail & Consumer
Shoprite Holdings opened 363 stores in FY2025, expanding to 3,478 total locations across eight African countries—but the remarkable achievement isn't...
Shyp
Logistics
Shyp raised $62M to let consumers photograph items and have them picked up, packaged, and shipped. The company discovered that the customers who most...
Siemens Energy
Energy Technology
Siemens Energy is a global energy technology leader focusing on power generation, transmission, and storage solutions including gas turbines, wind tur...
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
Renewables
Siemens Gamesa installed 130 GW of wind capacity globally—enough to power 140 million homes—yet the business struggled with losses until parent Siemen...
Siemens Healthineers
Healthcare Technology
A €22.4 billion medical technology organism dominates through modular architecture, commanding 30% of the global imaging market across MRI, CT, and X-...
Signature Bank
Banking
Signature Bank's 2023 failure two days after SVB demonstrates how crypto exposure and contagion combine fatally. The bank had courted crypto customers...
Sika
Specialty Chemicals for Construction
Sika converted a 1910 waterproofing additive into an $11B specialty chemicals empire through biological invasion patterns: systematic geographic colon...
Silicon Graphics
Technology
Silicon Graphics' 2009 bankruptcy ended a pioneer in 3D graphics that had powered Hollywood visual effects. SGI workstations created Jurassic Park's d...
Silicon Valley Bank
Banking
Silicon Valley Bank's March 2023 collapse was the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history and demonstrated how interest rate risk can kill a bank...
Singapore Airlines
Aviation
Singapore Airlines exemplifies 50 years of sustained phototropic discipline toward a single resource gradient: premium long-haul business travelers. C...
Sizzler USA
Restaurant
Sizzler USA's September 2020 bankruptcy collapsed the American operations of the steakhouse-buffet chain. The brand had already declined from 600+ U.S...
SK Hynix
Semiconductors
SK Hynix is one of the world's leading memory semiconductor manufacturers, specializing in DRAM and NAND flash memory chips for computers, servers, mo...
SLB (Schlumberger)
Oil & Gas Services
The $7.75 billion ChampionX acquisition closed July 2025, bolstering SLB's portfolio in production chemicals, artificial lift systems, and digital sol...
SoftBank Group Corp.
Technology & Telecommunications
SoftBank is a multinational conglomerate focused on technology investments, telecommunications, and internet services. The company operates the Vision...
Softcat
Technology
Softcat is a leading IT infrastructure and services provider in the UK. The company helps organizations procure, implement, and manage technology solu...
Solyndra
Solar Manufacturing
Solyndra's 2011 bankruptcy became a political symbol of government investment failure, but the company's collapse was fundamentally a mechanism failur...
Sony Ericsson Mobile
Consumer Electronics
Sony Ericsson's decline from premium phone maker to exit demonstrates how joint ventures can prevent adaptation. Neither Sony's media nor Ericsson's t...
South32
Mining & Resources
BHP's 2015 spinoff created a $8.1 billion organism specialized in commodities the parent deemed non-core: manganese, aluminum, silver, zinc, and coal....
Southern Company
Electric Utilities
Southern Company operates regulated utilities with economies of scale in power generation. First-mover advantage in nuclear plant development and vert...
Southside Bancshares
Regional Banking
Bank holding company providing financial services through Southside Bank primarily in Texas. Offers commercial and consumer banking, mortgage lending,...
Sports Authority
Retail - Sporting Goods
Sports Authority's 2016 liquidation ended America's largest sporting goods chain at a time when Americans were spending more on fitness than ever. The...
Sprig
Food Delivery
Sprig's 2017 shutdown demonstrates how premium food delivery faces unit economics that don't scale. The healthy meal delivery startup couldn't achieve...
Spring Health (Overvalued)
Healthcare
Spring Health raised $300M at a $2.5B valuation for mental health services, then faced questions about growth rates and customer retention as the ment...
SQLite
Software/Database
SQLite is a public-domain database engine embedded in billions of devices - smartphones (iOS and Android), web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), ope...
Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
Gaming & Entertainment
Square Enix is a premier video game publisher formed from the merger of Square and Enix, creators of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises. Th...
SSE
Utilities
SSE is building energy infrastructure through ecological succession: transforming fossil-fuel-dominated grids into renewable-powered networks. The com...
Stage Stores
Retail
Stage Stores' May 2020 bankruptcy collapsed 738 stores operating under names like Bealls, Goody's, Palais Royal, and Peebles, primarily in small-town...
Standard Bank
Financial Services
Standard Bank Group demonstrates Kleiber's Law at institutional scale. The bank manages R3.4 trillion ($192 billion) in assets across 20 African count...
Standard Bank Group
Banking
Standard Bank functions as a keystone species in African financial ecosystems. Operating across 20 African countries with over 19 million clients and...
Standard Chartered Bank
Banking / Financial Services
British bank formed in 1969 from merger of Standard Bank of British South Africa and Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China. Exemplifies strate...
State Bank of India (SBI)
Banking
State Bank of India operates as the keystone species of Indian banking, its 22,000+ branch network forming a rhizome system that penetrates every econ...
Statnett
Energy Transmission
Norway's transmission system operator managing the country's electrical grid and HVDC interconnectors to neighboring countries. Statnett operates the...
Steak 'n Ale
Restaurant
Steak 'n Ale's 2008 closure alongside sister chain Bennigan's demonstrates how restaurant concepts age out of relevance. The salad bar and casual stea...
Stein Mart
Off-Price Retail
Stein Mart's August 2020 bankruptcy ended 112 years of discount retail. The Jacksonville-based chain operated 281 stores targeting middle-aged women s...
Steinhoff International
Retail
Steinhoff's 2017 implosion ranks among the largest accounting frauds in history - €10 billion in fabricated profits over a decade. The South African r...
Stellar Bancorp
Regional Banking
Bank holding company providing commercial banking services to businesses and individuals primarily in Texas and nearby states. Offers lending, deposit...
Stena Line
Transportation
Swedish ferry operator demonstrating remarkable phenotypic plasticity in customer service. During the 2018 Beast from the East storm that grounded fli...
Steward Health Care
Healthcare - Hospitals
Steward Health Care's 2024 bankruptcy demonstrated how private equity ownership of healthcare can prioritize extraction over patient care until hospit...
STMicroelectronics
Technology
STMicroelectronics is a European semiconductor manufacturer. The company designs and produces chips for automotive, industrial, and consumer electroni...
Stock Yards Bancorp
Regional Banking
Bank holding company providing commercial and consumer banking services through Stock Yards Bank & Trust. Serves individuals and businesses in Kentuck...
StoneCo
Payment Processing
Brazilian fintech company providing financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners. Offers payment processing, banki...
Stora Enso
Forestry & Biomaterials
Stora Enso's 737-year continuous operation (founded 1288 as copper mine) represents one of history's longest corporate succession chains: copper minin...
Straumann Group
Dental Implants & Orthodontics
Straumann built a CHF 2.5 billion dental implant business (2024, 13.7% organic growth) on a biological phenomenon: titanium integrates with living bon...
Substack
Media
Substack enables writers to publish newsletters with paid subscriptions. Platform economics with network effects in independent media.
SuccessFactors
Enterprise Software/HR
SAP acquired SuccessFactors in 2012 for $3.4 billion and immediately announced the sunset of 40% of its on-premise product development. This was branc...
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries
Pharmaceuticals
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries operates as India's largest pharmaceutical organism and the world's fourth-largest specialty generic company, with a glo...
SunEdison
Clean Energy
SunEdison's 2016 bankruptcy was the largest in solar history - $16 billion in debt. The company invented the yieldco model: acquire solar projects, dr...
Supreme
Fashion/Streetwear
American streetwear brand founded in 1994 that exemplifies runaway selection dynamics. Supreme's box logo - a simple red rectangle with white text - c...
Sur La Table
Retail
Sur La Table's July 2020 bankruptcy collapsed the upscale kitchenware retailer after COVID shuttered its cooking classes, which drove store traffic. T...
Suzano
Paper & Pulp
Suzano built the world's largest single pulp production line in 2024—a 2.55 million tonne per year facility in Ribas do Rio Pardo—and revealed what ve...
Sweetgreen
Fast-casual Restaurant
Sweetgreen cracked what kills most restaurant chains: profitable unit economics without sacrificing speed. The company's Infinite Kitchen automation r...
Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd.)
Food Delivery & Technology
Swiggy is one of India's largest food delivery platforms, competing with Zomato and offering quick commerce through Instamart. The company has revolut...
Swiss Life
Life Insurance & Pensions
Swiss Life transformed mortality uncertainty into a $255B asset management machine by arbitraging the gap between individual unpredictability and popu...
Swiss Re
Reinsurance
Swiss Re's $40+ billion revenue (2024: $3.2B net income, 15% ROE) operates at a meta-level most companies never see - it's the reinsurer for insurers,...
Swissair
Aviation
Swissair's 2001 bankruptcy shocked the world - Switzerland's flag carrier, once called the 'Flying Bank' for its financial solidity, ran out of cash i...
Swisscom
Telecommunications
Swisscom's $13+ billion revenue (CHF 11B in 2024, projected CHF 15-15.2B for 2025) demonstrates how state ownership (51% Swiss Confederation) enables...
Synopsys
Electronic Design Automation
Synopsys doesn't manufacture chips—it creates the software that makes chip design possible. The company holds 38% of the $15 billion electronic design...