Leather seats, marble floors, chrome buckles, and pearl necklaces- that was just the beginning of the luxurious Trump Shuttle saga. Back in 1989, Donald J. Trump, graced the covers of Time Magazine with the byline “Young, handsome and ridiculously rich.” He had just acquired Trump Plaza and with his growing casinos in Atlantic City, was looking to further boost his business brand by adding a luxury airline to his empire. But in less than 3 years, Trump Shuttle would be seeing its final descent. Find out how on Episode 38 of The Great Fail.

In its heyday, Pier 1 Imports had 18,000 employees and over 1,000 stores worldwide, bringing us the most eclectic and quirky array of home furnishing design and décor products– from love beads, exotic rattan chairs to other treasured goods. For over 5 decades, Pier 1 took the reins of the home décor retail market, never thinking that its wares would ever go out of style. Find out how Pier 1 sank on Episode 37 of The Great Fail.

Cinephile and film enthusiast, Stacy Spikes sought to reinvent the way people watched movies. His answer was MoviePass, a subscription-based service that allowed people to watch any movie, at any theater, at any time for one monthly fee. It was ground-breaking, well-suiting the Company to disrupt an entire industry. But what occurred next would see MoviePass topple from being a blockbuster hit to a box-office bomb. A special thanks to Stacy Spikes for sharing his experience in founding MoviePass. Get that and more on Episode 36 of The Great Fail.

On April 9, 2017, passengers of United Airlines Flight 3411 watched as aviation officers dragged out a fellow passenger, Dr. David Dao. He was one of the individuals involuntarily bumped off the plane after United Airlines overbooked its flight. Ripped from his seat by law enforcement officers, Dr. Dao was knocked unconscious– his glasses falling off his face, and his body dragged by the arms down the aisle, leaving a trail of blood and bodily fluids in his wake. If that wasn’t shocking enough, it was what occurred afterward that continued to shock the entire world. Tune in to Episode 35 of The Great Fail, for the public relations nightmare that was United Airlines Flight 3411.

When HQ Trivia went live in 2018, it was an instant hit, generating a tremendous amount of mass appeal and gaining an immediate cult following that went beyond anyone’s expectations. They also had the blessings of the most influential people-from the celebrity-world to the investment world. What would follow would be a set of glitches, cheating bots, internal turmoil, a toxic work environment, mismanagement of funds, and a tragic drug overdose. Get the full scoop on what led to the downfall of one of the biggest blockbuster app launches. Check out Episode 34 on The Great Fail.

When Vince McMahon announced that he would be creating a new football league– a grittier, more violent, and more entertaining version called the XFL, many seemed to think this idea would be an ultimate touchdown. When the highly anticipated, highly publicized event premiered on NBC in February of 2001, it received 54 million television viewers that weekend, the most the network had ever seen at one time. But a series of fumbles and mishaps would lead to the original XFL becoming one of the worst shows in history. Mark Perry, editor, and founder of XFL News Hub joins us this week to break it down from the club seats. Check out Episode 33 on The Great Fail.

On March 26, 2021, the financial world awoke to the news that rattled some of Wall Street’s biggest players. To the outside world, and at the center of it all were some unfamiliar and obscure names– Archegos Capital and its Founder Bill Hwang. The word on the street was that Archegos defaulted on billions of dollars of loans and creating a contagion amongst some of the world’s biggest banks that now faced billion-dollar losses. What would be uncovered would become one of the most astounding and outrageous financial failures in modern-day history, which all could’ve been entirely preventable.

Kodak dominated the consumer photography market for over a century and their downfall seems to be obvious in their inability to adapt to the digital age. But when you look closer at the company’s history, you’ll come to see that ironically what made them so successful was what ultimately killed off the Company. John Kotter, best-selling author, and professor at Harvard Business School will help break down how Kodak was a lesson in how a series of mistakes, including the culture at Kodak, could forever damage a once picture-perfect pioneer.

Theranos’s groundbreaking proprietary technology promised to revolutionize healthcare with just a drop of blood from a finger prick. The company, led by its founder Elizabeth Holmes, would raise over $900 million and become a darling in the tech community. That is until a Wall Street Journal exposé revealed a scandal that astounded and paralyzed the entire VC and medical world, unraveling the $9 billion organization. Justin Maxwell, a former employee and one of the lead designers speaks about what makes an organization toxic and why the corporate culture within Theranos was the precise environment that allowed for the cover-up of secrecy, paranoia, and deception.

When Borders was founded in 1971, it was one of the most pioneering companies in the book business, quickly becoming one of the most dominant players in the space. For 40 years, it was known as one of the retail behemoths, but then came the digital age…Border’s last CEO Mike Edwards discusses what we all can learn about digital transformation, the evolution of businesses, and lessons from managing a Company on the brink of failure.