Michael Girdley
@girdley • 269,880 subscribers
Creating and building businesses. Current Passion Project: explaining why 500+ great companies failed (120 videos so far).
Videos
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody eats at Buffalo Wild Wings In 2015, Buffalo Wild Wings stood at the top of the sports bar industry. With more than 1,200 locations and over $2 billion in annual revenue, it had become the undisputed king of the American sports bar. Just two years later, the company was sold in what many viewed as a bargain deal, especially compared to its peak valuation. Meanwhile, one of its smaller competitors was quietly growing into a highly profitable business, generating millions in profits while Buffalo Wild Wings struggled. How did the industry's dominant leader lose its edge to a much smaller rival? This is the rise and fall of Buffalo Wild Wings.
Michael Girdley418,757 views • 21 days ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: The rise and fall of Topgolf: the $1.5 billion mistake At one point, Topgolf was called the best thing to happen to golf since Tiger Woods. But in January 2026, the entire business was sold to a private equity firm in what many considered a fire sale. The price was $1.1 billion, less than half of what the company had been worth just five years earlier. Here’s the surprising part: during those five years, the business never stopped growing. Topgolf kept opening new locations, attracting new customers, and generating more revenue. So how does a company with growing sales, expanding locations, and a popular brand lose so much value? What went wrong? Was it bad management, changing consumer habits, or something deeper hidden in the business model? This is the rise and fall of Topgolf, version two.
Michael Girdley1,460,619 views • 3 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why the Pickleball boom is already over Pickleball is doomed. And I say that as someone who plays three times a week and absolutely loves the game. Just last month, Apollo, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, invested $225 million in a pickleball-adjacent business. At the same time, one of the major manufacturers of pickleball equipment has lost nearly $14 million since it launched, and one of the biggest franchise companies helping people open pickleball facilities recently stopped selling new franchises. The crazy thing about pickleball is that the very factors that made it explode in popularity may also be the things that ultimately lead to its decline. So what happens when America's fastest-growing sport runs headfirst into the realities of business? That's what this video is about.
Michael Girdley920,981 views • 2 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why people stopped shopping at IKEA At its peak, IKEA was selling nearly €48 billion worth of merchandise a year across more than 460 stores around the world. The company was so dominant that it sold one of its iconic BILLY bookcases every five seconds. But recently, something changed. Revenue started shrinking for three years in a row, profits dropped by a third in one of those years, and IKEA began doing something that once seemed almost unthinkable: closing stores. So what’s happening to one of the most successful furniture retailers in history? And why is a business that practically invented the modern furniture shopping experience suddenly struggling? This video is about what’s going wrong with IKEA.
Michael Girdley312,011 views • 1 month ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody goes to Five Guys anymore Five Guys grew into a burger powerhouse, generating more than $1.3 billion in revenue. It was named America’s best burger by Zagat, and even the President of the United States was known to stop by for lunch. At its peak, the chain seemed unstoppable. But today, sales are down more than 10% from their peak. Stores are closing, and the brand has become the target of endless jokes online, mostly centered around one thing: the price. It’s easy to blame inflation and the post-pandemic economy for Five Guys’ struggles. But the real story is more complicated than that. This is the rise and fall of Five Guys.
Michael Girdley979,826 views • 3 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody books with Airbnb anymore After going public, Airbnb reached a staggering $128 billion valuation in 2021. That's an incredible number for a company that started with a few air mattresses in a San Francisco apartment. At its peak, Airbnb was worth more than Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott combined. But since then, the story has changed. The stock has fallen by nearly a third, travelers are increasingly choosing hotels again, and cities like New York have imposed strict regulations that have dramatically reduced Airbnb listings. Even many of the platform's biggest fans aren't using it as much anymore. So what happened? Why did one of the most disruptive companies of the last decade lose so much momentum? The answer isn't what most people think. This is the rise and fall of Airbnb.
Michael Girdley427,830 views • 1 month ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody goes bowling anymore In the mid-1960s, bowling was one of America's most popular sports. There were more than 12,000 bowling alleys across the country, and top professional bowlers were signing multimillion-dollar endorsement deals that, in some cases, surpassed the earnings of golf's biggest stars. Today, the sport looks very different. More than two-thirds of those bowling alleys have closed, participation has steadily declined, and one of the industry's largest equipment manufacturers eventually exited the business altogether, choosing to make boats instead. How did one of America's biggest recreational sports fall so far from its peak? This is the rise and fall of bowling.
Michael Girdley75,681 views • 17 days ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: The rise and fall of Orange County Choppers: From $40M empire to bankruptcy In 2009, a reality TV star threw a chair at his own son on national television. Paul Teutul Sr., covered in tattoos and built like a tank, exploded in anger at his son, Paul Jr., for showing up at 7:45 instead of the expected 7:00 a.m. What followed was a heated argument that turned physical, with both father and son throwing chairs. The moment was dramatic, chaotic, and eventually watched over 100 million times online, becoming one of the most iconic clips in reality TV history. But what the meme doesn’t show is that this fight was at the heart of something much bigger. It marked the beginning of the collapse of Orange County Choppers, a business that was once doing $40 million a year in revenue. At its peak, the company had built a $13 million headquarters in upstate New York and was drawing 3.4 million viewers per episode. By the time that viral moment resurfaced online years later, the business was already falling apart. Paul Sr., the majority owner, had filed for bankruptcy, and that $13 million headquarters was eventually sold for pennies on the dollar. This is the rise and fall of Orange County Choppers.
Michael Girdley767,448 views • 6 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Fireball built a billion-dollar brand, then lost it Back in 2024, a woman walked into a gas station and bought a small bottle that looked just like Fireball whiskey. She took it home, realized something was off, and called her lawyer. Together, they filed a lawsuit. A woman sued Fireball for $5 million, claiming that some of the mini bottles were misleading customers. And it turned out she had a point. Some bottles labeled Fireball sold in liquor stores are real whiskey and clearly say so on the label. But the version she bought at the gas station was different. It wasn’t whiskey at all. It was a malt based beverage, similar to products like BuzzBallz, designed to get around liquor regulations so it can be sold in convenience stores. The problem was that the packaging looked nearly identical. It had the same branding, the same appearance, and the same reputation as the whiskey version, but it wasn’t actually whiskey. That raised serious questions about whether customers were being misled. In this video, we’ll cover how that lawsuit turned out and what it reveals about the bigger story behind Fireball. It went from a tiny brand doing just over $1 million a year in sales to a multibillion dollar phenomenon, and now it finds itself at the center of major shifts in the alcohol industry. This is the rise and fall of Fireball.
Michael Girdley519,934 views • 4 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody buys Stanley mugs anymore At its peak, the Stanley Quencher generated more than $750 million in annual sales. Fans camped outside stores overnight just to buy one, and resellers were flipping them on eBay for two to three times retail. For a while, it seemed like everyone had one. But by 2025, the trend was already beginning to fade. Sales slowed, the company faced a major product recall, and the executive who helped turn the Quencher into a cultural phenomenon had left the business. Almost as quickly as the brand had exploded in popularity, its momentum began to disappear. So how did one of the biggest consumer crazes of the decade rise so quickly and cool off just as fast? This is the rise and fall of the Stanley Quencher.
Michael Girdley91,592 views • 27 days ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why Nobody's Eating McDonald's Anymore In February 2026, the CEO of McDonald’s posted a social media video of himself trying the company’s newest burger, the Big Arch. Instead of generating excitement, the video went viral for the wrong reasons. He came across as robotic, referring to the burger as a “product,” and the internet quickly turned it into a joke. This is the same company that built more than 43,000 restaurants around the world, once served one in every four Americans each month, and became the most dominant fast food brand ever created. But today, McDonald’s is under pressure. U.S. sales are down nearly 6% year over year, and its core customers are cutting back on eating out. So what happened? How did the world’s most successful restaurant chain lose its momentum? This is the rise and fall of McDonald’s in the United States.
Michael Girdley222,507 views • 2 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody eats Dairy Queen anymore Dairy Queen opened its first store in 1940, and just 15 years later, it had grown to more than 2,600 locations. It expanded even faster than McDonald’s, becoming one of America’s most recognizable fast food chains. But today, Dairy Queen has fallen far behind its biggest competitors. The average Dairy Queen generates around $1 million in annual sales, while the average Chick-fil-A brings in roughly $6 million. You might assume this is another story about a restaurant chain being taken over by private equity and everything going wrong. But Dairy Queen’s decline is an entirely different story, and it says as much about how America has changed as it does about burgers and ice cream. So how did one of America’s fastest-growing restaurant chains lose its dominance? This is the rise and fall of Dairy Queen.
Michael Girdley27,023 views • 8 days ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why In-N-Out Burger is impossible to compete with In-N-Out Burger is one of the craziest business stories of the 20th and 21st centuries. The company has succeeded by breaking almost every rule in the business playbook. They don't franchise. They don't advertise. And yet, the average In-N-Out location generates far more revenue than a typical McDonald's restaurant. It's a company that seems to ignore everything business schools tell you to do, and somehow, it's winning. But the reason for In-N-Out's success isn't just the cult following or the secret menu. The real explanation lies in a few things that almost nobody talks about. That's what this video is about. Let's dig into why In-N-Out Burger became so dominant.
Michael Girdley247,408 views • 2 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: What went wrong with Krispy Kreme? In 2003, Krispy Kreme was one of the hottest companies in America. Its market cap reached around $3 billion, and customers were camping out overnight just to get their hands on its famous donuts. Today, the picture looks very different. The company's stock has traded near all-time lows, its major partnership with McDonald's was canceled, and Krispy Kreme is carrying more than $1 billion in debt. But what's especially interesting is that this isn't the first time Krispy Kreme has faced a major collapse. In fact, the company has nearly died twice throughout its history. How did one of America's hottest brands rise, fall, come back, and find itself struggling once again? This is the rise and fall of Krispy Kreme.
Michael Girdley34,511 views • 10 days ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why American Airlines keeps getting worse At its peak, American Airlines was the largest airline in the world. It carried more passengers, generated more revenue, flew more routes, and operated more aircraft than any other airline on the planet. Today, that dominance has faded. American is losing market share in key hubs like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. The company is also burdened with roughly $25 billion in debt, and over the past few years it has lost more than $1.5 billion. So how did the airline that helped invent modern air travel and built one of the strongest positions in the industry end up falling so far behind? This is the story of why everybody hates American Airlines.
Michael Girdley153,126 views • 1 month ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why Cartoon Network went from 100 million homes to off the air Back in 2011, Cartoon Network was in more than 100 million homes. It was one of the most sought-after places to work in entertainment and routinely outperformed competitors like Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. For an entire generation, it was the home of some of the most beloved animated shows ever made. But by 2024, its audience had collapsed. Daily viewership had fallen to just 74,000 people, and the network as most people knew it effectively disappeared from the air. And while it’s easy to blame the internet, Netflix, or YouTube for Cartoon Network’s downfall, the truth is much more complicated. The seeds of its decline were planted years before streaming ever took over. This is the rise and fall of Cartoon Network.
Michael Girdley242,156 views • 3 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: The rise and fall of Target $50 billion. That’s how much Target’s value dropped in just three years after being named America’s most beloved retailer. You might assume the reason is competition from Walmart or pressure from Amazon. But the real cause is more complicated, and it’s something most people don’t want to talk about. This is the rise and fall of Target.
Michael Girdley293,580 views • 4 months ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: The rise and fall of Harvard On December 5, 2023, Harvard President Claudine Gay appeared before Congress and was asked a question that would quickly become one of the defining moments of her presidency: Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment? Her response, “It can be, depending on the context,” went viral, generating millions of views and sparking intense criticism. Within weeks, Gay resigned, becoming the shortest-tenured president in Harvard’s nearly 400-year history. But her resignation raised a much bigger question: How did Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, get to this point? Was it the donors, the students, the parents, or something else entirely? This is the rise and fall of Harvard.
Michael Girdley15,298 views • 5 days ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why nobody buys Twinkies anymore Back in 1999, Twinkies were so deeply embedded in American culture that they were included in the White House Millennium time capsule. But just 13 years later, the company making them shut down. After 82 years of continuous production, the Twinkie assembly lines stopped and 18,500 people lost their jobs. Then things got crazy. The company was bought out of bankruptcy for just $410 million. The new owners eventually turned around and sold the business for $5.6 billion, making one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the history of American consumer brands. But now, Twinkies are struggling all over again, with their new owner losing hundreds of millions of dollars on the business. How does an iconic snack go from cultural phenomenon to bankruptcy, then become a multibillion-dollar comeback story, only to struggle again? This is the rise and fall of Twinkies.
Michael Girdley78,565 views • 1 month ago
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: The rise and fall of Kraft Mac and Cheese: From 80 million boxes to a $15.4B collapse Warren Buffett, often considered the greatest investor of all time, once went on national television to admit a mistake. One of those mistakes involved Kraft Heinz. He publicly acknowledged, “I was wrong in a lot of ways about Kraft Heinz,” and added that the first error was overpaying for Kraft. Just days earlier, Kraft Heinz had announced a massive $15.4 billion writedown, wiping billions off its balance sheet and sending the stock plunging. In a single day, the company lost roughly a quarter of its market value. At the center of that collapse was what had once been Kraft’s crown jewel: its instant macaroni and cheese. For decades, Kraft Mac and Cheese had been a staple in American households. Families relied on it through the Great Depression, through World War II, and for generations after. It was dominant, dependable, and deeply embedded in American culture. Then, suddenly, it started to fail. How does a product that thrived for nearly a century stumble so quickly? Was it management mistakes? Shifting consumer tastes? Billionaire greed? The real answer may surprise you. This is the rise and fall of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
Michael Girdley406,919 views • 6 months ago