Because of the podcast I get to meet a lot of super successful people. I'm always asking them "Who is the smartest person you know" and "Who do you think has the best business?". "Ken Griffin" is a very common answer. I've heard Ken described in two ways: "Winner" and "Killer". For years I've come across interesting anecdotes about Ken. Like when he appears as a 19 year old kid in Ed Thorp's excellent autobiography A Man For All Markets. https://amzn.to/4ldz0uy Or when John Arnold describe Ken's intense competitive drive following the blowup of Enron. https://x.com/JohnArnoldFndtn/status/1888642915494244717 And then consider the fact that I'm obsessed with people who run their business for decades (Ken founded Citadel 35 years ago and Citadel Securities 23 years ago) — and I knew I had to make an episode about his life and work. The only problem was there's no great biography of Ken. So to make this episode I transcribed this talk that Ken gave at Yale. https://youtu.be/_76ZkKpdLAw?si=YM68pGBwPUcQlHCA And for additional context I read the book Ken recommends: Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win. https://amzn.to/3QVg4Dd ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. https://ramp.com/ ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. https://www.foundersnotes.com/ ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book https://davidsenra.com
"Enron was the largest energy trading firm in the United States and they blew apart in a spectacular way in 2001. The day they filed for bankruptcy I chartered a Gulfstream jet and sent 16 people to Houston. And all we did was interview people at Enron for several days. [To find out] What worked, what didn't work, how they made money, how they ran the business, what the competitive advantages were. Now the great part about this story is I hired the entire leadership of the quantitative research effort at Enron. All the people that knew how the place worked. We've made $30 billion in commodities since then." There are a ton of unbelievably amazing stories like this in the Founders Podcast episode on Ken Griffin! Tap the link to the full video!
In this View From The Top interview, Michael Liu, MBA ’25, speaks with Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel. Ken shares stories about his entrepreneurial journey, the principles that have endured throughout his career, and advice on leadership and investing.