08 October 2026
714: From $0 to $5 BILLION - The Blueprint for Building Billion-Dollar Startups | Marc Lore
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
About
Marc Lore walked into his boss's office with a newborn at home, a huge salary, and no business idea - and quit anyway to become an entrepreneur. That instinct built one of the great modern track records in commerce. He sold diapers.com to Amazon, turned a pitch deck into a $3.3 billion Walmart acquisition in under two years, became Walmart's e-commerce CEO, bought the Minnesota Timberwolves, launched a next-gen restaurant company called Wonder, and is now building Telosa - a city from scratch for 5 million people in the desert. All from a kid who told his grandma he wanted to be a farmer because farmers "grow stuff from nothing."
In this interview, Marc breaks down the conviction it takes to sell a product below cost until you win, the hiring and comp framework that let him scale companies fast, and the counterintuitive negotiating lesson behind two of his biggest deals.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• Why he quit a high-paying job with a newborn and no idea - and the mentor who funded him anyway
• The diapers.com thesis: why selling below cost was the whole strategy, and where most founders lose their nerve
• What going inside Amazon taught him - that there's no right culture, only a consistent one
• How growing through Amazon's brutal 30%-off diaper war is what made them overpay for the company
• The transparent comp system: same pay per level, Black-Scholes-priced options, and how it let him hire fast
• Why selling to Walmart felt completely different to selling to Amazon - keys to the kingdom vs. sit in the corner
• The negotiating masterclass: why knowing when NOT to negotiate landed both the Timberwolves and Wonder
• Inside Wonder: 17 restaurant chains in Mercedes vans that cook and deliver at a tenth of a restaurant's CapEx
• Why conversational commerce kills the search engine - and how he's skating to where the puck is going
• The Telosa vision: buying 200,000 acres to test a fairer model of capitalism and a $50 billion city wealth fund
If you're building a startup, wrestling with the conviction to hold your vision when it looks crazy, or just want a masterclass in thinking bigger from one of the boldest operators in commerce, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about risk, culture, and building things that grow from nothing.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50.
Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS
Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6
months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH MARC LORE
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/marclore/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/marclore
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
In this interview, Marc breaks down the conviction it takes to sell a product below cost until you win, the hiring and comp framework that let him scale companies fast, and the counterintuitive negotiating lesson behind two of his biggest deals.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• Why he quit a high-paying job with a newborn and no idea - and the mentor who funded him anyway
• The diapers.com thesis: why selling below cost was the whole strategy, and where most founders lose their nerve
• What going inside Amazon taught him - that there's no right culture, only a consistent one
• How growing through Amazon's brutal 30%-off diaper war is what made them overpay for the company
• The transparent comp system: same pay per level, Black-Scholes-priced options, and how it let him hire fast
• Why selling to Walmart felt completely different to selling to Amazon - keys to the kingdom vs. sit in the corner
• The negotiating masterclass: why knowing when NOT to negotiate landed both the Timberwolves and Wonder
• Inside Wonder: 17 restaurant chains in Mercedes vans that cook and deliver at a tenth of a restaurant's CapEx
• Why conversational commerce kills the search engine - and how he's skating to where the puck is going
• The Telosa vision: buying 200,000 acres to test a fairer model of capitalism and a $50 billion city wealth fund
If you're building a startup, wrestling with the conviction to hold your vision when it looks crazy, or just want a masterclass in thinking bigger from one of the boldest operators in commerce, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about risk, culture, and building things that grow from nothing.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50.
Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS
Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6
months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH MARC LORE
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/marclore/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/marclore
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast