Diana Ross: The Startup Founder Who Bought the Factory

The ultimate diva wasn't even meant to be named Diana, a clerical error on her birth certificate cemented the legend. But the real story isn't her 18 number-one hits. It's how a teenager from the Detroit projects operated like a ruthless startup founder, accumulating skills and leverage long before she had a product to sell.This episode sets aside the hit list to examine the mechanics of Diana Ross's survival and dominance. From brokering a guitarist trade to land a Motown audition, to escaping Berry Gordy's assembly line, to redefining the music industry's market value, it reveals a woman who refused to be a passive product and decided instead to buy the factory.How she held an introduction hostage to force the Supremes' Motown auditionThe economic reason behind rebranding the group as "Diana Ross and the Supremes"Her Oscar-nominated acting debut and the on-set war during MahoganyThe $250,000 Motown severance that drove her to a record $20 million RCA dealThe truth behind the myth that she "discovered" the Jackson 5