The college dropout who keeps ending up in billion-dollar...

What this episode covers

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Cornelius Schmahl — a college dropout who keeps finding his way into billion-dollar outcomes.At 23, Uber sent him to markets nobody wanted. South Africa. Uganda. Ghana. No playbook. Figure it out or fail.By 27, he was running Uber Russia. One problem: Yandex was winning.He helped engineer a 3.7 billion dollar merger — then walked away from operating entirely. Started writing angel checks. Lime. Liquid Death. BillionToOne.Climeworks. Four bets. Four unicorns.What does this guy see that everybody else misses?Cornelius thanks a lot for being on BILLIONS.TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:03:58: From college dropout to Uber's unwanted markets00:03:58 - 00:09:02: The brutal reality of launching Uber in hostile territories00:09:02 - 00:16:06: Engineering violent price cuts and discovering the utilization game00:16:06 - 00:25:47: The Russia war - infiltrating Yandex and burning millions strategically00:25:47 - 00:32:35: The $3.7 billion merger and why timing beat fundamentals00:32:35 - 00:44:26: Angel investing reality check - why unicorns on paper don't pay bills00:44:26 - 00:52:28: The three-step framework that creates billion-dollar companies00:52:28 - 00:58:52: From billionaire dreams to therapy - the consciousness shift00:58:52 - 01:01:48: Marc Benioff email scandal and building leverage through controversy

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This episode is 1 hour and 1 minute long.

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This episode was published on February 13, 2026.

What is this episode about?

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Cornelius Schmahl — a college dropout who keeps finding his way into billion-dollar outcomes.At 23, Uber sent him to markets nobody wanted. South Africa. Uganda. Ghana. No playbook. Figure it out or fail.By...

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