Phil Knight

Phil Knight sold running shoes out of the trunk of his car at Pacific Northwest track meets, financing growth on debt so thin the company lived in near-constant cash crisis for years. American banks would not extend enough credit, so a Japanese trading company kept him alive. When his original supplier started shopping for a new distributor, he hired a design student for a small fee, named the company after the Greek goddess of victory, and launched his own line.

For founders and operators, this case is about surviving financial near-death long enough to learn the real lesson: that consumers buy stories and identity, not features. It asks what your brand actually says about the person who uses it, and pushes you to find your version of the athlete whose narrative makes the product mean something. What Knight understood about the difference between buying celebrity and buying narrative is what the app holds back.