Think like a billionaire part one
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
Today, Think Like a Billionaire, Part 1.
The year is 2017 at the Westin Dragonara Hotel in Malta.
It's really grand, very luxurious. It's located on its own private peninsula. Five swimming pools, a hair salon, private beach lined with palm trees, you know, idyllic.
This luxury hotel is the home of Julie Meyer MBE, dot-com darling and Dragon's Den star. For the past few months, Julie has been living in the hotel while she grows her business. It's late. A couple of her assistants arrive at the front desk looking panicked.
Julie has written this letter and they hand this letter to the receptionist and it says something like, oh, I've paid a little bit of extra money to let my employees in. The receptionist accepts the letter and hands them the keys to the room. They enter the room and urgently start packing. Julie's also sent an email with detail of what to pack and what to leave behind. So in the email, it says, take everything in the drawers, under the TV, all shoes in both closets. The second closet close to the window and further from the door has the more important clothes, expensive ones that I need now.
This is Olivia Lee, a reporter who spent the past 18 months digging into the life and times of Julie Meyer.
Further down in the email, it says, be super friendly to the staff in the hallway and don't allow them to think that there's anything up. I'll look hard and raise the alarm that we're doing a runner and I'm fleeing the country.
The orders came from someone who'd been named one of the most influential businesswomen in Europe.
What dramatic late‑night escape at the Westin Dragonara introduced Julie Meyer’s story?
Help society understand that society works best when it's organised around the entrepreneur.
a woman who had the brains, the looks, the connections to make it right to the very top. Now she was doing a runner in the middle of the night. So what was Julie Meyer up to? To find out, Olivia has spent the last year following Julie's trail across Europe, hearing about failed businesses, missing money and claims of scams, and ultimately ending up at the door of Julie Meyer herself.
Apparently it's got her name on it, so we're just checking. Oh, here we go. Julie Marie Meyer.
From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in Focus, think like a billionaire, part one. Olivia, this story began for you at the back end of 2024 in a rather unusual location.
Yeah, it was very random, actually. I was in Fabric Nightclub, so quite an iconic nightclub in London. My friend was working for a company who'd hired out the club for an after-party to a tech conference, and she was just like, do you want to come along? There'll be a free bar. I think I'd just handed in the dissertation for my master's, so it was kind of perfect timing to let off some steam and have a dance. It was like a typical night at Fabrics. It was quite loud. The DJ was playing techno music, strobe lights, fog machines. You couldn't really see people's faces. Everyone there was a tech founder, so I felt slightly out of place. But I started talking to this guy. He was American. He was in his late 20s.
He was really charismatic, quite funny. We were talking a little bit about his business. Then he starts telling me this really strange story. He'd been invited to this luxurious networking event. So entrepreneurs would be able to pitch their ideas to wealthy investors. There were going to be yacht trips and gala dinners, you know, exactly where you want to be if you're an entrepreneur who needed backing. There'd be 60 high net investors. It was kind of like Dragon's Den abroad.
Okay, so he was sold basically and he flies out to the Greek island where this thing is taking place. What does he find there?
So this guy in the club, he told me this story and he said he was expecting something like quite a luxurious, glamorous experience and the reality was that it was a complete mess. So he said there was meant to be around like 60 high net investors attending and that barely any of them has shown up. He claimed that there were these really chaotic scenes of taxi drivers supposedly working for the organiser going on strike because they hadn't been paid.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:02
2
What dramatic late‑night escape at the Westin Dragonara introduced Julie Meyer’s story?
2:02–12:58
3
How did Olivia Lee first encounter the tip that led to investigating Julie Meyer?
12:58–26:34
4
What was Julie Meyer’s early life and career path from Michigan to INSEAD and Paris?
26:34–28:46