Wolfgang Hammer - The Power of Story - [Invest Like the Best, EP.447]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Technology, Business, Investing

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest today is my friend Wolfgang Hammer. Wolfgang is a successful film producer and executive who helped create House of Cards and ran several major studios, including Lionsgate, CBS Films and Miramax. He’s now building a new kind of film studio with support from Mitch Lasky and Marc Andreessen. Wolfgang also helps founders and CEOs use storytelling to better understand what they do, and why it matters. In many ways, this conversation is a manual for how to find that story and communicate it in a way that resonates. Wolfgang shares the questions and tools he gives leaders to help them do the same. Our conversation explores how stories work, what great ones have in common, and why understanding your own story can be transformative. We talk about the three layers every story must have — the external, the emotional, and the philosophical — and how they apply to building companies and leading people. So many CEOs — at both startups and massive Fortune 100 companies — have Wolfgang to thank for changing how they think and talk about their business, and I hope this episode gives you the tools to do the same. Please enjoy my conversation with the great Wolfgang Hammer. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ramp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. – This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ AlphaSense⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Alpha-Sense.com/Invest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. –- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ridgeline⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Head to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ridgelineapps.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the platform. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:04:22) Meet Wolfgang Hammer (00:05:25) How to Tell Your Story (00:07:10) The Three Layers of Every Story (00:10:02) What a Good Story Unlocks (00:12:39) Applying Storytelling Principles to Business (00:17:24) Lessons From Filmmaking for CEOs (00:22:46) Everything is a Death Project (00:25:03) What Makes a Great Story (00:30:54) The Role of Status (00:31:48) Building a New Kind of Film Studio (00:35:20) The Version of Your Story so Big it Terrifies You (00:39:34) Grand Unified Theory (00:42:03) The Kindest Thing

Transcript

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0:00.0	The best operators have a relentless focus on leverage, finding ways to multiply their impact
0:04.7	rather than just working harder. But here's what I see happening in finance teams everywhere,
0:09.0	brilliant people getting buried in expense management busy work. If you think about it,
0:12.8	you become a finance leader because you love strategic work, modeling scenarios, optimizing capital
0:17.2	allocation, finding the insights that actually move the business forward. But instead,
0:20.8	you're chasing receipts and categorizing transactions.
0:23.1	It's the opposite of leverage.
0:24.8	This is exactly why I'm so bullish on what the team at Ramp has built.
0:28.5	Kareem and Eric understood that every minute spent on manual expense management is a minute
0:32.4	stolen from high leverage work.
0:34.0	So they automated all of it.
0:35.6	Automatic categorization, receipt matching, spending controls that
0:38.6	actually work. I love the network effect that this creates. When finance teams at companies like Shopify
0:43.7	and Stripe automate the mundane stuff, they free up cycles to think bigger, to ask for your questions,
0:48.5	spot patterns others miss, and make the kind of strategic bets that separate great companies from good
0:53.0	ones. The math is simple. Get your time back, focus on what matters. Check out ramp.com slash invest and see what happens when you eliminate the busy work. Cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. As an investor, gaining an edge means having the right tools, and one platform leading the way is AlphaSense. Trusted by 75% of the world's top hedge funds, AlphaSense is the market intelligence platform
1:14.5	that gives institutional investors access to over 500 million premium sources, from company
1:19.3	filings and broker research to news, trade journals, and more.
1:22.6	And with its recent acquisition of Teegas, it also includes the world's largest library of
1:26.5	expert interview transcripts,
1:27.9	over 200,000 calls covering more than 24,000 public and private companies. All in one platform
1:33.3	so investment teams can move faster, go deeper, and make high conviction decisions with confidence.
	...

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