Adapt or Die — All Episodes /feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCnK_N8aKzD7N53wEeVcrlRg
Oct 3, 2026 · 1 min · 1 segments
This episode tells the story of a Seattle-based company, McCaw Cellular, which repeatedly faced near-bankruptcy but kept securing financing because they believed market timing was right. The episode…
The, the, the key with so many entrepreneurs is just, um, we spoke a little bit about it before.
It's when some of the times when you're right there, when it's the, the most difficult, uh, times, you're right on the precipice of success.
You know, I worked with one of my clients, um, m- many years ago in the '90s, was a company called McCaw Cellular, and they sold to AT&T Wireless.
I'm in Seattle.
And one of the things that happened was they kept having to get additional funding to go buy wireless licenses, but they were on the verge of bankruptcy every single time, and they just kept going and kept going and kept going and kept...
They knew, [clears throat] they knew it was-- the timing was right in the, in the marketplace, and they kept going.
And just, um, they were able to find the financing to keep going and keep going and keep going till eventually they had a, a...
At the time, it was a pretty big exit.
It was sixteen billion dollars.
So, um, you know, I mean, that's one of the things [chuckles] was just like, um, I had the opportunity to work with them and ended up being, they ended up being a client, and I just thought, "These guys will never make it.
You know, they're just, they're running out of money.
Oh, they got more money."
The, the, the key with so many entrepreneurs is just, um, we spoke a little bit about it before.
It's when some of the times when you're right there, when it's the, the most difficult, uh, times, you're right on the precipice of success.
You know, I worked with one of my clients, um, m- many years ago in the '90s, was a company called McCaw Cellular, and they sold to AT&T Wireless.
I'm in Seattle.
And one of the things that happened was they kept having to get additional funding to go buy wireless licenses, but they were on the verge of bankruptcy every single time, and they just kept going and kept going and kept going and kept...
They knew, [clears throat] they knew it was-- the timing was right in the, in the marketplace, and they kept going.
And just, um, they were able to find the financing to keep going and keep going and keep going till eventually they had a, a...
At the time, it was a pretty big exit.
It was sixteen billion dollars.
So, um, you know, I mean, that's one of the things [chuckles] was just like, um, I had the opportunity to work with them and ended up being, they ended up being a client, and I just thought, "These guys will never make it.
You know, they're just, they're running out of money.
Oh, they got more money."
