Idea Maze

How Milton Hershey discovered his own unique form of milk chocolate — and how he accidentally created a defensible moat.

Some brief observations on the cases so far. Use this as a starting point, not an authoritative take.

Word and Excel were far from industry leaders when they first launched. They were late to the market and second rate, at best. This is the story of how Microsoft came up with the Office bundle — and how, over the next decade, it won.

It took two years before it became clear that Prime was working. How, and why, Amazon stuck with it.

The convoluted, right-place-right-time story of Instagram's rise.

The first attempt at building the iPhone came two decades too early.

How Paypal went from sending money through Palm Pilots to sending money through email.

Building the first iPhone's touchscreen keyboard was a make-it-or-break-it moment for the iPhone. Succeed, and the iPhone was possible. Fail, and the iPhone would've been shelved. This is its story.

As hyper-addictive as it is today, TikTok's success took longer than you might think.