The Official List of the Best Profiles on the Internet

Polina Marinova
Sep 3, 2018 · 5 min read

I’ve read thousands of profiles since I started writing The Profile, a weekly newsletter featuring the best long-form articles of interesting people and companies.

The stories have included high-profile figures like Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg, Jay-Z, and Harrison Ford. But they’ve also included some not-so-high profile people like the man who de-activated Donald Trump’s Twitter account and the woman who brought Uber to its knees.

If you’ve got a long flight coming up or you simply want to learn a lesson or two from the world’s most successful, here’s a comprehensive list of the best long-form profiles on the Internet. Enjoy.


To get the latest profiles each Sunday, subscribe to The Profile here.


October 2018

The prince of fraud & the woman running a $45 billion empire

September 2018

The king of venture capital & the crypto cop who switched sides
The LeBron James of short selling & the space company that almost failed
The founder who ‘broke democracy’ & the pet startups mistreating humans
The world’s richest man & the male feminism camp
The Steve Jobs of beauty & the most obsessive billionaire in America

August 2018

The world’s most feared investor & the ultra-secretive tech CEO
Virgin Galactic’s rocket man & the blockchain democracy
The PayPal Mafia & the spy inside of al-Qaeda
The billionaire yogi & the John Gotti of Amsterdam

July 2018

SpaceX’s secret weapon & the crypto cult leader
The American hostage abroad & the company making hair loss cool
The female billionaire taking on Elon Musk & the moonshot factory
The man who can’t feel fear & the world’s most exclusive dating app

June 2018

The woman behind your Netflix addiction & the biggest rivalry in business
Silicon Valley’s secret dealmaker & the drone warriors
Wall Street’s king of crypto & the breakup boot camp
New York’s biggest con artist & the reporter who rose from the dead

May 2018

The unicorn killer & the crypto capitalists inside J.P. Morgan
The celebrity cult leader & the queen of dating apps
The billion-dollar horse gambler & the kingpins of Amazon
The world’s most elite traders’ club & the Tinder ghostwriters

April 2018

The leader of a fallen empire & Beyoncé’s personal bodyguard
The prince re-shaping the Middle East & the gym for your face
The man who lost $800K Bitcoins & Trump’s tweeter-in-chief
Wall Street’s biggest gambler & the gang informant
The most disruptive man in football & the Golden State killer

March 2018

The investor who wants to fix capitalism & the volcano diver
The billionaire king of private equity & the most ignorant man in America
The secret life of an Olympic champion & the Trump whisperer
The cybercriminal who saved the world & the brain company uploading your memories

February 2018

The Italian loose in the White House & Hollywood’s biggest dealmaker
The politician backed by Bitcoin & the only human in Antarctica
The NBA’s secret wine club & the collapsing social network
America’s national nightmare & the NBA talent factory

January 2018

The $100 billion man & the dad-turned-Instagram star
The mastermind behind Amazon & the VC living in the future
The billionaire who lost his company & football’s most powerful friendship
The astronaut chasing Mars & Silicon Valley’s spin master

December 2017

The rap mogul who cries & the man who silenced Trump
The founding father of venture capital & the loan mafia
The first Bitcoin billionaires & the Olympic champion with no self-esteem
Hollywood’s most powerful actress & the man who built Ethereum

November 2017

America’s new power couple & the world’s fastest dad
The men behind the Valley’s messiest breakup and America’s love doctor
The company spying on your money & the unlikely Twitter troll
The private prisons running America & Bulgaria’s most infamous gangster

October 2017

Nick Saban, Scooter Braun & Chrissy Teigen
The astronaut preparing for Mars & the Iron Man of Silicon Valley
The secret billionaires driving addiction & the couple building trust with terrorists
The millennial Walt Disney & the $3 billion disappearing act

September 2017

The crazy billionaire brothers & the immortal startup founder
The scientist playing God and the man built on conflict
The NFL’s most polarizing athlete & the most hated company in America
The Facebook for athletes & the bodega owner moonlighting as a TV star

August 2017

The NBA player who stared death in the eye & the housewife-turned-beer billionaire
The terrorist whisperer & the double agent living in your house
The woman taking us to Mars & the billion-dollar sex tape empire
The unapologetic female billionaire & the man addicted to war

July 2017

The startup reading your genetic secrets & the man hiding in Elon Musk’s shadow
The first Bitcoin criminal & the unlikely power couple
The doctor leading a secret double life & the king of Wall Street
Silicon Valley’s most radical family & the baddest woman in Hollywood

June 2017

The therapist who will fix your love life & the clickbait empire that collapsed in 9 months
A mysterious billionaire, a bounty hunter, and a $900K/week CEO
The sloth of Silicon Valley & the baseball God living a double life
The corporate drug dealer & the millennial making $700K flipping burgers

May 2017

The NFL player who says prison saved his life & the TedX of Failure
The actor trying to ‘feel life’ and the Fyre company that went up in flames
The entrepreneur who’s not sure he’s an a**hole and the company allergic to capitalism
The most important rapper in America & the company that lets you edit the news

April 2017

The hardest working man on Wall Street and the digital country club
The tech exec coping with life after death & the company reading your mind
The guy who stole Tom Brady’s Super Bowl jersey & the urban farming accelerator
The couple that earns six-figures to travel the world & the Apple of Appliances
The unstoppable 22-year-old entrepreneur & the company merging your brain with a computer

March 2017

The America-loving immigrant billionaire & the ‘cheerful cult’ business
The magician manipulating your emotions & the company building a pizza empire
The basketball prodigy & the “adulting school” for lazy millennials
The man who makes founders cry & the company that rents out dogs

February 2017

The woman who helps humanize murderers & the Silicon Valley of space exploration
The really boring billionaire & the heartbreak cleanse


For more profiles, subscribe to The Profile.

Data Driven Investor

from confusion to clarity, not insanity

Polina Marinova

Written by

Venture capital and entrepreneurship at @FortuneMagazine. On weekends, author of The Profile: readtheprofile.com

Data Driven Investor

from confusion to clarity, not insanity

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade