Diamonds, De Beers, and the Death of Artificial Scarcity | A CFO Explains Diamonds
From Run the Numbers by CJ Gustafson
May 4, 2026 · 27 min
About this episode
CJ Gustafson explores the diamond industry, focusing on De Beers' control over supply and demand, and the impact of technology on pricing and transparency.
In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson breaks down the diamond industry as a business model: how De Beers controlled supply, engineered demand, and built one of the most powerful pricing machines in history. From the Central Selling Organization to “A Diamond Is Forever” to the rise of lab-grown diamonds, this episode unpacks monopolies, scarcity, pricing power, and what happens when technology forces transparency. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at…
People in this episode
Host: CJ Gustafson
Topics covered
- diamond industry
- business model
- monopolies
- scarcity
- pricing power
- lab-grown diamonds
- technology
Keywords
- diamonds
- De Beers
- scarcity
- lab-grown diamonds
- pricing power
- monopolies
- business model
Sponsors
RightRev, Rillet, EY
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: De Beers, NetSuite, Salesforce, Windsurf, Mercor
Products: RightRev, Rillet
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