The Knowledge with David Elikwu 134: Pivoting, Building, and Scaling startups with Jason Shen
David speaks with Jason Shen, a three-time founder, writer, executive coach, and NCAA gymnastics champion. Jason Co-founded RideJoy, a ridesharing platform backed by Y Combinator, and later built Midgame, an AI gaming company that was bought by Meta. As CEO of Refactor Labs, he helps founders and teams build successful companies. He wrote The Path to Pivot and Weirdly Brilliant, sharing lessons on resilience, leadership, and reaching your full potential.
They talked about:
🚀 The realities of startup founding and pivoting
🤝 Navigating co-founder relationships
🌱 How early experiences shape entrepreneurial paths
💡 The power of focus in building successful businesses
🧭 Coaching founders through critical challenges
🚧 Choosing your path as a founder
📜 Full transcript:
📹 Watch on Youtube:
🗣 Mentioned in the show:
Stanford University | https://www.stanford.edu/about/
Y Combinator | https://www.ycombinator.com/about
Etsy | https://www.etsy.com/
Burning Man | https://burningman.org/about/about-us/
Boston University | https://www.bu.edu/admissions-overview/
Kelly Wilde Miller | https://kellywildemiller.com/
Ray Kurzweil | https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-Kurzweil
Paul Graham | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer)
Jessica Livingston | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Livingston
Sam Altman | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman
Christopher Columbus | https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus
Nassim Taleb | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb
Richard Dawkins | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
NVIDIA | https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/
East India Trading Company | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company
Connect with Jason:
Twitter: https://x.com/JasonShen
Website: https://www.jasonshen.com/
The Path to Pivot: https://amzn.to/4iFFRfh
👨🏾💻 About David Elikwu:
David Elikwu FRSA is a serial entrepreneur, strategist, and writer. David is the founder of The Knowledge, a platform helping people think deeper and work smarter.
🐣 Twitter: @Delikwu / @itstheknowledge
🌐 Website: https://www.davidelikwu.com
📽️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/davidelikwu
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delikwu/
🕺 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@delikwu
🎙️ Podcast: http://plnk.to/theknowledge
📖 Free Book: https://pro.theknowledge.io/frames
My Online Course
🖥️ Decision Hacker: http://www.decisionhacker.io/
Decision Hacker will help you hack your default patterns and become an intentional architect of your life. You’ll learn everything you need to transform your decisions, your habits, and your outcomes.
The Knowledge
📩 Newsletter: https://theknowledge.io
The Knowledge is a weekly newsletter for people who want to get more out of life. It's full of insights from psychology, philosophy, productivity, and business, all designed to make you more productive, creative, and decisive.
My Favorite Tools
🎞️ Descript: https://bit.ly/descript-de
📨 Convertkit: https://bit.ly/convertkit-de
🔰 NordVPN: https://bit.ly/nordvpn-de
💹 Nutmeg: http://bit.ly/nutmegde
🎧 Audible: https://bit.ly/audiblede
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-knowledge-with-david-elikwu/donations