Jim McKelvey on How Square Beat Amazon

In today’s episode, I speak to Jim McKelvey – serial entrepreneur and inventor, co-founder of Square and author of The Innovation Stack. Jim is also the co-founder of LaunchCode, a non-profit which helps people learn to code and get hired and founder and CEO of Invisibly which aims to give consumers control over how their personal data is monetised by advertisers. He also serves as an Independent Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Jim is someone who has always had a lot going on. In his early twenties, whilst contracting for IBM, Jim was also a  glassblowing instructor and had founded a CD cabinet manufacturing company but just before Christmas in 1989, everything changed for Jim when his mother died suddenly. The incident made Jim re-evaluate his life and priorities and he realised that he no longer wanted to do lots of things to a mediocre level. He wanted and needed to focus on the work that matters most to him.

Soon after, Jim set up Mira – a digital company which still exists today and where he first met and hired intern Jack Dorsey. After handing the reigns of that company over, Jim co-founded a glassblowing studio and gallery called Third Degree Glass Factory and it was here where the idea for Square would come.

In this interview, we dig deeper into Jim’s childhood and how his mother’s death affected his path, how Jack Dorsey went from intern to friend to co-founder and how they built Square into a business that empowers small businesses, whilst taking on Goliaths like Amazon and winning.

There are so many great lessons in this interview about entrepreneurship, innovation and beating the competition which I think you’ll really enjoy.

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Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram: @daniellenewnham

Jim on Twitter @2000F Instagram JimMcKelvey1
Jim website
LaunchCode
Square
Invisibly 
Third Degree Glass Factory

You can buy Jim's book, The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time here.

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This episode was hosted by me - Danielle Newnham, a recovering founder, author and writer who has been interviewing tech founders and innovators for ten years - and produced by Jolin Cheng. 

Series 1 of this podcast is sponsored by Sensate – the device which can help to reduce stress and anxiety in less than ten minutes a day. To get an exclusive $25 off your first purchase, simply head to Sensate and insert my discount code POD.