Uncapped with Jack Altman Uncapped #26 | Ali Rowghani
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Oct 1, 2025 Ali Rowghani, founder of First Harmonic and former CFO at Pixar and Twitter, shares insights from his remarkable career. He delves into Pixar's relentless pursuit of quality, recounting how they revamped Toy Story 2 to uphold their standards. Rowghani reflects on Twitter's journey from inception to IPO, detailing their monetization strategies and the challenges of global expansion. He also discusses the sapling phase of startups, emphasizing the need for tailored support in early growth stages, and his belief in helping founders without expecting returns.
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All-In Creative Commitment
- Pixar became a 'miracle factory' by committing fully to directors' passionate stories rather than hedging with committee-driven ideas.
- That all-in focus created a culture where every project had to be great or the studio would pay the cost to fix it.
Toy Story 2 Studio Rescue
- Toy Story 2 was rescued nine months before release when a new creative team rewrote and remade the film from scratch.
- That painful decision nearly killed the studio but established Pixar's norm of sacrificing to make things great.
Iterate Publicly To Improve Work
- Pixar used rapid prototyping via story reels and repeated public screenings to iterate movies many times before release.
- Showing imperfect work early built a safe feedback culture that steadily improved films.