Acquired Episode 43: The Square IPO
01:20:44
Square's Origin Story
- Jim McKelvey, Square's co-founder, initially struggled to accept credit card payments for his glassblowing business.
- This led to the idea for Square, after a call with Jack Dorsey.
The Untold Story of Square
- The official story of Square's founding is compelling but incomplete.
- Robert Morley, a key figure in the card reader technology, later sued Square for patent infringement and being forced out.
From Squirrel to Square
- Square's original name was Squirrel, and the reader was acorn-shaped.
- A meeting with Scott Forstall at Apple led to the name and design change to Square.
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Introduction
00:00 • 3min
Expert Calls - What if We Do Something Totally Radical?
02:59 • 3min
Square and the Square Ipo - The History and Facts
05:42 • 2min
Square and Jack Darcy
07:24 • 1min
The Pivotals of Square
08:54 • 2min
How to Get a Proof for Merchant Account
10:40 • 3min
Using Mobile Phones to Accept Credit Cards
13:24 • 2min
I'll Just Wait Till the Right Time to Sue?
15:00 • 2min
Founder Stories
16:33 • 2min
You Need a Story to Communicate
18:20 • 2min
Square Is a Card Reader That's Going to Plug Into Phones, Yphones and Androids
19:53 • 2min
Is Square a Good Idea?
22:21 • 2min
Square Unlocked New Merchants That Could Never Be Merchants Before
24:02 • 3min
Is Square Subsidizing Small Businesses?
26:39 • 2min
The Square Card Reader Is a Game Changer
28:26 • 4min
Square Labs - What's the Biggest Challenge for a Start Up?
32:01 • 2min
Square, Square, Iterate a Lot, You Know?
34:10 • 2min
Starbuck's Square Deal With Starbucks
35:45 • 2min
Square's A, It's on the Pint of Sail Category.
37:26 • 2min
Is Square a Cloud Payments Solution?
39:49 • 2min
Starbuck's Transaction Base Revenue
42:01 • 2min
Square a Is Not Public Yet, but They're Preparing to Go Public
43:55 • 3min
Is This the First Unicorn to Die?
46:46 • 2min
Goldman Invested 100 Million Dollars in the Private Round
48:35 • 3min
What's the Magic of Cloud Platforms?
51:16 • 3min
Square Is Doomed, Right?
54:34 • 2min
Access to Capital - The Three Things Every Business Needs
56:55 • 3min
Is Your Return Like the Ratchet?
01:00:07 • 3min
How to Value a Company Based on Fundamentals
01:03:20 • 2min
Machine Learning Hasn't Come to Start Up Management
01:05:50 • 2min
Technimes
01:07:35 • 2min
The Goldman Th Acks Deal
01:09:27 • 2min
I'm Going to Resist the Tendency to Give It Two Grades
01:11:38 • 3min
World After Capital by Nick Bilton
01:14:32 • 4min
Unicorns and ratchets and lawsuits, oh my! Our heroes dive into the history of Jack Dorsey’s famous “other” company, Square. Was the Square IPO a canary in the coal mine signaling doom & gloom for the so-called unicorn companies of the early 2010’s, or a mispriced and misunderstood diamond in the rough? Acquired weighs in.
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Topics Covered Include:
- Square’s deep origins in the early 90’s in St. Louis, MO with the initial meeting of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey & Jim McKelvey
- McKelvey’s side glass blowing business and the “inspiration” for Square that came much later in the late 2000’s
- The complicated involvement of Washington University (in St. Louis) professor Robert Morley, who had worked for years developing payment card reading technology
- The company’s early meeting with Scott Forstall at Apple, and its “significant” impact on the its name and design
- The real disruptive innovation of Square and its business model (hint: not just building a mobile card reader)
- Square’s massive payments deal with Starbucks in 2012 and its impact on the company
- The evolution of Square’s business from a simple card reader to cloud-based Point of Sale (PoS) system and entire suite of merchant tools & business management services
- The drama leading up to Square’s IPO (including at Jack Dorsey’s “other” company, Twitter), dynamics and narratives affecting its pricing, the effect of IPO “ratchets”, and the company’s performance over the ~2 years since
The Carve Out:
- David: Bob Iger on Nick Bilton’s Inside the Hive podcast
- Ben: The World After Capital on GitBooks