Founders

What I learned from reading Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future---Culture Eats Strategy [1:45]Conspiracy as a metaphor for a company [3:56]It is a story of poetic justice on a grand scale plotted silently for nearly a decade [6:02]Something in these pages planted itself deep into Thiel's mind when he first read it long ago [15:25]It was ruthless efficiency and hyper-competence. [21:40]You were driven to entrepreneurship because it was a safe space from consensus and from convention. [34:36]What if I do something about this? What might happen? What might happen if I do nothing? Which is riskier, to act or to ignore? [38:52]Sometimes these books teach us what not to do. [59:06]Unknown unknowns > known knowns [1:11:10]How you do one thing is how you do all things. [1:25:47]He had always been aggressive. He wouldn't have gotten where he was in life if he wasn't. [1:30:35]Companies routinely focus on silly things. [1:32:38]The greatest sin of a leader.[1:37:17]How resourceful is Peter Thiel?[1:41:37]Just keep asking why.[1:47:29]Gentlemen: You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you for the laws too slow. I'll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt. [1:53:37]Brilliant thinking is rare but courage is even in shorter supply [1:58:50]The business version of our contrarian question is: What valuable company is nobody building? [2:01:39]This Twisted logic is part of human nature, but it's disastrous in business. If you can recognize competition as a destructive force instead of a sign of value, you're already saner than most. [2:16:11]Steve Jobs saw that you can change the world through careful planning. Not by listening to focus groups feedback or copying others success. [2:19:53]You can have agency not just over your own life, but over a small and important part of the world. It begins by rejecting the unjust tyranny of chance. [2:21:05] ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. ---I don't want to be the person who ever has to compete with Elon (0:47)Musk expects you to keep up (2:45)Short of building an actual money-crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune. He became a one-man, ultra-risk-taking venture capital shop (4:41)Revisit old ideas (5:22)It was not unusual for him to read ten hours a day (7:49)His approach to dating mirrors his approach to work (9:32)Humans are deeply mimetic (10:59)Thinking from first principles (14:37)What it is like to work with Elon Musk (17:40)He would place this urgency that he expected the revenue in ten years to be ten million dollars a day and that every day we were slower to achieve our goals was a day of missing out on that money (19:28)What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn't just survive. He kept working and stayed focused (23:29) A tenet of Elon's companies: make as many things yourself as possible (25:39)The power of the individual in an age of infinite leverage (27:31)The Internet taught me nearly everything I know. It is the modern day equivalent to the library of Alexandria, except it's much harder to burn to the ground. It is indispensable for realizing human rights, combating inequality, accelerating development, and quickening the pace of human progress (29:37)Focusing on the endpoint (30:19)Grand Theft Life (32:00) ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard.---[0:01] How Steve Jobs was inspired by David Packard[1:00] Books are the original hyperlinks[4:30] Profit is the measure of how well we work together[9:00] HP's first product[11:00] Podcasts before podcasts[14:00] Many of the things I learned in this process were invaluable, and not available in business schools[15:00] More businesses die from indigestion than starvation[16:30] The importance of maintaining a narrow focus[20:00] Growth from profit[21:00] Lessons from the Great Depression = No long term debt[26:30] A Maverick's persistence[29:00] How to avoid layoffs in a recession[30:20] Employees should outgrow you[31:00] The perils of centralization[35:00] Closing with optimism ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough---Unyielding determination (2:30) Jocko's concept of GOOD (4:00)The ability to focus on an idea for a long time is the antidote to short bursts of dopamine we get from checking social feeds all day. (6:30)The beginning of their side business (13:00)The importance of heroes (16:00)Rereading / revisiting old ideas (18:30)Books transformed idle curiosity into the active zeal of workers (22:00)Wilbur Wright on risk: “The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks. Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks.” (24:30)Jeff Bezos on stress (25:00)Discover things for yourself (28:00)"Success it most certainly was." (31:00)Profitability of flying machines (33:30)The distribution channel of flying machines (35:00) Wilbur Wright on the idea of flight: "In the enthusiasm being shown around me, I see not merely an outburst intended to glorify a person, but a tribute to an idea that has always impassioned mankind. I sometimes think that the desire to fly after the fashion of birds is an ideal handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air." (38:00) ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading A Truck Full of Money: Coding, Mania, Love, Genius: The Life of an American Entrepreneurby Tracy Kidder---[7:00] Kayak sells for $1.8 billion[12:00] "I'm paying attention. I want meetings of three people, not ten."[15:00] "Someday this boy's going to get hit by a truck full of money, and I'm going to be standing beside him."[22:30] A description of Paul's bipolar disorder[31:00] The economics of games[36:30] Learning how to negotiate from his Dad[43:00] "The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet."[50:00] Leaving a $1,000,000 behind[55:00] Applying the lessons he learned from watching his Dad negotiate[58:30] The entrepreneur of ice[1:01:00] "Consistency doesn't matter. Only invention matters." ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Dive into the insights of Henry Ford's revolutionary mindset! Discover his theories on business, advocating for innovative thinking and the power of practical application. Explore his controversial ideas on equality and responsibility, as well as the significance of constant growth over complacency. Learn how Ford transformed manufacturing to prioritize affordability and customer satisfaction, emphasizing ethical practices and discipline. Uncover the essence of overcoming fear and the value of continuous change in achieving success.

What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson---I am a creator of products, a builder of things. [0:01]This book is the story of 15 years of struggle to finally invent, own, and sell his own product. [1:35]This is the exposition of a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. [2:11]The first 75% to 80% of the book is just struggle after struggle. [2:47]Dyson had a bunch of people that he looked up to that motivated him as a young man. Thomas Edison is one of those people. [4:51]Such reverence has been accorded to the miserable wheel —that perhaps that alone can account for the fact it was never improved. Perhaps millions of people in the last few years had ideas for improving it. All I did was take things a little further than just having an idea. [6:10]The look of the product —the intangible style that sets one thing apart from another—is still closest to my heart. [7:04]After the idea there is plenty of time to learn the technology. My first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was built out of cereal packets and masking tape long before I understood how it worked. [8:09]The greatest lesson for aspiring inventors was yet to come. The actual making of money. Paper stuff in thick wads which they finally give to you because you have done something good. [8:40]The best kind of business is one where you could sell a product at a high price with a good margin and in enormous volumes. That type of investment is long term, high risk, and not very British. Or at least it looks like a high-risk policy. It is not so likely to prove hazardous to one’s financial health as simply following the herd. [9:25]Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because is must be better. From the moment the ideas strikes, to the running of the business. Difference, and retention of total control. [10:39]This is not even a business book. If anything it is a book against business, against the principles that have filled the world with ugly, useless objects. [11:37]Everybody told James over and over and over again “Who are you to think that you could invent a better vacuum cleaner? If that was possible Hoover would have done it already." [12:44]We all want to make our mark. We all want to make beautiful things and a little money. We all have our own ideas about how to do it. What follows just happens to be my way.  [13:15]I have been a misfit throughout my professional life, and that seems to have worked for my advantage. Misfits are not born or made. They make themselves. [13:45]I took on the big boys at their own game, made them look very silly, just by being true to myself. [15:56]There was no dad to teach me how to run. There was no dad to tell me how great I was. Herb Elliot was a big name [in running] at the time, so I read a few books about him and discovered that his coach had told him that the way to develop stamina and strengthen the leg muscles was to run up and down sand dunes. This suited me fine. I would get up at six in the morning and run dunes for hours, or put on my running kit at ten o’ clock at night and not reappear until after midnight. Out there alone on the dunes I got a terrific buzz knowing that I was doing something that no one else was—they were all tucked away in bed. I knew I was training myself to do something better than anyone else would be able to do.  [18:14]Running is a wonderful thing. It isn’t like a team sport where you depend on other people. There is no question of your performance being judged. You either run faster than everyone else or you do not. In running your performance is absolute. I was out there [on the sand dunes] learning how to do something, and getting a visible result. [19:34]As I started to win by greater and greater margins I did it [run sand dunes] more and more because I knew the reason for my success was that out on the sand dunes I was doing something else no one else was doing. They were all running around the track like a herd of sheep and not getting any quicker. Difference itself was making me come in first. [20:50]I was learning about the physical and psychological strength that keeps you competitive. I was learning about obstinacy. I was learning how to overcome nerves, and as I grew more and more neurotic about being caught from behind, I trained harder to stay in front. To this day it is the fear of failure, more than anything else, that keeps me working at success. [21:31]The only way to make a genuine breakthrough was to pursue a vision with single-minded determination in the face of criticism. [22:26]Isambard Kingdom Brunel was unable to think small, and nothing was a barrier to him. The mere fact that something had never been done before presented, to Brunel, no suggestion that the doing of it was impossible—he was fired by an inner strength and self-belief almost impossible to imagine in this feckless age. I have tried to be as confident in my vision as he was. And at times in my life when I have encountered difficulty and self-doubt I have looked to his example to fire me on. [22:55]I have told myself, when people tried to make me modify my ideas, that the Great Western Railway could not have worked as anything but the vision of a single man, pursued with dogged determination that was nothing less than obsession. Throughout my story I will return to Brunel, and to other designers and engineers, to show how identifying with them, and seeing parallels with every stage of my own life, enabled me to see my career as a whole and to know that it would all turn out the way it has. [24:59]Remember that I am celebrating only my stubbornness. I am claiming nothing but the virtues of a mule. [25:42]So my dream was to be a Isambard Kingdom Brunel. [26:40]The public has been easily convinced by advertising, and receptiveness to revolution has dwindled. Such ‘invention’ as is now allowed is the prerogative of multinationals, not people. Where are our Wright Brothers? Where have the Edisons gone? And the Henry Fords? They are not here. We have broken new frontiers, but where are the names? Who invented the space shuttle? The nuclear submarine? The wind farm? When you go for backing for your crazy scheme it is not enough to be a man, you have to be a group of men. And where is the fun in that? [26:56]I learnt a crucial business principle: The only way to make real money is to offer the public something entirely new, that has style value as well as substance, and which they cannot get anywhere else. [28:03]College had taught me to revere experts and expertise. Jeremiah Fry ridiculed all that; as far as he was concerned, with enthusiasm and intelligence anything was possible. It was mind-blowing. And as we proceeded I could see that we were getting on extremely quickly. The more I observed his method, the more it fascinated me. [31:07]I learned one of the most crucial business lessons of my life; to stint on investment in the early stages, to try to sell a half-finished product, is to doom from the start any project you embark on. [32:13]People do not want all-purpose; they want high-tech specificity. [34:11]You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two, or even several. [34:20]Only by trying to sell the thing that you have made yourself, by dealing with consumers’ problems and the product’s failings as they arise, can you really come to understand what you have done. Only the man who has brought the thing into the world can presume to foist it on others, and demand a heavy price, with all his heart. [35:52]It was an interesting lesson in psychology, teaching me that the entrenched professional is always going to resist far longer than the private consumer. [36:26]Editorials are the very best way of convincing the public. One decent editorial counts for a thousand advertisements. [39:20]One fo the strains of this book is about CONTROL. If you have the intimate knowledge of a product that comes with dreaming it up and then designing it, then you will be the better able to sell it and then, reciprocally, to go back to it and improve it. From there you are in the best possible position to convince others of its greatness. To see it through all the way to its optimum point. To total fruition, if you like. [42:04]I was stopped by one of them with the words I was to hear over and over and over again for the next ten years. ‘But James, your idea can’t be any good. If there were a better kind of vacuum cleaner, Hoover would have invented it.' [48:07]We always want to create something new out of nothing, and without research, and without long hard hours of effort. But there is no such thing as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence—and in the end you make it look like a quantum leap. [51:38]A vacuum cleaner designed entirely by me, incorporating innovations up to the very latest point at which my technology had arrived, to be produced and marketed and sold under my own exclusive direction was, to be frank, what this whole thing had been all about. [1:02:48]It was a fantastic environment to work in, for it was just engineers and designers, and no one to mess us around. There were no salesmen, no advertising people, no marketing managers, to interfere and try to guide us in their direction. We had nothing to do but deduce our own dream product. [1:04:48]Everyday products sell. Although it is harder to improve a mature product, if you succeed there is no need to create a market. Try out current products in your own home, and make a list of things that you don’t like about them. I found about 20 things wrong with my Hoover Jr. at the first attempt. [1:07:19]Total control. From the first sprouting of the idea, through research and development, testing and prototyping, model making and engineering drawings, tooling, production, sales and marketing, all the way into the homes, it is most likely to succeed if the original visionary (or mule) sees it right through. [1:11:43]On 2 May 1992, I found myself looking at the first, fully operational, visually perfect, Dyson Dual Cyclone. I was thirty-one years old when I tore the bag off my Hoover and stuck a cereal packet in the hole. 2 May 1992 was my forty-fifth birthday. [1:12:24]We were selling more vacuum cleaners than anyone else despite costing twice as much. [1:14:32]In other words: if you make something, sell it yourself. And so we did. And absolutely nothing went bang. Except, of course, everyone else’s market slice. [1:17:57]Encourage employees to be different, on principle. This is part of my anti-brilliance campaign. Very few people can be brilliant. Those who are, rarely do anything worthwhile. You are just as likely to solve a problem by being unconventional and determined as by being brilliant. And if you can’t be unconventional, be obtuse. Be deliberately obtuse, because there are 5 billion people out there thinking in train tracks, and thinking what they have been taught to think. [1:21:18] ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learnd by reading No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet by Molly Knight Raskin. ---When Danny was excited about something, you couldn't help but get excited too (3:00)Steve Jobs had one speed: GO! (6:00)Danny joins Israel's special forces (10:00)"Life is too short to be bored. Only boring people are bored." (19:00)The idea for Akamai (22:00)"If he didn't know something, he'd go learn it." (28:00)Building a company the right way (31:00)Finding a business model (35:00)Passion is worth $500,000 (38:30)The first product (42:00)"My goal was to express it in layman's terms so that your grandmother could understand it." (44:00)Finding the right price/model (45:00)The best salesperson (48:10)"Hi, this is Steve Jobs, and I want to buy your company." (54:00)"I have this company of one hundred ten people, headed by one of the biggest businessmen around with lots of money in the bank, and I'm just a graduate student." (57:00)"In less than one year, a tiny startup out of MIT had grown to a company with a market valuation than that of General Motors" (58:30)The last day of Danny's life (1:00:00) ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis---He grew up poor, dropped out of high school, and made himself 3 or 4 billion dollars (0:01), New Growth Theory (8:00), "Growth is just another word for change." (11:15), "The notion of what constituted useful work had broadened." (15:00), "If everyone was patient there'd be no new companies." (18:00), Turning his life around at 38 (21:00), Jim's idea to avoid the Innovator's Dilemma (30:00), The beginning of Netscape (33:00), The fast eat the slow (38:00), The people you don't want (40:00), The difference between a pig and a chicken /"They had wanted to be chickens; Clark forced them to be pigs" (43:00), All chips on 00 / Diversification is for idiots (48:00), Moving the goalposts / "Mama, I'm going to show Plainview." (56:00) ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher. ---I'm not going to work for someone else (0:01)Early design decisions of Snapchat (7:45)Evan idolized Steve Jobs and Edwin Land (10:00)How Snapchat convinced people to download the app (13:00)How Facebook created the environment for Snapchat to grow (16:00)The problem of standard (21:00)Evan on conforming (23:00)Mark Zuckerberg's first move on Snapchat (27:00)A great quote from Jeff Bezos (34:30)Digital Dualism (36:30)Snapchat Stories (39:00)Evan's framework for Snapchat and the Internet Everywhere (44:45)Learning from messaging apps in Asia (50:00)Brands are not social. People are. (55:00)Evan's philosophy on the distinction between privacy and secrecy (59:00) ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast