Founder Stories
About this category
Founder Stories collects the most useful origin stories, case studies, and founder interviews in the library. It helps entrepreneurs learn from how real businesses were built, tested, and scaled.
Showing 1959 articles for Founder Stories.
How Gather navigated the early COVID-19 pandemic as a bootstrapped SaaS
Startups For the Rest of Us
October 22, 2020
Case studies
9
Bootstrapping
8
Niche selection
6
Going upmarket before a recession saved them from mass churn
Pandemic paradoxically reduced personal anxiety about their cash crunch
Remote work wave turned a struggling pipeline into real enterprise deals
Founder interviews
YouTube
Mark Grimes launched 31 startups in 31 days to find winners fast
Bill Gallagher
October 21, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Pivoting
7
Serial entrepreneur launched one startup per day throughout August 2020.
350-idea backlog plus pandemic downtime triggered the 31-in-31 experiment.
A 'launch' means idea is public and customer conversations have begun.
The rise and fall of the great Texas oil fortunes
Founders
October 18, 2020
Origin stories
9
Business models
6
Four men built billion-dollar oil empires in a single five-year Depression-era window.
Hunt's one field out-produced the entire Axis powers during World War Two.
Only one second-generation heir grew the fortune — everyone else destroyed theirs.
John D. Rockefeller's lessons from a lifetime in business
Founders
October 11, 2020
Case studies
9
Hiring & recruitment
6
Resilience & grit
5
Why silence and patience were Rockefeller's sharpest competitive weapons
At 70, relationships mattered more to him than any deal he closed
The same business fundamentals — low prices, no shortcuts, face the truth — won every time
Founder interviews
Podcast
Patrick O'Shaughnessy on building OSAM, Canvas, and Invest Like the Best
Acquired
October 7, 2020
Founder interviews
9
Business models
7
Content marketing
5
Radical transparency in investing is a durable moat, not a liability
OSAM turned internal quant infrastructure into a bespoke portfolio platform
Curiosity-driven content compounds into competitive advantage without marketing
Sam Colt and the revolver that built modern American manufacturing
Founders
October 5, 2020
Origin stories
9
Product-market fit
7
Pivoting
6
A flogged 17-year-old sailor invented the revolver's core mechanism from a ship's anchor winch.
The market pulls the product: Texas Rangers created demand the US Army refused to see.
Colt's factory methods seeded the assembly line used by Ford, GM, and beyond.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Building authentic customer connections through constructed characters
Masters of Scale
September 29, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
AI strategy & adoption
6
A computer-generated influencer built a genuine, monetisable 2M-strong fan base.
Telling users something is artificial can make them trust and disclose more.
Story always beats technology — fans ignored animation upgrades, cared about the character.
Milton Hershey: building a chocolate empire through perseverance and purpose
Founders
September 27, 2020
Origin stories
10
Bootstrapping
6
Failed twice before succeeding — 14 years of persistence paid off
Mass-produced milk chocolate turned a luxury into a nickel treat
Left his entire fortune to an orphan school that still compounds today
William Randolph Hearst: empire builder, financial self-destructor
Founders
September 20, 2020
Case studies
9
Cash flow management
6
Business models
6
Hearst built his empire by copying Pulitzer's playbook faster and bigger.
Cross-media synergy — one story across print, film, radio — decades before anyone named it.
Lost his entire empire at 70 to debts he knew about and refused to stop making.
Bebo's second life: buying a dead social network and selling it to Twitch
Acquired
September 9, 2020
Case studies
10
Pivoting
7
Pitching investors
6
A $850M social network bought back from bankruptcy for just $1M.
Selling a company means finding what the buyer already wants to do.
Buying profitable small businesses beats the startup lottery for most people.
Alfred Lee Loomis: the amateur scientist who helped win World War II
Founders
September 6, 2020
Case studies
9
Deep work & focus
7
Long-term planning
5
One private citizen funded and organised the radar program that defeated German U-boats.
Loomis quit Wall Street cold — bought his independence, then gave everything to science.
Extreme external pressure is irreplaceable; the Rad Lab had to die when the war ended.
The rise of Epic Games and Fortnite
Acquired
September 2, 2020
Case studies
9
Business models
8
Pivoting
6
Free-to-play cosmetics strategy turned Fortnite into $9 billion phenomenon
Epic's Apple App Store battle challenges tech platform gatekeeping
Tim Sweeney's open metaverse vision competes with Meta's approach
Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the battle over American capitalism
Founders
August 30, 2020
Case studies
8
Competitive analysis
6
Compliance & regulation
5
Morgan's power came from others' financial weakness — strength was his kryptonite.
Roosevelt sued Morgan's railroad trust without warning, breaking an unspoken rule of American power.
Two men who despised each other still cooperated when the stakes demanded it.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Dan Chan: Bringing Magic to Virtual Meetings During the Pandemic
Bill Gallagher
August 26, 2020
Founder interviews
9
Pivoting
7
Prospecting & outreach
5
Corporate magician pivoted from 250 live shows to fully virtual after pandemic
LinkedIn press outreach and free demos drove CNBC and Hustle coverage
Virtual format unlocked global bookings — Kuwait, Bahrain, Europe, Asia from home
Founder interviews
Podcast
Eventbrite: bootstrapping, IPO, and surviving COVID with Julia and Kevin Hartz
Acquired
August 25, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Bootstrapping
7
Fundraising & VC
6
Two years bootstrapping, 27 VC rejections — before Sequoia finally said yes.
Why big private funding rounds made the business harder, not easier.
Revenue went from record highs to negative in two weeks when COVID hit.