Founders
About this creator
Founders is a podcast built around lessons from the biographies, decisions, and operating principles of exceptional entrepreneurs.
Why they're in the library
Included for clear, credible perspective as podcast built around lessons from the biographies, decisions, and operating principles of exceptional entrepreneurs.
Showing 412 digests for Founders.
Edwin Land and Polaroid: How a technology monopoly was built on obsession
Founders
August 24, 2022
Origin stories
10
Deep work & focus
7
MVP & prototyping
5
Land invented an entire industry after two decades of failed attempts.
Hiring Ansel Adams as a paid critic: a model every founder should copy.
In 1970, Land described the smartphone — 37 years before the iPhone.
Edwin Land: obsession, invention, and the making of Polaroid
Founders
August 18, 2022
Origin stories
10
Deep work & focus
9
Identity & self-belief
6
Twenty years of failure before instant photography made Land a billionaire
His daughter's innocent question sparked the invention that saved Polaroid
Intense concentration was Land's only superpower — and he taught it deliberately
Founder interviews
Podcast
Herbie Cohen: negotiation as a philosophy for life
Founders
August 11, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
7
Pivoting
6
The person who cares less — but stays engaged — wins.
Pretend to be in control and people will assume you are.
Refusing a fallback plan is what keeps you committed to plan A.
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Dee Hock's aphorisms on life, learning, and leadership
Founders
August 4, 2022
Resilience & grit
7
Management
6
Identity & self-belief
5
Why institutions crush the creativity and freedom humans need most.
Read like an eagle hunting prey, not a dog obeying its master.
Controlling others is force — controlling self is power.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Dee Hock, Visa, and the chaordic organization
Founders
August 3, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Business operating systems
8
Management
6
Competing banks worldwide cooperated to build what none could alone.
Hock reframed money as alphanumeric data — and saw Visa's true market.
He judged his own creation a failure against what it ought to have been.
Bob Dylan's Chronicles: lessons in craft, identity, and self-creation
Founders
July 27, 2022
Origin stories
10
Identity & self-belief
8
Deep work & focus
6
Dylan studied obsessively before anyone was watching — that was the edge
Fame felt like a trap; he fantasised about a normal family life
Hitting creative rock bottom at 46, saved by a stranger in a jazz bar
Jay Gould: the dark genius who built and broke Wall Street
Founders
July 22, 2022
Case studies
9
Competitive analysis
6
Gould deliberately cultivated his villain image as a strategic asset
How a teenage farm escapee built his first empire through map-making
The Union Pacific turnaround was Gould's self-described greatest achievement
Founder interviews
Podcast
Richard Garriott on building video game empires and exploring the unknown
Founders
July 15, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
Resilience & grit
6
Sold his first game at 18, earning twice his astronaut father's salary
Nearly bankrupted Origin by betting on Apple II while IBM PC took over
Invented virtual economies by accident — players sold in-game items for real cash
Edward Bernays: the psychology of public relations and mass persuasion
Founders
July 9, 2022
PR & media
9
Business models
7
Copywriting
6
How hiding commercial intent behind public causes prints money
Bernays got women smoking by branding cigarettes 'torches of freedom'
He helped overthrow Guatemala's government to protect banana profits
Founder interviews
Podcast
Sam Zemurray: how a penniless immigrant conquered the banana trade
Founders
July 2, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
Management
5
Penniless at 14, Zemurray built a banana empire by knowing every job.
He overthrew a foreign government rather than accept ruinous trade terms.
Mocked in the boardroom, he slapped down proxies and fired the board.
How Rockefeller built Standard Oil from a bookkeeper's desk
Founders
June 27, 2022
Case studies
10
Business models
8
Pricing strategy
6
Posted freight rates were negotiable — Rockefeller built his monopoly on that.
Every advantage at Standard Oil was seeded years earlier in a commission house.
Secret allies, hidden companies, and retained earnings beat open competition every time.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Henry Goldman and the founding of Goldman Sachs
Founders
June 22, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Niche selection
7
Fundraising & VC
6
Dismissed as incapable by his own father, Henry Goldman proved everyone wrong.
Goldman and Lehman made a fortune underwriting retailers Wall Street considered beneath them.
Henry's public support for Germany in WWI cost him 35 years of work in one resignation.
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
Socrates: lessons on clear thinking, courage, and the examined life
Founders
June 17, 2022
Identity & self-belief
7
Resilience & grit
6
Most received opinions collapse under a single probing question.
Denying the body and feeding the soul was Socrates' entire life strategy.
He chose death over exile — Athens without freedom was no life at all.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Franklin and Washington: the 30-year partnership that forged America
Founders
June 13, 2022
Founder interviews
9
Management
6
Vision & mission
5
Victory required both men — neither role worked without the other
Washington's army nearly collapsed before turning the world upside down
Franklin's 1754 'Join or Die' cartoon became the blueprint for the Constitution
Jacob Fugger: How the first capitalist built history's greatest fortune
Founders
June 8, 2022
Case studies
10
Fundraising & VC
8
Business models
7
The creditor held more power than the emperor — Fugger knew it first
He bribed the Pope to legalise interest and accidentally triggered the Reformation
Died alone at 66; his family still collects income from his assets today