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.
Phil Knight and the obsessive decade-long bet that built Nike
Founders
June 16, 2021
Origin stories
10
Bootstrapping
7
Resilience & grit
6
Nike survived seven years of near-bankruptcy before Knight went full-time
Losing your supplier can be the best thing that ever happens to you
Determination beats intelligence — obsessives build what smart people only imagine
César Ritz and Auguste Escoffier: how two obsessives built modern luxury
Founders
June 10, 2021
Origin stories
10
Customer experience
7
Culture building
5
Two peasant-born obsessives who redefined what a luxury hotel could be
Getting fired was the catalyst for their greatest and most lasting work
Perfectionism without a partner to absorb the pressure ends in breakdown
How Isadore Sharp built Four Seasons on quality, service, and conviction
Founders
June 6, 2021
Origin stories
10
Business models
7
Customer experience
6
Turned a customer-first obsession into an industry-defining quality standard.
Refused buyout offers from ITT at any salary to keep independence.
Hired sugarcane workers over hotel veterans — attitude beats bad habits.
Johnny Carson: ownership, focus, and the price of private success
Founders
June 4, 2021
Case studies
9
Exit strategy
6
Business models
5
Carson hosted TV's biggest show for 30 years — nearly broke until he owned it
Equity beats performance: the person who owns the asset always wins
World-class social gifts, 20 million nightly fans, and profoundly unhappy
Founder interviews
Podcast
Warren Buffett: inner scorecard, independent thought, and the making of a capitalist
Founders
May 29, 2021
Founder interviews
10
Identity & self-belief
7
Why thinking for yourself — not smarts — was Buffett's real edge
Buffett read thousands of financials yearly; knowing more was learnable
Inner scorecard vs outer scorecard: the habit that shaped every decision
Founder interviews
Podcast
Paul Orfalea: How a Dyslexic Dropout Built Kinko's into $2 Billion
Founders
May 23, 2021
Founder interviews
10
Delegation
7
Customer experience
6
Dyslexia forced delegation — and delegation built a $2 billion empire.
Customers weren't buying copies; they were buying relief from anxiety.
Selling at peak success left partners depressed and identity-less.
Jeff Bezos: building Amazon from bookstore to global empire
Founders
May 17, 2021
Origin stories
9
Business models
8
Processes & SOPs
6
The same playbook that sold books built AWS, Alexa, and a $20B ads business
Bezos only pours money on winners — and never lets mature businesses coast
Self-service, high margin, revenue faster than headcount: his business selection filter
Jeff Bezos and the building of Amazon: lessons from The Everything Store
Founders
May 10, 2021
Origin stories
10
Business models
7
Culture building
6
Why Bezos defined Amazon as an 'un-store' long before it became one
Two retailer meetings in 2001 that rewired Amazon's entire pricing strategy
The regret minimization framework: how Bezos makes irreversible decisions
Jony Ive: Design philosophy and Apple's product revolution
Founders
May 3, 2021
Origin stories
9
Long-term planning
7
Culture building
5
Bureaucracy killed Apple before Jobs returned and dismantled it.
Humanising technology — not specs — was Ive's entire competitive edge.
Fanatical care on hidden details separates great products from adequate ones.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Linus Torvalds on Linux, open source, and a life optimised for fun
Founders
April 18, 2021
Founder interviews
9
Management
7
Motivation
6
Optimising for fun — not money — built the world's largest software project.
Open source scales because contributors can ignore the leader entirely.
Controlling a resource kills businesses; making a better product survives.
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Theodore Roosevelt's near-death Amazon expedition and lessons in resilience
Founders
April 11, 2021
Resilience & grit
9
Management
5
Roosevelt treated extreme physical hardship as his cure for depression
The rainforest mirrors economic competition: specialization, niches, ruthless elimination
Kermit's refusal to abandon his dying father saved both their lives
How Bill Gates missed and then conquered the internet
Founders
April 5, 2021
Case studies
9
Pivoting
8
Competitive analysis
6
Gates bet on interactive TV while Netscape quietly built the internet browser
Focus is only an advantage if you're focused on the right thing
The real threat always comes from a company that doesn't yet exist
Louis B. Mayer: From immigrant poverty to Hollywood's cautionary titan
Founders
March 28, 2021
Case studies
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Business models
5
Mayer's outer scorecard drove his rise — and ultimately destroyed him.
Industry insiders dismissed sound film as a novelty; Warner Brothers won.
Betting on private consumers beats waiting for entrenched industries to adapt.
How Elon Musk built SpaceX from nothing to orbit
Founders
March 21, 2021
Case studies
10
Hiring & recruitment
7
Processes & SOPs
5
Three rockets failed before the fourth saved the company.
Musk collapsed engineering and spending decisions into one head.
Missionaries took pay cuts to join before SpaceX proved anything.
Chuck Feeney: building and secretly giving away a billion-dollar fortune
Founders
March 15, 2021
Origin stories
10
Bootstrapping
7
Business models
6
Built an $8B duty-free empire with zero outside capital.
Secretly transferred his entire fortune to charity before Forbes noticed.
Gave while alive, anonymously — no plaques, no named buildings, nothing.