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.
Long-term planning
Podcast
Jeff Bezos: core principles from his shareholder letters and speeches
Founders
November 23, 2020
Long-term planning
9
Decision-making
8
Business models
6
Most decisions are two-way doors — treat them that way
Build around what customers will always want, not what changes
Cleverness is a gift; kindness and bold choices define you
Charles Schulz: 50 years of doing one thing obsessively well
Founders
November 19, 2020
Case studies
9
Resilience & grit
7
Deep work & focus
6
17,897 strips, every one drawn solo — never delegate your core work
Don't interrupt the compounding: slow growth over 50 years beats sprinting
Ideas come from sitting alone doing the work, not from inspiration
Bill Bowerman: the coach and obsessive craftsman behind Nike
Founders
November 12, 2020
Origin stories
10
Identity & self-belief
6
Rest is as important as training — Bowerman proved it against every coach of his era.
Bowerman's shoe obsession: saving one ounce per shoe cuts 55 pounds of effort per race.
Phil Knight built Nike partly just to keep working alongside Bowerman for a lifetime.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Katherine Graham: building confidence while running the Washington Post
Founders
November 5, 2020
Founder interviews
9
Identity & self-belief
7
A woman with no business experience inherits a struggling newspaper empire
Four decades of imposter syndrome while running one of America's most powerful papers
Warren Buffett's private mentorship rebuilt her confidence — and tripled his returns
How Frederick Smith built FedEx through near-constant financial collapse
Founders
October 29, 2020
Origin stories
10
Bootstrapping
6
Pivoting
5
FedEx launched with six packages — one was dirty laundry
Fred had to build a national network before taking a single customer order
Four hours of daily reading drove every major FedEx innovation
Sam Walton: how obsession, frugality, and copying built Walmart
Founders
October 24, 2020
Origin stories
10
Business models
6
Walton invented nothing — he copied relentlessly and executed with fanaticism
Losing his first store to a landlord became the pivot that created Walmart
Kmart's 10-year blind spot gave Walmart the runway to become unstoppable
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
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.
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.
Shackleton's Antarctic survival and what it teaches about leadership
Founders
September 13, 2020
Management
9
Resilience & grit
7
Case studies
6
Shackleton feared demoralization more than ice, cold, or starvation.
Every escape route failed — survival came from refusing to stop trying.
He crossed South Georgia Island in 36 hours with a rope and an axe.
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.
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.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's rules for building an extraordinary life
Founders
August 23, 2020
Goal setting
9
Resilience & grit
7
Bootstrapping
6
Schwarzenegger was a millionaire before 30 — from bricklaying and mail order, not movies
Skipping the ladder: always seek the hardest competition, never the safe next step
Harsh upbringing became fuel — he credits his father's cruelty for driving him to America