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.
How a tea company was born from two years of faxes
Founders
December 25, 2018
Case studies
10
Identity & self-belief
8
Business models
6
Ideas without action are just clever finger exercises on a keyboard.
Self-doubt, not doubt in the idea, is what stops most founders.
Profit is not optional — a business that can't thrive can't save the world.
Founder interviews
Podcast
How Mel and Patricia Ziegler built Banana Republic from $1,500
Founders
December 17, 2018
Founder interviews
10
PR & media
8
Business models
7
Two journalists built a $250M brand with $1,500 and no business plan.
Their catalog won awards and drove 5x industry response rates.
Gap bought them — then tried to make them copy competitors.
Marc Andreessen's startup and career advice from his blog archive
Founders
December 11, 2018
Business models
9
Career planning and opportunity
7
Vision & mission
6
Market beats team and product every time — without exception
Treat your career as a risk portfolio, not a plan
Edison didn't recognise the phonograph's value for months after inventing it
Founder interviews
Podcast
Richard Branson's core lessons from "Screw It, Let's Do It"
Founders
December 3, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Goal setting
6
Why Branson took Virgin private again after hating public markets
Using fun as a compass — when it stops, move on
Near-death at 43,000 feet: the Pacific balloon crossing
Founder interviews
Podcast
Richard Branson on building a life and business with purpose
Founders
November 26, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Business models
8
Delegation
7
Branded venture capital: 50/50 partnerships cap downside, uncap upside.
Biggest risk is when you stop thinking there is one.
Entrepreneurship is our natural state — playfulness before adults beat it out.
Richard Branson's early business life: struggle, instinct, and protecting the downside
Founders
November 19, 2018
Origin stories
10
Business models
7
Bootstrapping
5
Branson had no real personal wealth until 25 years into building Virgin.
Every major deal was structured to cap losses and keep upside unlimited.
The branded venture capital model: 50/50 partnerships, small teams, open upside.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Ken Langone: building wealth from nothing through grit and trust
Founders
November 13, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Identity & self-belief
8
Bootstrapping
7
Always lead a pitch with the negatives — it builds compounding trust
Getting rich is one skill; staying rich requires a completely different one
Giving your operator two-thirds equity beats extracting every dollar yourself
How Bernie Marcus Built Home Depot After Getting Fired at 49
Founders
November 5, 2018
Origin stories
10
Vision & mission
7
Culture building
6
Getting fired at 49 with no money sparked a $30B retail empire
Ken Langone's minority stock tactic gave him leverage over a hostile conglomerate
Obsessing over customers beats focusing on competitors or career politics
Founder interviews
Podcast
Paul Allen on founding Microsoft and life after leaving
Founders
October 30, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Business models
6
Equity & cap tables
5
Bill Gates quietly schemed to dilute Allen's equity while he was on chemotherapy.
Retaining software ownership — not royalties — was the decision that built Microsoft.
Allen's regret: eight driven years made him wealthy but left his real passions deferred.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Ray Dalio on principles, failure, and systematising your decisions
Founders
October 22, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
8
Business operating systems
6
Losing everything forced Dalio to encode his thinking into algorithms.
15–20 uncorrelated return streams cut risk without reducing returns.
Extreme wealth delivers far less than most people expect.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Dee Hock on building Visa and rethinking how organizations work
Founders
October 16, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Business operating systems
7
Management
6
Visa was built with no money, power, or legal standing — by necessity.
Why purpose erodes into procedure inside every large organization.
Hock's biggest regret: losing the fight to prevent a payment duopoly.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Ben Horowitz on building through chaos with no recipe
Founders
October 8, 2018
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
Determination beats intelligence as the defining founder trait.
Reframing 'what if we go bankrupt?' unlocked the pivot to Opsware.
Spend zero time on past mistakes; all of it on what you can do now.
Edwin Land: inventor of instant photography and Polaroid's obsessive founder
Founders
October 2, 2018
Origin stories
9
Business models
6
Intellectual property
5
Land's rule: never build anything someone else could build
Polaroid was Apple before Apple — same instincts, same obsessions
Kodak stole his patents; Land won $909 million, the largest ever
Walt Disney: obsession, control, and building an empire from scratch
Founders
September 24, 2018
Origin stories
10
Business models
6
Bootstrapping
5
Losing control of Oswald the Rabbit made Disney own everything after
Nearly insolvent for 40 years — Disneyland finally delivered stability
Chaplin's one rule: to stay independent, own every picture you make
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos: competing visions for privatising space
Founders
September 17, 2018
Origin stories
9
Resilience & grit
5
Bootstrapping
5
Why rivalry — not vision — is the true rocket fuel for both men
Bezos' grandfather built ARPA; the internet then funded Blue Origin
SpaceX survived bankruptcy by finding $30 bathroom latches over $1,500 ones