Shows
FoundersMy conversation with Todd GravesTodd Graves is one of my favorite living founders. He owns over 90% of Raising Canes — a business that is worth at least $20 billion. Todd's maxim is "Do one thing and do it better than anyone else." It is impossible not to be inspired by his terminator levels of determination. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
Episode show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/to...
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2025-11-092h 00
Founders#404 How Larry Ellison ThinksThis episode covers the unique way Larry Ellison thinks.
I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this book on Ellison written by Matthew Symonds.
I then spent several days editing down 40 pages of notes into a one-hour nonstop stream of Larry Ellison's ideas.
Episode sponsors:
Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save time and...
2025-11-041h 02
FoundersMy Conversation with Brad JacobsI’ve started a new show where I have conversations with the greatest living Founders. The show is called David Senra. It will be on a separate podcast feed from Founders.
So it is very important that you follow David Senra on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you're listening to this so you don't miss future episodes.
Nothing is changing with Founders. I will never stop making Founders.
2025-10-282h 04Founders#403 How Jensen WorksThis episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Jensen Huang—and nothing else.
I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this book on Jensen and Nvidia written by Tae Kim
I then spent several days editing down 30 pages of notes from the book. I deleted everything that was not How Jensen Works.
List of ideas:
1. Professor Jensen
2. The Whiteboard
3. Complacency Kills
4. Insist on a Flat Organization
5. Public Criticism
6. Tortured Into Greatness
7. Speed of Light
...
2025-10-2055 min
FoundersMy Conversation with Michael DellI’ve started a new show where I have conversations with the greatest living Founders. The show is called David Senra. It will be on a separate podcast feed from Founders.
So it is very important that you follow David Senra on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you're listening to this so you don't miss future episodes.
Nothing is changing with Founders. I will never stop making Founders.
2025-10-131h 32Founders#402 Thomas Peterffy: The $80 Billion Founder Who Automates EverythingI didn’t know who Thomas Peterffy was. I was shocked to learn that he is 81 years old, worth $80 billion dollars, and has built his $120 billion company, Interactive Brokers, into one of the most efficient companies in the world. I discovered Peterffy by reading this incredible profile about him. I couldn’t put it down. That’s what this episode is about.
Episode sponsors:
Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can...
2025-10-0531 min
FoundersMy conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of SpotifyI started a new show so I can have long-form conversations with the greatest living founders. You can watch on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, X, or the web.
The new show is on a separate feed so don't forget to follow David Senra so you don't miss future episodes. Nothing is changing with Founders. I will never stop making that podcast.
Thanks for the support!
2025-09-282h 09Founders#401 How Bill Gates WorksThis episode is about Bill Gates' obsessive drive and hardcore work ethic. Bill Gates had the rarest entrepreneurial talent—the ability to see the leverage point in a new industry, seize it with relentless intensity, and *will* Microsoft into one of the most successful companies in human history.
To make this episode I read Bill's new autobiography, Source Code: My Beginnings, and pulled ideas and notes from 4 more books about his singular career:
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace
Idea Man: A Memoir by...
2025-09-241h 08Founders#400 The Stubborn Genius of James DysonThis episode covers the extreme perseverance and the stubborn genius of James Dyson.
Dyson has a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. A philosophy which demands difference from what exists and retention of total control. For almost four decades, James Dyson has been building one of the most valuable privately-held companies in the world. A company he owns without shareholders — and one that is centered around an obsession with the quality of the product above all.
I spent well over 70 hours reading (and rereading) both Against the Odds and Invention: A Life of...
2025-09-121h 13Founders#399 How Elon WorksThis episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Elon Musk—and nothing else.
I spent well over 60 hours reading (and rereading) the biography of Elon Musk written by Walter Isaacson. I then spent several days editing down 40 pages of notes from the book. I deleted everything that was not about How Elon Works.
This episode focuses exclusively on the ideas Elon used to build his companies and his truly singular career. There is no one else like him — living or dead.
Episode sponsors:
Ramp gives you everything you need...
2025-08-251h 33Founders#398 Steve Jobs In His Own Words (Make Something Wonderful)A curated collection of Steve’s speeches, interviews, and correspondence, Make Something Wonderful offers a window into how one of the world’s most creative entrepreneurs approached his life and work. In these pages, Steve shares his perspective on his childhood, on launching and being pushed out of Apple, on his time with Pixar and NeXT, and on his return to the company that started it all. Read the book for free courtesy of The Steve Jobs Archive.
This episode was originally published April 17, 2023.
Episode sponsors:
...
2025-08-142h 01Founders#397 Jiro Ono: Simplicity Is The Ultimate AdvantageJiro Ono is the greatest living sushi chef. He was kicked out his house when he was 9. He started working in a restaurant so he wouldn't have to sleep under a bridge. He never stopped. Over his 75 year career he rose to the very top of his profession. People travel from all over the world to eat at his restaurant. The meal costs $400 per person and lasts 15 minutes. This episode is what I learned from reading the transcript of the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi and is full of ideas you can use in your work.
2025-08-0441 minFounders#396 The Obsession of Enzo FerrariI've read hundreds of thousands of words about Enzo Ferrari. For this episode I distilled down his most important ideas into 1 hour. Ferrari was truly one of history's greatest obsessives.
Episode sponsors:
Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save time and money. https://ramp.com
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2025-07-3057 minFounders#395 How Geniuses and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing SportThose on the margins often come to control the center. That maxim ties together the three remarkable people profiled in this episode:
Colin Chapman, known as “the mad scientist of F1”, did more to influence F1 design than any other person in history.
Bernie Ecclestone, known as “Supremo”, Bernie transformed Formula One from a disorganized, rag-tag, chaotic collection of racing teams, into the world’s premier motor racing series. He built the business of F1— and made billions for himself along the way.
Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull, bought two Formula One teams and insi...
2025-07-221h 04Founders#394 An Orphan Who Built An Empire: Leonardo Del Vecchio and The Founding of LuxotticaYour dad dies before you’re born. Your mom can’t afford to take care of you. You grow up without a family and in an institution. You learn a trade and start working full time at the age of 14. You work all day and go to school at night. You’re precise, meticulous, restless, and work circles around everyone. You’re promoted to run the factory at 18 but the thought of working for anyone else terrifies you. For your entire life you’ll be obsessed with control. You’ll do whatever it takes to escape the harshness of poverty and...
2025-07-131h 07Founders#393 The Marketing Genius of the Michelin BrothersYour family asks you to take over a failing factory in a remote part of France. This “family business” comes with a stack of unpaid bills, a small team of workers who haven’t been paid in months, and a banker refusing to extend any more credit. You cut every unprofitable product and go all in on making rubber tires. You have no experience and don’t know a single thing about rubber manufacturing. You have a genius insight that selling tires is a waste of time and instead you should create the conditions for your product’s success. You organi...
2025-07-0354 minFounders#391 Jimmy IovineYou grow up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn. You drop out of college. Your dad is your best friend but you don’t want to work the docks like him. You’re determined to “do something special.” You get a job sweeping the floor at recording studio. You get fired—twice. You’ll do anything to work in the music business, including working on Easter Sunday. That’s how you meet John Lennon. This is the day your life begins. You focus on being of service. You stay in the room and in the saddle. Bruce Springsteen teaches you what work...
2025-06-1357 minFounders#382 Who Is Michael Ovitz?: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Most Powerful Man in HollywoodAt the core of Michael Ovitz's success is his relentless work ethic and commitment to mastering his craft. 50 years ago he founded Creative Artists Agency. CAA starts out as just five young guys in a run down office and eventually becomes the most powerful agency in the world. Ovitz's autobiography explains how that happened. As the Wall Street Journal wrote: When the history of Hollywood is written, few people will have played a larger role than Michael Ovitz. This episode is what I learned from reading (for the 2nd time!) Who Is Michael Ovitz?: The Rise and F...
2025-03-071h 31Founders#380 Four Hundred Pages of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger In Their Own WordsFor over 30 years the Berkshire Hathaway Annual meetings were recorded. Munger and Buffett answered over 1700 questions from shareholders during that period. Alex Morris watched hundreds of hours of these meetings and then he gathered, organized, and edited the most interesting ideas into 450+ pages — all in Buffett and Munger's own words. I thought it would be fun to rip through a bunch of Munger and Buffett's best ideas very rapidly. It was. This episode is what I learned from reading Buffett and Munger Unscripted: Three Decades of Investment and Business Insights from the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meetings by Alex...
2025-02-251h 21Founders#379 Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys)Jerry Jones rolled the dice until his knuckles bled. He started working at 7 years old. Jerry could sell, sell, sell. He sold fruit at his father’s grocery store in grade school and sold shoes out of the trunk of his car in college. After failing to sell pizza franchises he tried real estate and insurance. He never met a high risk deal he didn’t like. Jerry got pitched a deal to drill for oil that everyone else had already said no to. Jerry said yes. That well made $4 million. He hit again on the next 14 wells. Jerry deci...
2025-02-1859 minFounders#378 The Last Oil Baron: Leon HessYour father goes bankrupt. You work for 50 cents a day to try to help your family survive the Great Depression. At 19 you see an opportunity where others see nothing. You start “a little fuel delivery business” with one used truck. Five years later you have 10 trucks. World War II breaks out and you serve as the fuel supply officer for General Patton. You come back to America and apply what the war taught you about logistics and moving fuel efficiently. You expand from fuel delivery to storage, refining, and open gas stations in 16 states. You take your company public. You...
2025-02-1053 minFounders#377 Expanding A Family Dynasty: Marcus Wallenberg Jr.Marcus Wallenberg Jr's impact on Swedish industry was so substantial that during the 1970s, Wallenberg family businesses employed about 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market. The Wallenberg family is one of the most fascinating family dynasties you could read about. The family has survived — and continues to thrive — for 170 years. In a family full of talented entrepreneurs and investors Marcus Wallenberg Jr. stands out. This episode is what I learned from reading Furthering A Fortune: Marcus Wallenberg Swedish Banker and Industrialist by Ulf Olsson.----Ramp give...
2025-01-271h 03Founders#375 The Single Biggest Individual Financier In The World. The Richest Woman In America: Hetty GreenHetty Green bailed out New York City. Her decisions on what interest rates to charge moved markets and were reported in major newspapers. She was a one woman bank and the single biggest individual financier in the world. She took no partners and ran her own money. She built a financial empire of stocks, bonds, railroads, and real estate. She battled the great men of her day and kept a gun on her desk. She did all of this alone. Defiantly independent and ferociously intelligent she built a vast, liquid fortune at a time when women couldn't even vote...
2025-01-0653 minFounders#371 James J. Hill: The Empire BuilderWhat I learned from rereading James J. Hill: Empire Builder by Michael P. Malone. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podc...
2024-11-1858 minFounders#368 Rockefeller's AutobiographyWhat I learned from rereading Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the...
2024-10-1555 minFounders#357 Haruki MurakamiWhat I learned from reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event----(3:01) No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it...
2024-07-2159 minFounders#350 How To Sell Like Steve JobsWhat I learned from reading The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo ----Learning from history is a form of leverage. —Charlie Munger. Founders Notes gives you the super power to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand.Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for FoundersYou can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my...
2024-05-2747 minFounders#348 The Financial Genius Behind A Century of Wall Street Scandals: Ivar KreugerWhat I learned from reading The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy. ----Relationships run the world: Build relationships at Founders events----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for FoundersYou can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you...
2024-05-071h 15Founders#347 How Walt Disney Built His Greatest Creation: DisneylandWhat I learned from reading Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for FoundersYou can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the mo...
2024-04-291h 17Founders#343 The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness: David OgilvyWhat I learned from reading Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness: Being Very Good Is No Good,You Have to Be Very, Very, Very, Very, Very Good by David Ogilvy and Ogivly & Mather. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders NotesSome questions other subscribers asked SAGE: I need some unique ideas on how to find new customers. What advice do you have for me?What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors?How did Edwin Land find new empl...
2024-03-2432 minFounders#342 The Lessons of History (Will & Ariel Durant)What I learned from reading The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes----Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ----(1:00) This is a 100 page biography of the human species(1:00) The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant (Full Set) (2:30) Generations of men establish a growing mastery over the earth, but they are destined to become fossils in its soil.(4:00) Ruthlessly prioritize how you spend your...
2024-03-1853 minFounders#338 Monty Moncrief Texas Oil BillionaireWhat I learned from reading Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money by Sally Helgesen.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Founders merch available at the Founders shop----Vesto shows you all of your company's finances in one view. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. ----(0:01) Family and business were the same thing to him.(1:00) We...
2024-02-1359 minFounders#337 Napoleon's Maxims and StrategyWhat I learned from reading Roots of Strategy by Thomas R. Phillips and Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference----(0:01) Napoleon fought more battles than Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar combined.(5:00) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)(7:00) Insull: The...
2024-02-051h 00Founders#331 Christian DiorWhat I learned from reading Dior by Dior: The Autobiography of Christian Dior and Creators by Paul Johnson. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----(4:00) The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296)(5:00) Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss.(6:00) Dior was a nobody in his forties, with nothing in his design career to suggest genius.(6:00) Whe...
2023-12-181h 00FoundersReflections from my dinner with Charlie MungerReflections from my dinner with Charlie Munger.Order the new updated version of Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. MungerCharlie Munger episodes:#295 I had dinner with Charlie Munger#286 Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. #221 Charlie Munger Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe.#90 Charlie Munger Poor...
2023-11-2930 minFounders#327 Ted TurnerWhat I learned from reading Ted Turner's Autobiography.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Listen to Art of Investing #4 David Senra Lessons from the Founder Historian. ----(9:00) My net worth dropped by about 67 million per week, or nearly 10 million per day, every day for two and a half years.(10:00) Once to drive home a point about the difficulties of attracting good loyal employees he told me: Jesus only had to pic...
2023-11-141h 26Founders#326 Anna WintourWhat I learned from reading Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell. ----1. If you need tax prep and bookkeeping check out betterbookkeeping.com/founders. It's like having a full time CFO and super cheap grandpa sitting on your shoulder. 2. Vesto makes it easy for you to invest your businesses idle cash. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. Here's the legal disclosures to make the lawyers happy:Vesto Advisors, LLC (“Vesto”) is an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration with the SEC does no...
2023-11-061h 12Founders#325 Larry Gagosian (Billionaire Art Dealer)What I learned from reading How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----(4:00) The dealer has been so successful selling art to masters of the universe that he has become one of them.(5:45) We think of genius as being complicated, but geniuses have the fewest moving parts. Gagosian is simple. He's basically a shark, a feeding machine.(6:00) A novice is easily spotted because the...
2023-10-301h 11FoundersMike BloombergWhat I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----[2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation.[3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com[5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it.[6:27] We kn...
2023-10-111h 20Founders#322 Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)What I learned from reading Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg and Herb’s Heroes by David Sanders. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----(2:30) Reality is chaotic; planning is ordered and logical. The two don’t square with one another.(5:30) You undergo a lot of stress all the tim...
2023-09-2643 minFounders#320 The Making of Winston Churchill Part 2What I learned from reading Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----(5:00) It was better for the world that he had known failure and suffered moments of self doubt.(6:00) The...
2023-09-1554 minFoundersSam Zemurray (The Fish That Ate the Whale)What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----[4:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing t...
2023-09-121h 29Founders#318 Alistair Urquhart (Listen to this when you’re stressed)What I learned from reading The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific by Alistair Urquhart.---Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book---(4:00) I hope that this book will be inspirational and offer hope to those who suffer adversity in their daily lives.(10:00) You might as well send a cow in pursuit of a rabbit. The Indians were accustomed to these woods. — Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251)(13:30) When you reach a lar...
2023-08-2847 minFounders#310 Walt Disney and PicassoWhat I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. ---(3:30) Disney made use of the new technologies throughout his creative life.(4:45) Lists of Paul Johnson books and episodes: Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson.(Founders #226)Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) (5:55) Picasso was essentially self-taught, self-directed, self-promoted, emotionally educated in th...
2023-07-0451 minFounders#308 The Founder of GlockWhat I learned from reading Glock: The Rise of America's Gun by Paul Barrett. Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain. ---Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book---(5:22) What struck me is how his inexperience was a great advantage. He didn't assume anything about how to design a handgun because he's never designed one before. Consequently he designed the best one ever. He didn't know what was out of bounds.(8:20) Gaston Glock himself put...
2023-06-1940 minFounders#307: The World's Great Family Dynasties: Rockefeller, Rothschild, Morgan, & ToyadaWhat I learned from reading Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses by David Landes.----Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain. Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----(4:25) Success causes failure. As the family develops power and prestige, the heirs find many interesting and amusing things to do rather than run their business.(6:00) Those on the margins often come to control the center.(9:00) Great industrial leaders are always fanatically co...
2023-06-121h 02Founders#306 David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man)What I learned from reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. ----Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----(4:15) When Fortune published an article about me and titled it: "Is David Ogilvy a Genius?," I asked my lawyer to sue the editor for the question mark.(4:45) The people who built the companies for which America is famous, all worked obsessively to create strong cultures wi...
2023-06-0548 minFounders#303 Rose Blumkin (Warren Buffett's Favorite Founder)What I learned from reading The Women of Berkshire Hathaway: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Female CEOs and Directors by Karen Linder. ----Follow one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas—A New Blueprint for Homebuilding ----Episode outline:Mr. Buffett, we're going to put our competitors through a meat grinder. — Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. (Founders #182)There are several "Going Out of Business" advertisements from competitors' stores framed and hanging on the wall.As a...
2023-05-1532 minFounders#302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon)What I learned from reading The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas----(3:45) A man who combined energy of thought and energy of action to an exceptional degree.(4:45) He knows that men have always been the same, that not...
2023-05-0850 minFounders#300 James Dyson (Against the Odds)What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson for the 4th time. You can also find the book on Book Finder. ----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra: Passion and Pain ----Episode Outline: [4:30] Invention: A Life by James Dyson (Founders #205)[2:41] I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and my name appears on them. That is how I make a living and they are what have made my name at...
2023-04-241h 21Founders#299 Steve Jobs (Make Something Wonderful)What I learned from reading Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.comYou can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from...
2023-04-172h 00Founders#298 I had lunch with Sam ZellWhat I learned from having lunch with Sam Zell and reading Zeckendorf: The Autobiography of The man Who Played a Real-Life Game of Monopoly and Won the Largest Real Estate Empire in History by William Zeckendorf. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.comYou can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from ever...
2023-04-101h 30FoundersA conversation with David and Ben from the Acquired podcastDavid Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert — of the Acquired podcast — invited me to San Francisco for a discussion on our mutual obsession: spending every waking hour studying the history of entrepreneurship and sharing those lessons on our podcasts. ----Follow Acquired in your podcast player here or at Acquired.fm This episode is brought to you by: Tiny: Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Tiny provides quick and straightforward exits for Founders. Get in touch with Tiny by emailing hi@tiny.com. [3:00] David’s time with Charlie Munger[5:30...
2023-03-293h 09
AcquiredSessions: David Senra (Founders Podcast)ACQ Sessions returns with David Senra of the Founders Podcast. David is one of our very favorite people in the world — it’s impossible to spend an hour (or 3!) with him and not come away inspired to go take over the world. This conversation is an “extended, IRL version” of monthly calls that we do together where we share stories, swap life and podcast advice, and just genuinely enjoy sharing time with someone who shares our outlook and enthusiasm for the history of entrepreneurship. Pull up a chair, grab a beverage (or energy drink in David’s case) and join us!
2023-03-293h 20Founders#296 Bernard Arnault (The Richest Man in the World)What I learned from reading The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best !----[1:16] I am the boss. I shall be here on Monday morning and I shall be running the company in person.[4:30] The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier an...
2023-03-271h 07Founders#294 NapoleonWhat I learned from reading Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes----Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ![3:00] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them.[4:00] John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254)[4:14] Miami meetup with Shane Parrish[7:31] His life was...
2023-03-1343 minFounders#293: Ray Kroc (The Making of McDonald's)What I learned from rereading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes----Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ![2:00] I have always believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems.[4:00] I was fascinated by the simplicity and effectiveness of the system they described that night.Each step in pro...
2023-03-0752 minFounders#291 David Packard (Founder of HP)What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by signing up for Founders Notes----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best !----Do our products offer something unique?Customer satisfaction second to none is the only acceptable goal.What I learned from rereading Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters for the 3rd time (Founders #282)In Silicon Va...
2023-02-2047 minFounders#290 Bill GatesWhat I learned from rereading Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 292 The Business of Gaming with Mitch Lasky and 293 David Senra Passion and Pain !----Gates read the encyclopedia from beginning to end when he was only seven or eight years ol...
2023-02-1347 minFounders#289 Brunello CucinelliWhat I learned from reading The Dream of Solomeo: My Life and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism by Brunello Cucinelli.----This episode is brought to you by: Tiny: Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Quick and straightforward exits for Founders.----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra Passion and Pain ![4:00] I am reminded of Machiavelli: during his exile, he too spent his afternoons playing board games and drinking wine, while at night, in the austere...
2023-02-0753 minFounders#288 Ralph LaurenWhat I learned from reading Ralph Lauren: The Man Behind the Mystique by Jeffrey Trachtenberg.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 311 John Fio — Creating Magic for Consumers, episode 307 Jeremiah Lowin: Explaining the New AI Paradigm, and episode 293 The Business of Gaming. ----[2:01] When I lumped him together with a handful of other designers during casual conversation, he snapped: “Don't p...
2023-01-311h 01
The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd#130 You Have One Life - David Senra on finding his life's work, trial & error, the necessity of talking risks, mortality, balancing his entrepreneurial endeavours and family life and what can be learned from reading hundreds of biographies.David Senra is the creator of Founders Podcast and is obsessed with bringing alive the knowledge of the most driven, curious, courageous, and interesting founders throughout history. He has spent almost all his time reading, re-reading, and recording one of the best podcasts on the planet right now. Links:Follow his podcast: @FoundersPodcastListen: Founders Podcast or Itunes⏳TIMESTAMPS2:58 The scripts David grew up with8:09 Working full time while in high school and during college20:47 Trial and error, finding his life’s work33:24 Why David thinks keeping his podcast behind a paywall was a...
2023-01-231h 35Founders#285 Jay Gould (How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune)What I learned from reading American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune by Greg Steinmetz.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----[0:01] A series of spectacular financial triumphs had made Gould fabulously rich. At age thirty-six, he was the most notorious businessman in the country.[1:00] Vanderbilt told a newspaper that Gould was "the smartest man in America." Rockefeller, when asked who he thought had the best head for business, answered "Jay Gould" wi...
2023-01-1059 minFoundersThe Founder of Kinkos — Paul OrfaleaWhat I learned from reading Copy This!: How I turned Dyslexia, ADHD, and 100 square feet into a company called Kinkos by Paul Orfalea.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Follow Invest Like The Best in your favorite podcast player hereTwo episodes I recommend: Paul Orfalea - It's About the Money episode 299David Senra - Passion & Pain episode 292 [5:23] I've never met a more circular, out-of-the-box thinker. It's often exha...
2022-12-091h 14Founders#276 Paul Graham’s Essays Part 2What I learned from reading Paul Graham’s essays.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[4:01] You don't want to start a startup to do something that everyone agrees is a good idea, or there will already be other companies doing it. You have but that you know isn't to do something that sounds to most other people like a bad idea.[5:20] The independent-minded are often unaware how different their ideas are from conventional ones, at least till they stat...
2022-11-0942 minFounders#275 Paul GrahamWhat I learned from reading Paul Graham’s essays.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[4:52] My father told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it.[5:49] Do what you love doesn't mean, do what you would like to do most this second.[7:41] To be happy I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. You have to be able to say, at the...
2022-11-031h 19Founders#271 Vannevar Bush (Engineer of the American Century)What I learned from reading Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary.----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----[7:31] Acts of importance were the measure of his life and they are the reason that his life deserves study today.[8:10] Suspicious of big institutions Bush objected to the pernicious effects of an i...
2022-10-1353 minFounders#268 John Malone (Cable Cowboy)What I learned from reading Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----Outline:Thread of highlights from Cable Cowboy by @LoadlinefinanceMalone was stalwart about building long term value through leveraged cash flow. Earnings didn’t count. He wasn’t constrained by quarterly expectations.Malone built the pipes, then bought the water that flows through them.Malone took sparta...
2022-09-221h 01Founders#258: Jay Gould (Dark Genius of Wall Street)What I learned from reading Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan Jr.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:40] John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254)[3:46] From the back cover: Though reviled for more than a century as Wall Street's greatest villain, Jay Gould was in fact its most original creative genius. Gould was the most astute financial and bu...
2022-07-221h 39Founders#257 Richard Garriott (Video Games and Space Exploration)What I learned from reading Explore/Create My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark by Richard Garriott.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[6:49] Richard Garriott’s house[7:39] Past episodes on video game creatorsSid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games by Sid Meier (Founders#195)Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner (Founders #21)[9:31] I was lucky to learn...
2022-07-151h 18Founders#256 Edward L. Bernays (Public Relations, Advertising, & Persuasion)What I learned from reading The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:54] The very substance of American thought was mere clay to be molded by the savvy public relations practitioner.[1:48] Bernays saved every scrap of paper he sent out or took in and provided them to be made public after his death.[4:15] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Ti...
2022-07-091h 18Founders#255 Sam Zemurray (Banana King)What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with th...
2022-07-021h 29Founders#254 John D. Rockefeller: The Founding Father of the RockefellersWhat I learned from reading John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:07] He transmitted messages in code and secrecy covered all of his operations.[0:39] Rockefeller compared himself to Napoleon.[2:20] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them.[2:35] It is always hard to successfully control what you don't understand.[3:32] Titan: The Life of John D. Roc...
2022-06-271h 40Founders#253 Henry Goldman (Goldman Sachs)What I learned from reading When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street by June Breton Fisher.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:30] The Uses of Adversity by Malcolm Gladwell[2:40] Business Breakdowns: Goldman Sachs: Fortune Favors The Old[3:00] Men can learn from the past, and I've been shocked how little some of the younger executives in the present firm know about its origins. They don't even know that my gr...
2022-06-2256 minFoundersSteve Jobs's Heroes----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----On Steve Jobs#5 Steve Jobs: The Biography#19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader#76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple#77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing#204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography#235 To Pixar An...
2022-06-0230 minFounders#248 John D. Rockefeller (Titan)What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:15] Rockefeller trained himself to reveal as little as possible[4:22] Once Rockefeller set his mind to something he brought awesome powers of concentration to bear.[4:44] My whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they didn’t know they had. —Edwin Land[9...
2022-05-281h 50Founders#244 Harry Snyder (In-N-Out Burger)What I learned from reading In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:03] This is an absorbing case study on how a family business came to be at the center of its own cheerful cult.[2:42] Aliens, Jedi, & Cults: A Mental Model for Potential[5:05] Stripe gave me a mental model for potential. An alien founder assembles a group of Jedi to start a c...
2022-05-031h 05FoundersSteve Jobs and His Heroes----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----On Steve Jobs#5 Steve Jobs: The Biography#19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader#76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple#77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing#204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography#235 To Pixar An...
2022-04-0230 minFounders#239 The Wright BrothersWhat I learned from rereading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[3:40] Relentlessly Resourceful by Paul Graham[4:11] If I were running a startup, this would be the phrase I'd tape to the mirror. "Make something people want" is the destination, but "Be relentlessly resourceful" is how you get there.[5:35] Everybody engaged in complicated work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a...
2022-03-291h 33Founders#233 Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin (PayPal)What I learned from reading The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:50] Your life will be shaped by the things that you create and the people you make them with.[2:45] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age (Founders #95) [3:17] Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Founders #1 and #30) [4:48] It is hard to find...
2022-02-231h 53Founders#228 Michael BloombergWhat I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation.[3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com[5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it.[6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics.[7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new tha...
2022-01-271h 20Founders#226 Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de GaulleWhat I learned from reading Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:55] I have always had a soft spot for those who speak out against the conventional wisdom and who are not afraid to speak the truth, even if it puts them in a minority of one.[1:20] 4 traits of heroes:1. Absolute independence of mind. Think everything through yourself.2. Act re...
2022-01-121h 06Founders#189 David Ogilvy (The book I've given as a gift the most)What I learned from reading The Unpublished David Ogilvy by David Ogilvy. ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----[0:01] Will Any Agency Hire This Man? He is 38, and unemployed. He dropped out of college.He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. He knows nothing about marketing, and has never written any copy. He professes to be...
2021-07-0559 minFounders#179 Jeff BezosWhat I learned from The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone.This is part one of a three part series on Jeff Bezos. The next two books are Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon and Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire.----(0:54) It may very well be that the absolute intensity of drive and focus is essential and incompatible with all of the nice management thought about consensus and gentle demeanor.(2:07) Jeff’s clarity, intensity of focus, an...
2021-05-101h 21Founders#176 Linus Torvalds (Creator of Linux)What I learned from reading Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond.----[0:01] From a party of one it now counted millions of users on every continent, including Antartica, and even outer space, if you count NASA outposts. Not only was it the most common operating system, but its very development model—an intricate web of its own, encompassing hundreds of thousands of volunteer computer programmers—had grown to become the largest collaborative project in the history of the world. [1:08] Revolutionaries aren’t born. Revolutions can’t b...
2021-04-1852 minFounders#169 David Ogilvy (The King of Madison Avenue)What I learned from reading The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising by Kenneth Roman. ----One characteristic of geniuses, said Einstein, is they are passionately curious. Ogilvy’s great secret was an inquiring mind.In conversation, he never pontificated; he interrogated.There were piles of books all over his house, most about successful leaders in business and government. He was interested in how they used their leadership. How they made their money. He was interested in people — people who had accomplished remarkable things.Reading Ogilvy’s...
2021-03-011h 28Founders#164 Robert Goddard (Rocket Man)What I learned from reading Rocket Man: Robert Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age by David A. Clary. ---[18:16] For even though I reasoned with myself that the thing was impossible, there was something inside me which simply would not stop working. [20:08] Anything is possible with the man who makes the best use of every minute of his time. [20:18] There are limitless opportunities open to the man who appreciates the fact that his own mind is the sole key that unlocks them. [32:55] It’s appalling how short life i...
2021-01-251h 05Founders#145 William Randolph HearstWhat I learned from reading The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw.----[0:20] There has never been —nor, most likely, will there ever again be — a publisher like William Randolph Hearst. [0:26] Decades before synergy became a corporate cliche, Hearst put the concept into practice. His magazine editors were directed to buy only stories which could be rewritten into screenplays to be produced by his film studio and serialized, reviewed, and publicized in his newspapers and magazines. He broadcast the news from his papers over the radio and pictured it in hi...
2020-09-201h 05Founders#116 Sam Bronfman (Seagram's and the Bronfman family dynasty)What I learned from reading Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam by Michael R. Marrus.----The story of Sam’s rise to fame and fortune from a hard life on the Canadian frontier is inherently dramatic and yet touches a familiar nerve in a broad spectrum of the population. There is something in Sam’s response to his disappointments that most people recognize in their themselves. [0:01] I found out about the Bronfman family on Founders #53 Mike Ovitz when Mike Ovitz brokered a deal that led to Seagram buying M...
2020-03-211h 07Founders#111 David GeffenWhat I learned from reading The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King. ----He told me he had recently read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, Buffett was Geffen's hero.Geffen—with searing focus, unyielding drive, and outlandish nerve—had devised and implemented strategies to propel himself to the top of the heap of Hollywood powerbrokers.I used to have phone conversations with David that would leave me sweaty.David might not have realized it, but he was being educated by a mas...
2020-02-161h 22Founders#101 Warren Buffett (The Tao of Warren Buffett)What I learned from reading The Tao of Warren Buffett by David Clark and Mary Buffett. ---[0:01]The more I heard Warren speak, the more I learned. Not only about investing, but about business and life. [4:02] The great personal fortunes in this country weren’t built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business. [5:45] It is impossible to unsign a contract, so do all your thinking before you sign. [8:35] I don’t try to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one...
2019-12-0842 min
David's NotesKevin Systrom and Mike Krieger – How to Build a Great Product – Invest Like the Best, EP. 148Kevin: We had a great run. We created something that a lot of people love in the world. Over 1 billion people use it every month. We had over 1,000 team members. To be 33 and 35 years old and pressing the reset button is this awesome, but harrowing adventure of becoming a beginner again. [3:30]Kevin: We only spent $65,000 to launch Instagram. [11:00]Kevin: Now we are in a place where —for zero marginal costs—you too can have these things [open-source software] at your fingertips. Then it becomes not about access to super tools, but about the knowledge of how...
2019-11-2208 minFounders#89 David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man)What I learned by reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy.
----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am int...
2019-09-151h 20
David's NotesJimmy Iovine Talks Founding Interscope Records & Selling Beats By DreYou did not excel in school and got fired from your first few jobs. What changed? I had a lot of insecurities and a lot of fear. I had to learn to understand [and use] my fears. The owners of the studio asked me to come in on Easter in 1973 to answer the phones. My mother thought it was a bad idea. I went anyway. I was like I will do anything. It turned out they were testing me. At 22/23 years old you wind up in the studio with Bruce Springsteen and John...
2019-08-1207 minFounders#82 David Ogilvy (Ogilvy on Advertising)What I learned from reading Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy.---In my Confessions of an Advertising Man I told the story of how Ogilvy & Mather came into existence, and set forth the principles on which our early success had been based. What was then little more than a creative boutique in New York has since become one of the four biggest advertising agencies in the world, with 140 offices in 40 countries. Our principles seem to work.I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of...
2019-07-281h 03Founders#78 Charlie Munger (the Tao of Charlie Munger)What I learned from reading Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth With Commentary by David ClarkHow is it that Charlie—who trained as a meteorologist and a lawyer and never took a single college course in economics, marketing, finance, or accounting—became one of the greatest business and investing geniuses of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? Therein lies the mystery. [0:44]Charlie Munger was learning this important investment skill while playing poker with his army buddies. That’s where he learned...
2019-06-3058 minFounders#29 The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our CompanyWhat I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard.---[0:01] How Steve Jobs was inspired by David Packard[1:00] Books are the original hyperlinks[4:30] Profit is the measure of how well we work together[9:00] HP's first product[11:00] Podcasts before podcasts[14:00] Many of the things I learned in this process were invaluable, and not available in business schools[15:00] More businesses die from indigestion than starvation[16:30] The importance of maintaining a narrow focus...
2018-07-0239 minFounders#28 The Wright BrothersWhat I learned from reading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough---Unyielding determination (2:30) Jocko's concept of GOOD (4:00)The ability to focus on an idea for a long time is the antidote to short bursts of dopamine we get from checking social feeds all day. (6:30)The beginning of their side business (13:00)The importance of heroes (16:00)Rereading / revisiting old ideas (18:30)Books transformed idle curiosity into the active zeal of workers (22:00)Wilbur Wright on risk: “The man who wishes to keep at the proble...
2018-06-2541 minFounders#21 Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop CultureWhat I learned from reading Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner.---[0:35] For a new generation, Carmack and Romero personified an American dream: they were self-made individuals who had transformed their personal passions into a big business, a new art form, and a cultural phenomenon.[1:19] His (John Carmack) game and life aspired to the elegant discipline of computer code.[1:40] Romero wants an empire. I just want to create good programs.[3:07] No matter what Romero suffered he could always escape...
2018-03-011h 28Founders#4 The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. KennedyWhat I learned from reading The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the bo...
2017-04-1957 min