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The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

456: How to Build an Unbeatable Business with Square Co-Founder Jim McKelvey

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jim McKelvey was a glassblower when he created the idea for the payment platform Square (now Block, Inc.). He was furious that he couldn’t accept certain credit cards as an artist and contacted a former colleague and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to solve the problem. What took three weeks to build became a three-year journey of creating Square into a banking disruptor inspired by McKelvey’s frustrations. In the 15 years since McKelvey teamed up with Dorsey, Square has grown into a billion-dollar business and beat the world’s best company at absorbing startups—Amazon.  Listen to Nathan and Jim discuss: Hitting it off with Dorsey when he was his summer intern Realizing how many laws they were breaking with Square Convincing the banking industry to accept Square  Taking on Amazon and winning Researching unbeatable companies throughout history  Why he wrote the book The Innovation Stack How to pitch a product Why it’s better to copy than innovate His new foundr course Plus, excerpts from our live community event  And much more innovation advice... Who do you want to see next on the podcast? Comment and let us know! And don't forget to leave us a 5-star review if you loved this episode. Wait, there's more… If you enjoy the Foundr podcast, check out our free trainings. Get exclusive, actionable advice from some of the world's best entrepreneurs.  Speak with our friendly course experts to get clarity on the next steps for your idea, business or career. You will get tailored insights from results achieved by our proven practitioners as well as thousands of students. Book a call now...  For more Foundr content, follow us on your favorite platform:  Foundr.com Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Magazine

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey Founder, fan, before we dive into another incredible conversation, I want to share something

0:05.3

really special with you. Whether you're just joining us or you've been following us since the

0:09.6

beginning, you've been a critical part of our community working to change entrepreneurial

0:14.0

education. I started Founder almost a decade ago with the mission to provide entrepreneurs

0:19.8

access to the world's greatest business

0:22.2

leaders. Our goal was to break down barriers to entrepreneurial education and that's taking

0:27.4

us on a journey from Founder magazine to this podcast and beyond and today marks the next step

0:33.5

in that journey, Founder Plus. I'm proud to introduce you to Founder Plus, which is an all-access

0:39.7

pass to each of our online courses and programs and their proven frameworks for success.

0:45.9

It puts every strategy we've compiled from world-class instructors at your fingertips while connecting

0:51.9

you to a global network of like-minded entrepreneurs.

0:55.9

Founder Plus will take your business to the next level for today and tomorrow.

1:00.5

So whether you've just joined our family or you've watched us grow from humble beginnings,

1:05.3

we're really thrilled to have you join us in this exciting new phase of making the founder brand

1:10.8

and this company

1:11.6

the world's best entrepreneurial community to launch and grow your business.

1:16.1

So finally, before we get into today's episode, I'm inviting you to come back,

1:21.2

check out Founder Plus and go to founder.com forward slash membership.

1:26.8

I'm really excited, guys. This is an incredible new

1:29.8

evolution of entrepreneurial education and our mission is really to get as many of these founders

1:36.1

that we interview to teach and also give back on the founder plus platform and really go more

1:42.0

in depth with the knowledge and the experiences and the lessons

...

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