Founders

This 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 [https://amzn.to/4owIPVB] 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 8. Extreme In All Things 9. Top 5 Emails 10. Direct Communication 11. LUA 12. The Mission is the Boss and Pilot-in-Command 13. Strategy is Action 14. Ship The Whole Cow 15. Go To School On Everybody 16. Create The Market 17. Choke You With Gold 18. Highest Priority First 19. Swarm Your Greatest Opportunity Episode sponsors: ⁠Ramp [%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0https://ramp.com]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort⁠⁠⁠⁠ [%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0https://www.vanta.com/founders%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%20]. ⁠⁠⁠Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta⁠⁠⁠. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off. ⁠⁠⁠https://www.vanta.com/founders⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠ Collateral⁠⁠ transforms your complex ideas into compelling narratives [https://collateral.com]. Collateral crafts institutional grade marketing collateral for private equity, private credit, real estate, venture capital, family offices, hedge funds, oil & gas companies, and all kinds of corporations. Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. You can do that by going to ⁠⁠https://collateral.com

I’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 [https://open.spotify.com/show/7jVjHrQJCbgruHkhrFi94A?si=9c4d31ace4cc4036], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-senra/id1836497887], YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@DavidSenra], or wherever you're listening to this so you don't miss future episodes [https://www.davidsenra.com]. Nothing is changing with Founders. I will never stop making Founders.

I 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 [https://joincolossus.com/article/thomas-peterffy-market-maker/]. I couldn’t put it down. That’s what this episode is about. Episode sponsors: ⁠Ramp⁠ [https://ramp.com]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 [https://ramp.com] Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort⁠ [https://vanta.com/founders]⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta⁠⁠⁠. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off. ⁠⁠⁠https://www.vanta.com/founders⁠⁠ [https://vanta.com/founders] ⁠⁠⁠ [https://collateral.com] Collateral⁠⁠ [https://collateral.com] transforms your complex ideas into compelling narratives. Collateral crafts institutional grade marketing collateral for private equity, private credit, real estate, venture capital, family offices, hedge funds, oil & gas companies, and all kinds of corporations. Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. You can do that by going to ⁠⁠https://collateral.com [https://collateral.com]

I started a new show so I can have long-form conversations with the greatest living founders.  You can watch on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/episode/6KPvfGAPcAU9Noktky5pau?si=61449d43a27c4369], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-senra/id1836497887?i=1000728863493], YouTube [https://youtu.be/qiXH0y2V3_8?si=mxxeYtEeJmzv_VfR], X [https://x.com/davidsenra/status/1972300264922333290], or the web [https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/daniel-ek-spotify].  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!

This 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 [https://amzn.to/4nPM2iH], and pulled ideas and notes from 4 more books about his singular career: Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire [https://amzn.to/4nmkIZs] Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace [https://amzn.to/48voIlC] Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft [https://amzn.to/4njA40V] In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World [https://amzn.to/4pD65lT] Episode sponsors: Ramp [%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0https://ramp.com%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 [%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0https://ramp.com%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0]⁠⁠⁠ Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta. ⁠⁠⁠Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort [%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0https://www.vanta.com/founders]⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta⁠⁠⁠. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off. ⁠⁠https://www.vanta.com/founders⁠⁠ [%E2%81%A0%E2%81%A0https://www.vanta.com/founders]⁠ [https://collateral.com] Collateral⁠ [https://collateral.com] transforms your complex ideas into compelling narratives. Collateral crafts institutional grade marketing collateral for private equity, private credit, real estate, venture capital, family offices, hedge funds, oil & gas companies, and all kinds of corporations. Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. You can do that by going to ⁠https://collateral.com [https://collateral.com]