Founders at Work.md

Founders at Work

Stories of Startups' Early Days
by Jessica Livingston

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Introduction

• This book is about founders' stories in their own words, and the patterns she observed
• The goal is to inspire future founders
• Many founders were uncertain about starting a company or sure they were doing something big, just sure that they wanted to fix something broken or make something good
• Determination is the most important personality trait because you must be able to persevere when nothing goes according to plan, uncertainty, isolation, rejection, etc.
• Innovation is something people like abstractly but resist concretely because it differs from what they know
• Web-based email was once dismissed as unpromising

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

-Howard Aiken

• Adaptability is important because most startups change their ideas rather than grow from a brilliant seedling
  • PayPal started as encryption software
  • Flickr started as a game
• Successful founders get rich but care more about changing the world and craftsmanship
• In the business world, startups are the essence of productivity

1. Max Levchin: Cofounder, PayPal

2. Sabeer Bhatia: Cofounder, Hotmail

3. Steve Wozniak: Cofounder, Apple Computer

4. Joe Kraus: Cofounder, Excite

5. Dan Bricklin: Cofounder, Software Arts

6. Mitchell Kapor: Cofounder, Lotus Development

7. Ray Ozzie: Founder Iris Associates, Groove Networks

8. Evan Williams: Cofounder, Pyra Labs (Blogger.com)

9. Tim Brady: First Non-Founding Employee, Yahoo

10. Mike Lazaridis: Cofounder, Research in Motion

11. Arthur van Hoff: Cofounder, Marimba

12. Paul Buchheit: Creator, Gmail

13. Steve Perlman: Cofounder, WebTV

14. Mike Ramsay: Cofounder, TiVo

15. Paul Graham: Cofounder, Viaweb

16. Joshua Schachter: Founder, del.icio.us

17. Mark Fletcher: Founder ONElist, Bloglines

18. Craig Newmark: Founder, craigslist

19. Caterina Fake: Cofounder, Flickr

20. Brewster Kahle: Founder, WAIS, Internet Archive, Alexa Internet

21. Charles Geschke: Cofounder, Adobe Systems

22. Ann Winbland: Cofounder, Open Systems, Hummer Winbland

23. David Heinemeier Hansson: Partner, 37signals

24. Philip Greenspun: Cofounder, ArsDigita

25. Joel Spolsky: Cofounder, Fog Creek Software

26. Stephen Kaufer: Cofounder, Trip Advisor

27. James Hong: Cofounder, HOT or NOT

28. James Currier: Founder, Tickle

29. Blake Ross: Creator, Firefox

30. Mena Trott: Cofounder, Six Apart

31. Bob Davis: Founder, Lycos

32. Run Gruner: Cofounder, Alliant Computer Systems; Founder, Shareholder.com