Tech Founders' Origin Stories

A selection of audio and video interviews where tech founders tell the origin stories of their companies.

Note: These interviews are mainly focused on the founder story and the company origin story, not on founder advice.
 

A

 

• Airbnb
  • Joe Gebbia on How I Built This Audio 42:24
     
• Amazon
  • Jeff Bezos on Success! How I Did It Audio 49:41
     
• AOL
  • Steve Case on How I Built This Audio 34:21
     
• Apple
  • Steve Wozniak on NPR: Talk of the Nation Audio 29:55
     
• Atari
  • Nolan Bushnell on How I Built This Audio 50:56
  • Nolan Bushnell on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     

B

 

• Basecamp
  • Jason Fried on Chicago Founders’ Stories Video 1:37:35
     
• Blinkist
  • Holger Seim on Slush's Founder Story Video 12:16
     
• Box
  • Aaron Levie on Success! How I Did It Audio 22:20
     
• Bumble
  • Whitney Wolfe on How I Built This Audio 42:56
     
• BuzzFeed
  • Jonah Peretti on How I Built This Audio 49:33
  • Jonah Peretti on Success! How I Did It Audio 40:05
     

C

 

• CD Baby
  • Derek Sivers on Business of Software 2010 Audio 35:22
     
• Cisco Systems
  • Sandy Lerner on How I Built This Audio 1:01:58
     
• Compaq
  • Rod Canion on How I Built This Audio 40:17
     
• Craigslist
  • Craig Newmark on Success! How I Did It Audio 7:57 (Starts on 18:40)
     

D

 

• Dell Computers
  • Michael Dell on How I Built This Audio 50:31
     
• DoubleClick
  • Kevin Ryan on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     
• Dropbox
  • Drew Houston on From Scratch Audio 32:00
  • Drew Houston on Success! How I Did It Audio 25:44
     
• Duolingo
  • Luis von Ahn on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     

F

 

• Flickr
  • Stewart Butterfield on How I Built This Audio 1:04:44
     
• Funding Circle
  • Samir Desai on Slush's Founder Story Video 18:07
     

G

 

• Geek Squad
  • Robert Stephens on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     
• Group Nine
  • Ben Lerer on Success! How I Did It Audio 30:21
     
• Grubhub
  • Matt Maloney and Mike Evans on Chicago Founders’ Stories Video 1:07:01
     

I

 

• Infosys
  • Nandan Nilekani on From Scratch Audio 13:20
     
• Instacart
  • Apoorva Mehta on How I Built This Audio 40:33
     
• Instagram
  • Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger on How I Built This Audio 33:32
  • Mike Krieger on From Scratch Audio 31:01
     

K

 

• Kickstarter
  • Perry Chen on How I Built This Audio 43:03
     

L

 

• LinkedIn
  • Reid Hoffman on How I Built This Audio 43:11
  • Reid Hoffman on Success! How I Did It Audio 26:44
     
• Lyft
  • John Zimmer on How I Built This Audio 41:00
  • John Zimmer on Success! How I Did It Audio 27:49
     

M

 

• Mapbox
  • Eric Gundersen on Slush's Founder Story Video 18:06
     
• MySpace
  • Tom Anderson Interviewed by Tai Lopez Video 1:26:23
     

O

 

• OnePlus
  • Carl Pei on Slush's Founder Story Video 18:01
     

P

 

• Pandora
  • Tim Westergren on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     
• PayPal
  • Max Levchin on Success! How I Did It Audio 30:03
     

R

 

• ReCAPTCHA
  • Luis von Ahn on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     
• Reddit
  • Alexis Ohanian & Steve Huffman on How I Built This Audio 53:40
     
• Robinhood
  • Vlad Tenev on Success! How I Did It Audio 22:41
     

S

 

• Slack
  • Cal Henderson on Slush's Founder Story Video 17:30
  • Stewart Butterfield on How I Built This Audio 1:04:44
     
• Squarespace
  • Anthony Casalena on How I Built This Audio 55:17
     
• Stripe
  • Patrick and John Collison on How I Built This Audio 43:14
  • Patrick Collison on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     

T

 

• TaskRabbit
  • Leah Busque on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     
• Thoughtbot
  • Matt Tucker, Calvin Swaim, Willie Conrad and Chad Pytel on Giant Robots Audio 57:06
     
• Thrillist
  • Ben Lerer on Success! How I Did It Audio 30:21
     
• Tinder
  • Sean Rad on Success! How I Did It Audio 34:55
     
• Trello
  • Michael Pryor on Slush's Founder Story Video 20:54
     
• TripAdvisor
  • Stephen Kaufer on TechCrunch's Founder Stories Video 11:42
     
• Tumblr
  • David Karp on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     

W

 

• WeWork
  • Miguel McKelvey on How I Built This Audio 48:10
     
• WhatsApp
  • Jan Koum on Startup Grind Video 39:05
     
• Wikipedia
  • Jimmy Wales on How I Built This Audio 43:48
     
• Wipro
  • Azim Premji on From Scratch Audio 32:00
     

Z

 

• Zappos
  • Tony Hsieh on How I Built This Audio 30:03
     
• Zynga
  • Mark Pincus on Slush's Founder Story Video 23:46