Jim McKelvey was a St. Louis glass blower known for his bowls when an interaction with a disgruntled customer gave him the idea for Square. He called Jack Dorsey, his former intern, and together they began building a company to take on the business and regulatory challenges of disrupting the entrenched credit card industry. It wasn’t easy but it worked. Square went on to raise $243 million in an initial public offering and today has tens of millions of customers around the world.
Five years into Square’s existence, Amazon, the most feared name in retailing, copied the upstart’s business model and hardware and began competing against it. That means death for most companies, but Square not only survived, within a year Amazon shut down its effort and retreated. Jim spent three years researching how Square and other companies facing fierce competition from industry giants built innovation stacks that helped them win.
Midwest Moxie's executive producer is Audrey Nowakowski. She produced this episode. Subscribe to Midwest Moxie on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and NPR One. And if you love Midwest Moxie as much as we do, help us out by posting a review.
