The Innovation Stack

Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time

De: Jim McKelvey

Narrado por: Jim McKelvey

From the cofounder of Square, an inspiring and entertaining account of what it means to be a true entrepreneur and what it takes to build a resilient, world-changing company

In 2009, a St. Louis glassblowing artist and recovering computer scientist named Jim McKelvey lost a sale because he couldn't accept American Express cards. Frustrated by the high costs and difficulty of accepting credit card payments, McKelvey joined his friend Jack Dorsey (the cofounder of Twitter) to launch Square, a startup that would enable small merchants to accept credit card payments on their mobile phones. With no expertise or experience in the world of payments, they approached the problem of credit cards with a new perspective, questioning the industry's assumptions, experimenting and innovating their way through early challenges, and achieving widespread adoption from merchants small and large.

But just as Square was taking off, Amazon launched a similar product, marketed it aggressively, and undercut Square on price. For most ordinary startups, this would have spelled the end. Instead, less than a year later, Amazon was in retreat and soon discontinued its service. How did Square beat the most dangerous company on the planet? Was it just luck? These questions motivated McKelvey to study what Square had done differently from all the other companies Amazon had killed. He eventually found the key: a strategy he calls the Innovation Stack.

McKelvey's fascinating and humorous stories of Square's early days are blended with historical examples of other world-changing companies built on the Innovation Stack to reveal a pattern of ground-breaking, competition-proof entrepreneurship that is rare but repeatable.

The Innovation Stack is a thrilling business narrative that's much bigger than the story of Square. It is an irreverent first-person look inside the world of entrepreneurship, and a call to action for all of us to find the entrepreneur within ourselves and identify and fix unsolved problems - one crazy idea at a time.

©2020 Jim McKelvey (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"McKelvey tells the remarkable story of how with Square, he started a business that would transform an industry, along the way unlocking a whole new model for innovation. An inspiring call to action for entrepreneurs who want to tackle problems that affect our everyday lives, with perseverance and some crazy ideas." (Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution, cofounder of AOL, and author of The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future)

"The Innovation Stack is a deeply useful book about the characteristics of successful companies and how and why to build one, complete with inspiring case studies that literally span centuries. But it’s also much more than that: a witty, humane exploration of living in the complicated, inequitable world we all share and are working to make it less so." (Eric Ries, entrepreneur and best-selling author of The Lean Startup)

"Who can say they went up against Amazon - and won? Jim McKelvey can, and this book tells how." (Peter Thiel, entrepreneur, investor, and author of Zero to One)

"Growing up in the Show Me State - aka Missouri - made me skeptical of everything...especially Jim McKelvey. I’d say more but I’m out of charact" (Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter and Square)

Incredible insights

I’d never heard of Jim McKelvey ntil I saw him interviewed on a C-SPAN book program my wife was watching. I’d heard of Square - and of course Jack Dorsey - but not McKelvey. But I liked what he said and bought the book immediately.

And I absolutely LOVED it! I own a small company that solved a “perfect problem” back in 2009, but I’ve never really understood how our continued innovation stack has functioned; now I do.

The real world examples of Square, Bank of Italy (America), IKEA and Southwest were incredibly insightful and really brought the whole idea of an innovation stack to life.

If you are an entrepreneur- or want to be - this should be required reading. Great book that I’ve already recommended to our entire leadership team.

Great book for entrepreneurs

One of the best for “entrepreneurs” I’ve ever read. Great insights for people who are aiming to start with products or services that don’t exists yet!

A Different Look at Entrepreneurship

I really enjoyed this book. Yes, he talks a lot about Square, but that was his innovation and it was a great story to tell.

There was some great insight on how to approach entrepreneurship. I appreciated that it wasn't a "Do these 12 things and you will be a successful entrepreneur!" It was more about seeing how others has success through their innovations. There were things to learn and apply, but not something you could just copy.

It has opened my mind to how to approach steps in growing my own business.

Excellent, realistic, helpful vignettes!

Ready to push your fear and be your startup. Read this for general supportive suggestions and inspiration. The journey never ends.

Serious and entertaining

This book deals with serious matters like competition, innovation and failure. It describes the entrepreneur as the craziest guy you can think of.
And the performance includes a great sense of humor.

Must Read for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Great narration, storyline and takeaways. This book has a lot of aspect about entrepreneurship which come to you only by experience.

Deep insight into the meaning of entrepreneurship

Distinguishes business as usual from true entrepreneurial enterprises. Explains the competitive advantage these companies build by solving their unique problems in an interlocking stack of innovations. great story telling and compelling examples from someone who was one of the rare actual participants.

Insightful, new and easy to listen.

Author takes you through the insights as part of his journey of discovery. Case based insights in the context of discovery and success.

Captivating

This book is more than worth the time to listen to. I’ll definitely be listening to it more than once.

Wow incredible!

What an amazing book and experience reading it and learning from it. The insights about Innovation and Risk and Problem solving are incredible. Great job Jim!