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The Innovation Stack

Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time

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The Innovation Stack

Written by: Jim McKelvey
Narrated by: Jim McKelvey
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About this listen

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
Business Leaders Entrepreneurship Forecasting & Strategic Planning Leadership New Business Enterprises Professionals & Academics Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Critic Reviews

"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)

What listeners say about The Innovation Stack

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very involving

the author has a unique perspective and explains things with relevant examples .
gives insights from finance, furniture and aviation .

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Talks about things untalked about

so after reading 40+ books on entrepreneurship this is definitely in the top 5. A must read. It is on par with zero to one and the hard thing about hard things.

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Good read that changes your perspective

Nice point of view on the clear differentiation between Entrepreneurs and Businessmen.

The performance by the author is really good.

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good book

good book with lot of examples on innovation stack. But little longer than i would have liked.

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truly original

the original ideas are truly inspiring and will surely kindle the fire in the belly of many a potential entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Thanks to Jim and his team in the making of this book. Thanks to audible. in too for a quality recording.

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Definitely a book with lots of key takeaways

This is a gem.

Innovation is a byproduct of necessity.

Find a perfect problem, something you care about and don't let lack of knowledge or resources stop you from starting.

Luck and timing can be deciding factors for success.

These are some of the key things that stuck out for me. Also as this book packs a lot of value I will have to go back to it again several times to drill the idea inside my brain.

Worth a read!!!

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Journey of Innovation simplified

Very well written and narrated. explains wonderfully how series of innovations leads to organization's success.

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Refreshing take on Entrepreneurship

A new take on Entrepreneurship - clearly defines the difference between leading a business Vs being an entrepreneur.

Surprisingly there are no checklists that you will take away from this book and that's why it makes the book different. I would suggest the listener discover it herself. The idea of Innovation Stack itself is also not new but that's the key message - There are no teachers for entrepreneurship.

Quickest to finish any audiobook ever.

Narration is great - didn't feeling boring at any moment.

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Excellent book on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This book keeps us hooked from start to the very last chapter. The book is structured perfectly and explains the new idea of Innovation stack in an easy and interesting way. Definitely recommended read for business readers, problem solvers and Innovation enthusiasts

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