Founder Stories

David Karp: "Nobody Is Proud Of Their Identity On Facebook" - Tumblr founder David Karp tells Founder Stories host Chris Dixon how Tumblr is different than Facebook or Twitter.

More Founder Stories

Warby Parker

An interview with co-founders, David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal

SoftTech VC's Jeff Clavier

On Signaling Risk & Brand Name VC's

SoftTech VC's, Jeff Clavier

How To Get A VC Meeting & Other Startup Advice

SoftTech VC's, Jeff Clavier

The Series A Crunch & How To Avoid It

SoftTech VC's Jeff Clavier

On Signaling Risk & Brand Name VC's

SoftTech VC's Jeff Clavier

Getting Started In Silicon Valley

ZocDoc's Cyrus Massoumi

Lucky Breaks & Lessons Learned

ZocDoc's Massoumi

Chris Dixon Chats with Cyrus Massoumi

Kaufer On SOPA & Testing Product

TripAdvisor's Kaufer Chats With Dixon

TripAdvisor's Stephen Kaufer

On Day Of IPO Discusses Challenges

Charity: Water's Scott Harrison

Harrison Offers Advice To Founders

Scott Harrison's Global Mission

Leaving The Party To Tackle The Water Crisis

Charity: Water's Shareholders

Scott Harrison Discusses The Bottom Line

Startup Strategy

Chasen Discusses Challenges & Offers Advice

Turntable.fm's Billy Chasen

On Music Rights & Nailing Product

Turntable's Founder, Billy Chasen

Chasen Makes The Ultimate Pivot

Mayor Bloomberg On Hard Work

The Mayor's Right At Home In "The City That Never Sleeps"

Mayor Bloomberg On Success

Bloomberg Discusses Initiatives & NYC's Strengths

Mayor Bloomberg Starts Building

Mayor Bloomberg Makes Contacts & Launches Company

Bump: Just Start Building

Bump's Co-Founder David Lieb Shares Advice With Chris Dixon

Bump's Vision

Lieb On The Big Picture Plan

Bump's David Lieb On Luck & Growth

Bump Co-Founder David Lieb Talks With Chris Dixon

Mountz On The East Coast Robot Industry

The Ecosystem Creating Growth (Part II)

Mountz Locks Down East Coast VC

Opinions On East / West Coast Funding (Episode II)

Livestream's Max Haot

On Securing $10 Million In Funding (Part II)

Mountz: Advice To Founders

Go After Big Problems (Part III)

Mick Mountz On Disrupting Shipping

Streamlining "Pick, Pack & Ship" (Part I)

Mountz Shows Off Moving Warehouses

How Kiva's Technology Works (Demo) (Part I)

Mountz: Creating A Company Culture

Utilizing A Bottom Up Approach (Part III)

with Steve Chen, with Sarah Lacy

Disrupt Beijing 2011

Steve Anderson: On Founding Baseline Ventures

Why Anderson launched Baseline (Part I)

Steve Anderson: Healthy Market?

Is Funding Drying Up? (Part III)

Steve Anderson: Signaling Risk

VC's and Seed Funding (Part III)

Steve Anderson on Investing in Weebly

Betting on Weebly (Part II)

Steve Anderson on Investing in Heroku

Betting on Heroku (Part II)

Steve Anderson: Getting In Early With Instagram

Betting on Kevin Systrom (Part I)

Livestream's Max Haot Discusses Key Decisions

A Name Matters (Part III)

Livestream's Max Haot On Entry Into The U.S.

The Challenge For International Founders (Part III)

Livestream's Max Haot

Fending Off Digital Piracy (Part i)

Livestream's Max Haot

The Early Days (Part I)

Dropbox: The Beginning of Dropbox

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox (Pa

Dropbox: Early Testing

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox (Pa

Dropbox: Being Open About a Startup Idea

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox (Pa

Dropbox: Advice from Paul Graham

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox (Pa

Dropbox: Success and Growth

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox (Pa

Dropbox: Advice for Entrepreneurs

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox (Pa

Dropbox: Looking Ahead

Erick Schonfeld talks to Drew Houston, Co-Founder & CEO of Dropbox

Birchbox: Advice To Founders

Birchbox: Challenges & Daily Deals

BirchBox: The Second Wave Of Ecommerce

Birchbox: Commerce Subscription

Birchbox Tests Their Idea

Birchbox: The Inspiration Behind Their Business

Heiferman's Advice To Founders

Play To Your Strenghts

Heiferman On What Sparked Meetup

Heiferman's Views On Facebook & Singularity

Heiferman's Experience Shapes His View On Social Media

Heiferman Discusses Fotolog & Speculates On The Future Of Social Netwo

Heiferman On His Early Compaines

Heiferman Discusses i-traffic And RocketBoard

Ries: Apply The Lean Startup Approach To VC

Ries And Dixon Explore Funding Strategies

Ries: The Future Of Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur On A Business Card

Ries: Google+ A Lean Approach?

Eric And Chris Discuss Google+

Ries On Efficient Workflow

Put Out Fires Quickly

Eric Ries On The Ineffectiveness Of "Vanity Metrics"

What Data Actually Matters

Ries Discusses Testing The Lean Startup

The Science Behind "The Lean Startup"

Eric Ries Discusses Key "Lean" Traits

What "Lean" Means

Eric Ries On The Lean Startup's Backstory

Crashing And Burning Before The Lean Startup

with Kevin O’Connor, FindTheBest

Disrupt SF 2011

with Seth Goldstein and Billy Chasen, Turntable.fm

Disrupt SF 2011

with Dustin Moskovitz

Disrupt SF 2011

with Andrew Stalbow, Rovio and Tom Conrad, Pandora

Disrupt SF 2011

Mike Lazerow Discusses Google+ and Facebook

The Power of Facebook

Mike Lazerow On How Brands Can Utilize Twitter

Chatting About Twitter and Google+

Mike Lazerow on Buddy Media's Facebook Partnership

Dixon And Lazerow Discuss The Differences Between Facebook And Google

Mike Lazerow On Facebook's Influence

How A Facebook Feature Helped Launch Buddy Media

Mike Lazerow Discusses His Recipe For Success

Key Componets For a Thriving Business

Mike Lazerow Dives Into Buddy Media's Business

What Does Buddy Media Do?

Kevin O'Connor: What Exit Strategy?

O'Connor chats about his end goal for FindTheBest

Kevin O'Connor: What Makes A Good Entrepreneur

Passion, Ideas and Control

Kevin O'Connor On The Early Days Of Internet Security Systems

How O'Connor Got Involved with ISS

Kevin O'Connor: Discusses SEO and The Competition

O'Connor chats about FindTheBest's competitive advantage

Kevin O'Connor On Creating DoubleClick

An Idea Launched Out Of A Basement

Kevin O'Connor Discusses FindTheBest

The Genesis of FindTheBest

Kevin O'Connor: Surviving The Crash

Downturn Survival

DoubleClick's Kevin O'Connor: "We Were Netscape's Profits"

DoubleClick founder Kevin O'Connor: We were Netscape's profits"

Thrillist: The Competition

The race to fund entrepreneurs

Thrillist: The Influx of Money and Entrepreneurs

Pros and cons of the startup environment

Thrillist: Ben Lerer On Lerer Ventures

Insights on early history and the team

Thrillist: Ben Lerer Discusses Challenges

Keeping employees focused and managing emotions

Thrillist Ben Lerer talks about the Daily Deals Business Model

How Thrillist separates itself from other daily deal sites

Thrillist: Ben Lerer on Paid Customer Acquisition

Lerer talks about acquiring consumers

Thrillist: Ben Lerer on Growth and Revenue at Thrillist

Lerer talks numbers at Thrillist

Founder Office Hours: Madbrook Publishing

Chris Dixon and Josh Kopelman Offer Advice to Founders

Founder Office Hours Dispatch.io

Founder Office Hours: Schedit

Founder Office Hours: Have-to-Have

Josh Kopelman and Chris Dixon offer guidance to founders

Founder Office Hours: Profitably

Profitably founder Adam Neary asks investors Josh Kopelman and Chris D

Founder Office Hours: Napkin Labs

MakerBots's Bre Pettis Gives Advice To Founders

Bre gives helpful hints to those looking to create a company

MakerBot's Bre Pettis discusses getting into the startup game

Pettis and Dixon talk about the present and future state of launching

Bre Pettis Not Losing Sleep Over Copycats

Dixon and Pettis chat about fending off the competiton

Bre Pettis Discusses Running A Nuts And Bolts Business

Challenges of running a hardware based business

MakerBot's Bre Pettis On the Future Of 3D Printing

A 3D printer in the hands of every child?

MakerBot's Bre Pettis Discusses His Home Based 3D Printing Machine

What MakerBot makes and what it costs

Eventbrite Founders Talk Facebook, Twitter And LinkedIn

A look a the digital strategy of Kevin and Julia Hartz

Eventbrite's Kevin and Julia Hartz on staying sane while working with the one you love

Eventbrite co-founders, who are married, talk about managing their res

Eventbrite's Kevin and Julia Hartz discuss digital security

Discussing how Eventbrite stops theft and innovates

Eventbrite Opens the Door To Ticket Sales

Kevin and Julia Hartz talk about talking democratizing ticket sales

Eventbrite's Kevin and Julia Hartz spot an opportunity

Kevin and Julia Hartz discuss getting into online event ticketing

Eventbrite's Kevin Hartz Discusses Career Motives and Influnces

Eventbrite's Kevin Hartz talks about taking on Western Union and getti

Mike McCue Discusses Moving From Print To Digital Content

Delivering Digital Content

Mike McCue Discusses Starting Flipboard

Life after TellMe

Mike McCue: Why Microsoft Bought TellMe

Mike McCue talks about the TellMe years

Mike McCue: Surviving The Downturn

Mike McCue realtes how he survived the dotcom crash with TellMe

Mike McCue: The TellMe Years

Mike McCue relates how he survived the first dotcom crash during his T

Mike McCue: The Builder

Flipboard CEO Mike McCue talks about how his early days programming vi

Rapid Fire with Alexis Ohanian

Chatting About Leadership And Hiring

Ohanian: The Impact Of Jobs, State Of Education And Cocky Investors

Sectors Ripe For Disruption, The "Bubble" and Investors' attitudes

Ohanian Chats About Hipmunk Almost Called Suckage

A Discussion About Travel and Marketing

Ohanian's Life Outside of Reddit

(Founder Stories) Ohanian Discusses Breadpig, Das Kapital, Y-Combinato

Ohanian Discusses Reddit's Revenue Strategy

A Chat About How Reddit Makes Cash

Ohanian: What Competition?

It Doesn't Matter Who Is First To Market

Chris Dixon Interviews Charlie Cheever of Quora

Chris Dixon Interviews Charlie Cheever of Quora

Kevin Ryan On The Importance of Presentation

Kevin Ryan Discusses Losing Money, Making Money

Full Interview

Chris Dixon Interviews Kevin Ryan

Kevin Ryan Discusses 10gen

A Discussion Around One Of Kevin Ryan's AlleyCorp Companies

Kevin Ryan Survives Dot.Com Carnage

Ryan Reflects On The Early Days Of DoubleClick

Kevin Ryan: Bullish On New York

Kevin And Chris Discuss the New York Tech Scene

Gilt's, Kevin Ryan Takes Issue With The Economist

Ryan And Dixon Offer Insights On "The Bubble"

Yavonditte Rapid Fire: "Hire Great People"

Yavonditte On Hiring and Startups

, Yavonditte Dixon On The Strategy Of Staying Under The Radar

The Power Of Speaking Softly

Full Interview With Michael Yavonditte

Chris Dixon Chats With Michael Yavonditte

Michael Yavonditte: What Is Hashable?

Hashable CEO Michale Yavonditte explains how the service evolved.

Hashable CEO, Yavonditte "I Was On The Wrong Side Of History" TCTV

Riding The Wave

Yavonditte: "Leadership Is Not Acquiescing To The Angry Mob"

Yavonditte Plays His Cards Right

Michael Yavonditte On Going Toe-to-Toe With Google

Taking On Google

Meebo Rapid Fire Q&A

Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg, Rapid-fire Q&A

Meebo's Sternberg On Hiring And Griwth

Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg talks about hiring, firing, and how he relaxe

Meebo CEO On The Importance Of Emotional Advertising

Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg on social ads

Meebo's CEO on Product Evolution

Meebo Seth Sternberg on Product Evolution

Meebo's Seth Sternberg On The Imbalance Of Startup Life

Meebo, Imbalance of startup life

Meebo's Sternberg: "We Did Not Get It"

Meebo Early Days, Seth Sternberg

GroupMe, Full Interview

GroupMe, Full Interview

GroupMe Rapid Fire Q&A

Rapid Fire Q&A

GroupMe: Why Ron Conway Is The Greatest

NY Vs LA and Ron Conway

GroupMe CEO Says All The Competition "Lights A Fire Under Our Ass."

The Competition

How GroupMe Won SXSW: Grilled Cheese

SXSW and grilled cheese

GroupMe: Is Group Messaging The Thin Edge Of The Wedge?

Where can Group messaging go from here?

Who Are These GroupMe Guys?

GroupMe founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci talk about their early

GroupMe, A Primer

A primer on GroupMe by founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci

Mike Walrath, Full Interview

Full interview with Right Media founder Mike Walrath

Right Media's Mike Walrath "I Was Never Qualified For Any Job I Got In My Life"

Rapid fire Q&A, Right Media founder Mike Walrath gives advice on buidi

Mike Walrath: "It's a Pipe Dream That Brand Marketers Will Move TV Spending Online

Startups look expensive

Mike Walrath's Latest Startups: Moat And GuideMe

Post-Yahoo, Moat And GuideMe

Right Media's Mike Walrath: Once DoubleClick Went, Everyone Had To Go

Right Media Founder Mike Walrath recalls the history of ad marketplace

How Mike Walrath Built Right Media Before He Sold It For $850 Million

The origins of Right Media as told by former CEO Mike Walrath

Christopher Poole aka Moot, Full Interview

Full Interview

Christopher Poole On Keeping Kids Off The Streets And In Startups

Christopher Poole On getting students involved with startups through H

Christopher Poole: Don't Build a Platform Before Your Product is Worthy Of Of One

Rapid-fire Q&A with 4Chan and Canvas founder Christopher Poole.

Moot On How To Set The Tone For Social Communities

4chan and Canvas founder Christopher Poole discusses the importance so

Moot Re-Imagines The Image Board With Canvas

4chan founder Christopher Poole (aka Moot) explains how he is rethinki

Moot On The Evolution Of Memes

Christopher Pool (aka Moot) the founder of 4Chan talks about the evolu

Moot: How 4Chan Got Started

Christopher Poole (aka, Moot) explains the origins of 4Chan

Lauren Leto: Bnter Is Like a Social Photo App Except It is Textual

Lauren Leto founder of Bnter talks about wher text-sharing app.

Lauren Leto: Texts From Last Night Was A Million Dollar Idea

Lauren Leto, founder of Texts From Last Night and Bnter, talks about h

"Every Day, I Try To Get Rejected"

Chris Dixon and Bnter founder Lauren Leto talk about the importance of

Bnter's Lauren Leto, Full Interview

Full interview of Lauren Leto, founder of Bnter and Texts From Last Ni

Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky, Full Interview

Full interview with Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky

Joel Spolsky Rapid Fire Q&A

Q&A

Joel Spolsky On The Perils Of SEO

Stack Exchange Founder Joel Spolsky talks about how SEO sites steal qu

Stack Exchange CEO Spolsky: "You Need To Go Deep"

Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky talks about the benefits of going deep

StackOverflow's Joel Spolsky On Why Not All Q&A Sites Are The Same

Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky talks about the competition

Joel Spolsky On Raising Venture Capital Vs. Bootstrapping

Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky explains the pros and cons of bootsrap

Joel Spolsky: How I Seeded Stack Overflow With My Blog Readers

Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky tells Chris Dixon how he started Stack

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Full Interview

Chris Dixon talks to Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley: Now Is Our Best Shot To Invent The Future

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley on keeping focussed, raising awarene

Dennis Crowley On The Origins Of Foursquare

Dennis Crowley talks about the early Dodgeball days, Google, and Fours

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley: "The Hardest Part Is Building The Machine That Builds The Product"

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley on creating a startup in New York City,

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley: "Stop sketching, start building"

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley answers rapid fire questions.

Foodspotting, Soraya Darabi, Full Interview

Full interview

Soraya Dorabi On Social Media And The NYT

Soraya Darabi talks about social media and the New York Times

Foodspottings' Soraya Darabi

Foodspoting co-founder Soraya Darabi talks about how Foodspotting got

Foodspotting, Soraya Darabi: "Can You Beat Peopel Up?"

Rapid-fire Q&A

Foodspotting, Soraya Darabi: Women In Tech

Women in Tech

Fred Wilson On Frothy Valuations

Chris Dixon and VC Fred Wilson talk about frothy valuations and how st

Fred Wilson's Chip On His Shoulder

Chris Dixon talks to VC Fred Wilson about how he started his current f

Tumblr's David Karp On New York City's Tech Scene

Tumblr's David Karp on NYC's tech scene

Fred Wilson: Going After New Opportunities

Chris Dixon and VC Fred Wilson talk about his new fund, startups he wo

David Karp: "Making Money Off Of Tumblr Would be Incredibly Easy"

Tumblr CEO David Karp talks about finding the right business model and

Tumblr's David Karp On His Heroes: Steve Jobs And Willy Wonka

Rapid fire questions with Tumblr founder David Karp

Fred Wilson: Rapid Fire Questions

Fred Wilson: Giving Founders Liquidity

Fred Wilson: Full Interview

Chris Dixon and Fred Wilson talk about startups and venture capital.

David Karp: Why I Started Tumblr

Tumblr founder David Karp on the origins of Tumblr

Tumblr's David Karp, Full Interview

Full interview with Tumblr founder David Karp

Instagram Pt 1

Host Chris Dixon speaks with Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom.

Instagram: The Launch

Host Chris Dixon speaks with Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom.

Tumblr's Jaw-Dropping Growth

Tumblr founder David Karp tells Chris Dixon Tumblr is growing at 250 b

Instagram Pt2

Host Chris Dixon speaks with Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom.

Kickstarter: Crowdsourced Funding

Host Chris Dixon talks with Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen

Kickstarter: "You Really Gotta Want It"

Host Chris Dixon talks to Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen about how crowdso

Kickstarter: How To Get Successful Projects Going

Chris Dixon speaks with Kickstarter CEo Perry Chen about some of the m

Episode 2: Kickstarter

Host Chris Dixon speaks with Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen about how to c

Startup Sherpa: Changing Consumer Behavior Stickybits

Angel investor and startup founder Chris Dixon and Stickybits CEO Bill

Startup Sherpa: Serving Two Masters Stickybits

Chris Dixon discusses the challenges of trying to please both consumer

Startup Sherpa: Pivoting Stickybits

Chris Dixon talks with Stickybits CEO Billy Chasen about when to pivot