Jim McKelvey: Co-Founder of Square on Art, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Jim McKelvey is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist, and artist.  He cofounded the mobile payments company Square and sits on the Board.  He also founded Invisibly, a digital content company, LaunchCode, a nonprofit that teaches technology literacy, and a glass art studio. His book is called The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time.   Some interesting insights from this episode: He has never had a life plan and because of that, he's become very comfortable with uncertainty. He was a state debate champion and owed much of his success to the ability to read the judges and adjust his strategy accordingly. "If you want to be successful and make some money, copy what works. But if you want to have a phenomenally successful company, you have to do something original." The big insight was rather than going after an existing market of merchants already using credit cards, Square decided to go after a market that didn't even exist – the tiny mom and pop merchants without access to the credit card payment networks. They designed a small card reader that looked really cool and got your attention but was flimsy and difficult to use. But the novelty of it turned every Square sale into a Square advertisement. This allowed the product to go viral without needing to spend one dollar on advertising.  What allowed Square to survive a competitive attack by Amazon and thrive as a standalone company was their innovation stack. An innovation stack is a series of innovations needed to provide a new product or service and that collectively work together to provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace.  Training as an artist was a big help in mentally preparing to be an entrepreneur. "Excellence is something that's above and beyond normal good. It's something that's surprisingly wonderful."   Show Notes Book: The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time Non-profit: LaunchCode New startup: Invisibly