Jim McKelvey – How Square Defeated Amazon and Scaled to $100 Billion

Today, I’m excited to be here with Jim McKelvey, he’s the co-founder of Square along with Jack Dorsey. Square is a payment processing company that lets anyone accept credit cards. Square went public in 2015 and the company is worth over $100 billion! In December 2021, Square changed its name to Block.

In 2009, Jim designed a card reader, which, in 2011, was inducted in the Museum of Modern Art.
In addition to Square, Jim has founded several other companies such as Visibly, LaunchCode and Third Degree Glass Factory. And if that wasn’t enough, Jim also chairs the boards of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis.

Jim recently released his first book The “Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time.” Tune in to this episode to learn what an innovation stack is and how Square’s innovation stack helped them beat Amazon as a small start up, and what other tips Jim has for our listeners. All right! Now let’s start the show!