Study playbooks

Get 3 new founder stories/playbooks to you inbox every Sunday. The #1 founder newsletter.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Playbooks

Peter Thiel Alex Karp Palantir

Why the Most Unlikely Founder in Silicon Valley Might Be the Most Important One: The Story of Alex Karp and $360B Palantir

Sabba Keynejad, Veed

Broke, Rejected by YC, Now $40M ARR: The Unlikely Rise of Sabba Keynejad and Veed

Lee Byung-chul, Lee Kun-hee, Samsung

Samsung’s 85-Year Rollercoaster: From a 1938 Fish Shop to 20% of South Korea’s GDP

Mike Cannon Brookes, Scott Farquhar,Altassian

From $10K Credit Card Bill to $50B: The Wild Rise of Atlassian, the Bootstrapped Aussie Giant that Hacked Silicon Valley

Masayoshi Son, SoftBank

Masayoshi Son’s High-stakes Rollercoaster: From a $70B Crash to a $500B AI Gamble

Redbull, Chaleo Yoovidhya, Dietrich Mateschitz

How Two Unlikely Founders Turned a Rejected Syrup into $20B+ Brand: The Red Bull Story

John Rush, MarsXInc, Directories

How John Rush Scaled His No‑Code Empire from VC to $3M ARR and Counting

Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post, Thrive

Arianna Huffington: $315M Exit and Hard‑Won Lessons

Laura Roeder, MeetEdgar, Paperbell

The Balance Playbook: Multiple Startups, a 7-Figure Exit, and Laura Roeder’s Life-First, Anti-Hustle Philosophy

Alex Smereczniak, LaundroLab, Franzy

From Dorm Room Laundry to 100+ Franchises: How Alex Smereczniak Built a Laundry Service Startup

Taikichiro Mori, Mori Building Company

From Professor to $15B Tycoon: The Late-Blooming Empire of Taikichiro Mori

Eren Bali, Udemy, Carbon Health

From a One-Room Schoolhouse to Two Unicorns: Eren Bali’s Epic Journey to Building Udemy and a $45M Networth

Nathan Barry & Kit, ConvertKit

$0 VC, $40M ARR: How Nathan Barry Built the First Creators-first SaaS Tool, Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Wang Chuanfu and BYD

The Growth Story of BYD and Wang Chuanfu: How China’s Confucianist Values Built a $152B Global Company Over 4 Decades of Hardwork and Grit

Kyle Vogt, The Bot Company, Cruise, Twitch

The Quiet Founder: How Kyle Vogt Built, Scaled, and Sold Big Ideas (Twitch, Cruise, The Bot Company, and more)

Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli: Built on Art, Not Algorithms - How Hayao Miyazaki Stayed True to His Craft and Created Wealth & Legacy

Ryan Chen, Kent Yoshimura, & Neuro Gums

A Broken Spine, a Mint, and a $100M Company: The Impossible Story of Ryan Chen and Neuro

Dickie Bush, Typeshare, Premium Ghostwriting Academy

From 9-to-5 to $10M: How One Writer Built an Online Empire

Amjad Masad, Replit

Can Replit Make You a Millionaire? The $1.16B AI Agent Platform’s Origin Story & Mission

Zostel, Dharmveer Singh Chouhan

How Zostel Built a $240M Hostel Empire Without Owning a Single Brick

A24, Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, John Hodges

A24: How an Indie Film studio conquered Hollywood & built a $3.5B business in a risky & guarded industry

Guillaume Moubeche, Lemlist

How a McDonald’s Reject Found a Self-Funded SaaS Company Worth $150M: The Story of Guillaume Moubeche

David Park, Jenni AI

From His Parent’s Basement to a $25M Valuation: The Inspiring Journey of David Park and Jenni AI

Aadit Palicha, Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto

How Zepto Built a $5B Business by ‘10 minutes Grocery Delivery’ Model

February 24, 2025

Ivan Zhao, Simon Last, Notion

Ivan Zhao and Simon Last’s Non-Linear Journey Towards a $10B Company: Notion

December 9, 2024

Eric Yuan, Zoom

From Rejection to a $22B Empire: The Entrepreneurial Journey of Eric Yuan, Zoom’s Founder

December 2, 2024

CultFit, Mukesh Bansal

From 300+ Centers to a $1.5B Valuation: How CultFit is Revolutionizing Fitness in India

November 27, 2024

Dr. Uma Valeti, Upside Foods

Dr. Uma Valeti’s Journey to $1B Upside Foods and the Future of Lab-Grown Meat

September 30, 2024

Emma Grede, Khloé Kardashian, Good American, Skims, Safely

From College Dropout to $300M Net Worth: Emma Grede’s Journey with the Kardashians

September 21, 2024

Rick Rubin, Russell Simmons, Def Jam, UMG

How Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons Founded Def Jam Records and Pioneered Hip-Hop Culture

September 16, 2024

Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble

How Whitney Wolfe Herd Led A Pro-Feminist Dating App, Bumble, and Became a Billionaire

September 11, 2024

Melanie Parkins, Cliff Obrecht, Cameron Adams, Canva

How Melanie Perkins Overcame Rejections to Build the $26B Design-Tech Giant, Canva

September 6, 2024

Do Won Chang, Forever 21

The Immigrant American Dream: The Billion Dollar Story of Do Won Chang and Forever 21

August 15, 2024

Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Microsoft AI, Inflection AI

Philosophy Dropout at Oxford to Founding DeepMind to becoming the CEO of Microsoft AI: Mustafa Suleyman’s AI Leadership

August 10, 2024

Noah Kagan, AppSumo, facebook, mint

Failing Your Way To Winning: Noah Kagan & Lessons in Consistency and Personal Branding

Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian, Aaron Swartz, Reddit

The remarkable story of Reddit's growth to 73 million daily users and $80M revenue in 2023.

Radhika Patil, Bharath Patil, Cradlewise

Radhika & Bharath Patil’s Baby Steps Towards Building Cradlewise: A $40M-Infant Wellness Startup

From Wikipedia to Fandom: Jimmy Wales’ Profitable “Non-Profit” Community-Driven Content Machine

See how Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia and grew it to 9.8 Billion monthly visitors

Alex Zaccaria, Anthony Zaccaria, Nick Humphreys, Linktree

From a Music Industry Tool to a Viral Digital Product: The Founding Story of Linktree, a Company Valued at $1.3B

Jack Conte, Patreon, Sam Yam

Artist to CEO to Leading the New Wave of “True Fans” Economy for Creators: Jack Conte & Patreon’s Biggest Pivot

Alexander Wang - Scale AI

How this MIT dropout Gen-Z Alexander Wang is Solving AI Dataset Problem with Scale AI (Youngest Billionaire)

Azhar Iqbal, In Shorts

From Facebook page to a $550M media startup: How InShort’s Founder-CEO Azhar Iqubal became a Shark

Adam Neumann, Flow

WeWork to Flow: How Adam Neumann’s Latest $1B Venture Plans to Solve Housing Crisis and Promote Community Living

Dario Amodei, Daneila Amodei, Anthropic

How ex-OpenAI VP’s Amodei siblings found the $4B AI Company Anthropic

Pieter Levels, 70 Startups

How Pieter Levels Earns $3M/year with Zero Employees (Startup Success Story of an Indie Hacker)

February 29, 2024

Perplexity, Aravin Srinivas

How Aravind Srinivas Found The $520M Conversational AI Search Engine - Perplexity and Raised Money From Jeff Bezos and Nvidea

January 27, 2024

Blinkist, Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen

How two College friends built Blinkist, a $100M Book summary startup acquired in a $2B deal.

January 23, 2024

Brett Adcock, Figure AI, Archer Aviation, Vettery

See How Brett Adcock Created a $350 Million Robot Company and a $1.3 Billion Electric Plane Business

January 18, 2024

Jason Ballard, ICON 3D

Pioneering Tomorrow's Homes: ICON's Socially Conscious Housing Revolution Led by Jason Ballard

January 4, 2024

Tope Awotona · Calendly

Tope Awotona's Calendly: A $3 Billion success story

January 4, 2024

Dave Rogenmoser, JP Morgan, Chris Hull, Jasper AI

Jasper AI: Eight Years in the Making - The Inspiring Journey of Discovery, Perseverance, and Finding Product Market Fit

December 29, 2023

Dylan Field and Evan Wallace · Figma

Figma's astounding rise: From dorm room to the $20 Billion Adobe deal that almost was.

December 23, 2023

Matt McGarry, Newsletter guy,

Matt McGarry's Journey to Becoming the Newsletter Guy and his Best Tips on Growing Newsletters

December 10, 2023

Sam Altman · OpenAI

The OpenAI Founding Story: Sam Altman's unconventional path to AI innovation

November 16, 2023

Logan Green · Lyft

Lyft's Journey to a $3.8 Billion valuation. Logan Green's trailblazing path in transforming transportation.

November 11, 2023

Alex Hormozi · Acquisition.com

The amazing story of Alex Hormozi and his $100M business empire

November 4, 2023

Stewart Butterfield & Cal Hendorson · Slack

The unique story of Slack and its $27 billion purchase by Salesforce

October 7, 2023

Nick and Mat Mowbray · Zuru

Turning toys into treasure: Nick Mowbray's Zuru journey from $20,000 to a Billion-Dollar Empire.

September 30, 2023

David Holz · Midjourney

Navigating Uncharted Waters: The Inspiring Journey of David Holz and Mid-Journey

September 23, 2023

Luis von Ahn · Duolingo

How Luis von Ahn built a $6.5 Billion App called Duolingo

September 9, 2023

Morning Brew · Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief

From college experiment to media empire: The rise of Morning Brew to 4 Million Subscribers and $50 Million in revenue.

September 2, 2023

Andrew Gazdecki

Andrew Gazdecki, the Brain Behind Acquire.com

August 18, 2023

Nikita Bier · Gas

See how Nikita Bier made over $50 Million selling the same app twice.

August 12, 2023

Will Shu & Greg Orlowski Deliveroo

The rise of Deliveroo: A $7 Billion tale of perseverance and adaptation.

Brian Acton & Jan Koum · Whatsapp

From Rejection to a $19 Billion Success: The Story of WhatsApp.

Jimmy Donaldson · Mr Beast

MrBeast: 169 Million YouTube subscribers, earning a whopping $105 Million in 2022

Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp Pinterest

Pinterest's visual revolution: From a digital pinboard to a $2.8 Billion powerhouse

Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim · YouTube

The story of YouTube: Overcoming doubt & corporate nightmares to becoming a $29 billion tech powerhouse

BrüMate

Brumate: From warm beer woes to $100M founder success story!

Jake Karls, Lezlie Karls Saltarelli & Nick Saltarelli · Mid-Day Squares

From a kitchen experiment to a $17M rebellion: Unwrapping the audacious rise of Mid-Day Squares.

Noah Kagan · AppSumo

The Journey to Wealth: How Noah Kagan Made His First Million

Tobi Lütke · Shopify

From Snowboards to Software: Tobi Lütke's Journey to Building Shopify's E-commerce Empire

Mike Cessario · Liquid death

How Liquid Death's Founder Mike Cessario Branded Water Into a $700 Million Business

January 8, 2024

Nathan Barry · ConvertKit

Breaking Free from the $1.5K MRR Trap: Nathan Barry's 10-Step Journey to Unleash ConvertKit's Explosive Growth to $100K MRR in One Year

Nathan Barry · ConvertKit

The Road to $33.4M ARR: Uncovering the 10 Essential Lessons that Propelled ConvertKit to the Top

Reed Hastings & Marc Radolph · Netflix

The Epic Battle Between Netflix and Blockbuster: Lessons Learned plus 3 Key Takeaways

Pat Walls · Starter Story

How Pat Walls Grew Starter Story to 1.6 million monthly visitors + over $1M in annual revenue

Sam Altman · OpenAI

The Sam Altman Story: Uncovering the Life and Career of an AI Innovator Transforming the Future of Technology

Sam Parr · The Hustle

How Sam Parr Went from Selling Hotdogs to Running The Hustle and selling to Hubspot for $27 million

Pierre de Wulf & Kevin Sahin · Scraping Bee

From Startup Failure to $1.5M in Revenue: The Inspiring Comeback Story of Two Founders Who Refused to Quit.

David Tran · Sriracha

From Refugee to Hot Sauce Billionaire: The inspiring Journey of David Tran, who Built a $150M per year Empire with No Sales or Marketing or Team.

THE FOUNDEROO NEWSLETTER 🔥

Hey we're Farzan & Guy. Every Sunday we share:

2 founders stories
1 founder playbook
1 founder quote

“The #1 founder newsletter”

Thanks for signing up! 🎉

Please check your inbox for our welcome email.

If you don't see it, kindly search in your spam or promotions folder and move it to your primary mailbox.

Happy reading!

“Founderoo is one of the newsletters I’m a long term subscriber of. When I signed up I was instantly hooked.”

- Mike Strives