Rocketship.fm

Mental models are how we understand the world. Not only do they shape what we think and how we understand but they shape the connections and opportunities that we see. Mental models are how we simplify complexity, why we consider some things more relevant than others, and how we reason. A mental model is simply a representation of how something works. We cannot keep all of the details of the world...

The fastest vaccine ever developed was the mumps vaccine and that took four years, from collecting viral samples to licensing the drug in 1967. This year, we watched as BioNTech, in partnership with Pfizer, developed the Covid-19 vaccine is under 11 months. Today we tell the story of how this revolutionary technology and partnership allowed for such rapid development at a time when the world neede...

The history of Nintendo traces back to 1889, when it was founded to produce handmade hanafuda. Nintendo Co., Ltd. (任天堂株式会社, Nintendō kabushikigaisha) is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It eventually became one of the most prominent figures in today's video game industry, being the world's largest video game company by revenue. Today we ex...

Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn who launched the company with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin who invested $2 million through their investment firm Venture Frogs. The company was officially launched online in 1999 as "ShoeSite.com." In July 1999, the company's name was changed from ShoeSite to Zappos after "zapatos," the Spanish word meaning "shoes." In 2000, Venture Frogs invested in the bu...

In the early 2000's eBay was in direct competition with Amazon but they had very different methodologies when approaching the market. Today we dive into some of the mistakes eBay made in this time where they caught themselves focusing on the wrong metrics and ultimately the wrong side of the market. These mistakes ultimately led to the huge differences in the trajectory of where these companies ar...

When it was launched in 2005, according to co-founder Steve Chen, Youtube was designed as a way for people to upload videos of themselves talking about the partner of their dreams. Co-founder Jawed Karim also talked about YouTube’s romantic origins. “We even had a slogan for it: Tune in, Hook up.” Despite offering to pay women $20 to upload videos of themselves to YouTube, nobody came forward, for...

Long before Airbnb persuaded strangers to sleep in one another's homes and became a $31 billion company, it was just an idea to earn a bit of extra money to make rent. After their first guests, Airbnb's founders realized they were on to something bigger than a stopgap for rent. They faced rejection plenty of times — and created their own version of Obama O's cereal — but the three founders of Airb...

Stark, a New York-based startup that lets designers others building with design software run their files through an integrated tool that checks it and provides color edits and other suggestions to help them meet guidelines for people who see less well, has picked up $1.5 million. Stark plans to use the funding to continue building integrations into commonly-used design apps and create integrations...

Back in 2008, SEMrush started as a small group of SEO and IT specialists united by one mission — to make online competition fair and transparent, with equal opportunities for everyone. In 12 years, they've grown into one of the world's leading competitive research service for online marketing. Today we tell the story of that journey. This podcast is brought to you by: Digital Ocean is a cloud prov...

Rapid iteration, A/B testing, and growth hacking—these buzzwords have everyone’s attention in product management today. But while they dominate the current discussion, something even more significant has been lost in their limelight: long-term value creation for the customer. Product advisors Rajesh Nerlikar and Ben Foster believe that consistently delivering meaningful outcomes requires a deep un...

Millions of businesses of all sizes—from startups to large enterprises—use Stripe’s software and APIs to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online. Today we explore, how their founders, Patrick and John Collison started from humble beginnings in County Tipperary, Ireland to becoming the worlds youngest self-made billionaires. This podcast is brought to you by: Digital Ocean...

In the aftermath of World War II, Japan must rebuild its economy. Certain products become vital exports in the revitalization effort, including the wristwatch. Seiko leaps to the forefront of the recovery, but there's a problem: their watches aren't good. The company decides to bring R&D in-house to take advantage of constructive competition between its factories, and winds up going from industry...

Flow was launched in 2012 as a side-project from Andrew Wilkinson's creative agency Metalab, who work with companies such as Uber, Slack and Coinbase, in order to improve their own internal productivity. They faced a huge challenger in Asana who launched just after them after raising $28 million dollars. Asana may have out spent them on marketing, but Flow stayed one stop ahead in terms of product...

From his first awkward pitch to investor Chris Sacca, to their acquisition by Spotify, Alex Blumburg has built one of the most influential companies working in Podcasts today. The company was founded in 2014 by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, who serve as the company's CEO and president respectively. In February 2019, Spotify announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gimlet...

Hindenburg Research also alleges Nikola chairman Trevor Milton misled partners into signing agreements by falsely claiming to have extensive proprietary technology, as well as fabricating promotional material to give the impression rolling-chassis mockups were fully operational vehicles, but instead used a third-party powertrain rather than in-house technology. SIEMENS download their free webinar...

The Black Product Managers (BPM) Network is a community of diverse product leaders who are passionate about advancing in their careers and increasing representation. Learn how they were founded and the impact they've had on the Product Management community as a whole. SIEMENS download their free webinar on Building a sound, digital foundation for hardware startups today. Digital Ocean is a cloud p...

Dun & Bradstreet make a digital transformation and it's all on one Product Managers shoulders. We also discuss Yardley's founding of Women in Product. For more information go to womenpm.org. In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, Jon Bell - Senior Pro...

Dun & Bradstreet make a digital transformation and it's all on one Product Managers shoulders. In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, Jon Bell - Senior Product Manager at Netflix, and Yardley Pohl - Former Product Manager at Dun and Bradstreet. *** Th...

Netflix pulls 120 of it's employees together after George Floyd's death to provide answers customers were seeking. In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, Jon Bell - Senior Product Manager at Netflix, and Yardley Pohl - Former Product Manager at Dun an...

Netflix pulls 120 of it's employees together after George Floyd's death to provide answers customers were seeking In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, Jon Bell - Senior Product Manager at Netflix, and Yardley Pohl - Former Product Manager at Dun and...

Rohini Pandhi, Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, faces a major choice when a blank check is presented from from an unlikely source.  In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, Jon Bell - Senior Product Manager at Netflix, and Y...

Rohini Pandhi, Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, faces a major choice when a blank check is presented from from an unlikely source.  In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square and founder of Transparent Collective, Jon Bell - Senior Product Manager at Netflix, and Y...

In celebration of the upcoming INDUSTRY Virtual product conference, we're bringing you 3 amazing stories from Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Square, Jon Bell - Senior Product Manager at Netflix, and Yardley Pohl - Former Product Manager at Dun and Bradstreet. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visi...

While carpooling isn't new, Waze Carpool is a fresh way to share the road and the cost of commuting. A cost-effective alternative to rideshare services, Carpool lets you choose to drive or ride with people already going your way. Use the Waze app to drive, and the Waze Carpool app to catch a ride. Today we talk with Rapha Cohen about the development of Carpool. SIEMENS download their free webinar...

Tesla, Inc., formerly (2003–17) Tesla Motors, American electric-automobile manufacturer. It was founded in 2003 by American entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning and was named after Serbian American inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla Motors was formed to develop an electric sports car. Eberhard was Tesla’s chief executive officer (CEO) and Tarpenning its chief financial officer (CFO). Fundin...