Square: Jim McKelvey. He Lost a $2,000 Sale, Then Built a $10 Billion Company
Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square (now Block), explains how a lost $2,000 glass art sale to a customer with only an American Express card inspired the creation of the Square card reader. He details the engineering hack of using the iPhone's headphone jack to read magnetic stripes, bypassing Apple's restrictive dock connector, and the strategic decision to pitch investors with 140 reasons for failure to build trust. McKelvey describes how this 'innovation stack' of 14 necessary inventions protected Square from being crushed by Amazon's cheaper, copied product in 2014, allowing the company to thrive despite regulatory hurdles and legal disputes.