The Founders
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The Founders
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Narrated by:
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Andy Ingalls
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By:
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Jimmy Soni
About this listen
The gripping inside story of Paypal, the company that created the digital age as we know it.
Out of Paypal's ranks have come three billionaires and dozens of multi-millionaires, including household names like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. Paypal's alumni have built, funded and advised almost all of the billion-dollar-plus companies to emerge from Silicon Valley in the past two decades.
Today, every online video you watch and every internet purchase you make bears PayPal's fingerprints - its inventions made the modern internet possible and are embedded in our social networks, our banks and our intelligence agencies.
This audiobook tells the gripping story of how the so-called PayPal mafia turned a scrappy start-up into one of the most successful businesses of all time, worth over $70 billion today. Full of fascinating characters and anecdotes about Silcon Valley's biggest titans, The Founders also shows how its founders continue to shape our future today.
©2022 Jimmy Soni (P)2022 W F HowesListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
“A fascinating page-turner about the brilliant and competitive innovators who created PayPal and went on to shape our digital world. Deeply reported and bracingly written, this book is an indispensable guide to modern innovation and entrepreneurship.” (Walter Isaacson, best-selling author of Steve Jobs)
"The real secrets of Silicon Valley are the tight networks of friendship and business that propel new ideas, companies and personalities into the world. The most consequential of these networks in recent decades is the one that began at PayPal. Here Jimmy Soni delivers a startup-hustle story for the ages, revealing why their wild entrepreneurial ride did so much to build Silicon Valley’s supersized present." (Margaret O’Mara, author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America)
What listeners say about The Founders
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris
- 18-05-22
Brilliant Insight
My company was one of the first adopters of eBay, and then PayPal. FYI eBay used to shut down Friday morning for maintenance - imagine that now?? At the same time I also tried to adopt PayPal and remember it was full of challenges, but we got there. Initially PayPal had its problems (especially in Europe), so many changes in the way payments, processed and of course the annoying chargeback's. To listen to this excellently narrated story shed light on what was actually going behind the scenes, and ultimately what I was experiencing as a user that made those early days fickle. I not sure what you call a page turner on Audible, but I could not stop listening, I am sure one of my first emails I received from PayPal was signed Elon... my memory lets me down these days.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- S
- 01-01-23
Excellent work
Really enjoyed listening to this book. It seems very well researched and more facts than opinion. An interesting and important account.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- AZ767594
- 22-06-23
Very good
Fairly detailed story. Inspiring and informative. Well read as well. Really enjoyed a lot. Thank you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Jason
- 07-04-23
As the subtitle suggests, the modern internet
There are some pretty wild and dramatic stories that led to the Paypal we know today (or up to sale to eBay as covered in this book). But, as the subtitle of the book suggests, this story is more than just chronically this one companies ups and downs, it really does paint the picture of the modern internet and how PayPal has massively outstretched influence both directly as a company but mostly as a alumni force in the wider modern internet ecosystem.
The culture from PayPal became the culture for most of silicon valley and the knock on impact of this company and its early employees is quite hard to believe.
A great story on it's own, but all the more powerful for its deeper consequences to the modern world
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Nicola
- 05-04-23
Really interesting
The first few hours were a bit heavy - but then it got super engrossing. Well narrated.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Isuru Wijewardene
- 27-07-22
Superb...!
The book and the narration is superb. The story is even better. Gets your motivation high to create and make better things for the world!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- M. Sansone
- 25-05-24
Excellent first word to last
All the way through to and including the Epilogue at the end is worth listening to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Tommyfromnottingham
- 31-10-22
Great story!
This book really helps anyone understand what is involved in creating and developing a successful business. Sometimes things need to go your way, but ultimately it’s hard work, not luck that makes the real difference.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Oliver Christensen
- 28-02-23
The best of audible: amazing narration and story
The best of audible. The narration is amazing narration and story is incredibly inspirational
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mikhail Dubov
- 08-01-23
Great look into the story I thought I knew
This is rare business history book that covers both the Drake and details individual product decisions that made PayPal work
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