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2

What are your favorite 3 books so far?

Since you're quickly approaching 300 episodes of Founders, what are your favorite 3 books so far?

6

What are the 5 most popular episodes of Founders so far?

If you keep data on which episodes of Founders are downloaded the most, what 5 episodes have been the most popular so far?

4

Will you release a book, or ebook, of Founders Daily transcripts?

Thanks for providing a transcript for each Founders Daily episode. Will you eventually release a book, or ebook, of those Founders Daily transcripts?

4

Readwise practice routine?

You touched on this in your Modern Wisdom interview but any more details would be great. Do you set up themed reviews, do you weigh frequency toward more recent or older highlights, etc.?

2

Strategist

Of all the people you’ve covered, which few would you consider to be the best strategists and why?

12

Favorites

If you could just read 5 books over and over again for your life - which 5 books would you pick?

4

Considered interviewing favorite founders?

Many of your favorite books were written by people still living & who have been guests on other podcasts. Have you ever wanted to, or considered reaching out to the likes of James Dyson/Ed Thorp/ Richard Branson/Paul Orfalea, etc. and ask if they’d be a guest? Or would that be taking away from the core focus of what you are building?

4

Show growth?

I’ve been hearing more and more about Founders recently from multiple different friends and peers. How would you characterise the show growth to date, including any growth strategies that have worked well and any gut feels around why the show has grown?

3

What are the most common patterns that you’ve uncovered?

After reading so many biographies you’re in a unique position to provide unique insights on commonalities between successful founders. I think an episode dedicated to that would be great.

5

Why is Founders Daily not good enough?

Keen to understand why you believe Founders Daily is not good enough and why Podcasts are not well suited for 1-2min episodes?

5

Hunger driven by adversity

It seems a common theme among great founders is an insatiable hunger driven by adversity at some point in their life. Would you agree with this? And what would you say to existing founders wanting to be great but have had no real adversity in their life to harness the hunger required for greatness?

3

Best Operations Founder

I’m a founder who owns a business where future success is going to be predicated on operational and logistical efficiencies. From manufacturing, shipping, warehousing, last mile deliveries and return shipping - what would be the number 1 book/founder you’d recommend reading about on this topic?

2

Best Operations Founder

I’m a founder who owns a business where future success is going to be predicated on operational and logistical efficiencies. From manufacturing, shipping, warehousing, last mile deliveries and return shipping - what would be the number 1 book/founder you’d recommend reading about on this topic?

1

Active Founder

Who in your view is the best founder currently still running his/her business

3

Things to avoid

What are your key lessons learned from founders on things to avoid?

1

Best founder led business

If you had to put 100% of your net worth in one founder led company and couldn’t sell for 20+ years, which company would this be and why?

2

5 best history books

I believe you mentioned you have studied history for a long time. What are your five favorite history books?

1

Best Podcasts

Which podcasts (other than Founders and ILTB) would you recommend for listeners interested in business and history?

1

Best (non Founders) Books

What are your top 5 (non founder related) books (i.e. great books which you don't discuss in the Podcast as they don't relate to founders).

2

Transcipts

Will you be providing transcripts of all your Founders episodes? It would be great if you could. Transcripts of (some but not all I think?) episodes can be found on Colossus, but it's hard to search for specific episodes. Thank you

5

It is never too late...

There was a study last year that showed that the likelihood of success as a founder increases with age until the 60 years old, with a 50 year old twice as likely to succeed as a 30 year old. Who are your favourite 'late developer' founders?

3

Go big or keep small?

There seems to be quite few examples of founders looking back with fondness at the time when their company was small, and Paul Graham stating they would keep the company as small as possible (employees not revenues). Why do you think this is, for instance is this for professional (eg control), personal (eg family) etc reasons?

3

How to tell great stories?

How do you decide which stories to tell? You do an incredible job of weaving stories together. Do you have an objective for each episode - in terms of which stories you want to share to illustrate the most powerful lessons? Reason I ask- I have a podcast (ep 185) and I am finding myself discussing the same principles and thinking I may be boring my audience. But when I listen to founders, I see the same principles with different stories and it’s fascinating. Any suggestions on storytelling to keep an audience engaged would be great. Thanks Shane

1

Average Age

Even if any story is highly individual, in your opinion whats the average age of successfull founders / leaders, when their steady effort is clearly paying off and the spinning wheel is starting to gain serious traction?

3

Thank you!

Appreciate answering my question. It’s helpful to frame the thinking behind it. Does it interest me? Moving army. And can I help and add value. Thank you David Shane

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