She recently interviewed Square cofounder Jim McKelvey for the INBOUND2020 conference, where he discussed what it was like building a startup during a recession, competing against Amazon, and fighting imposter syndrome.
The duo launched Square, a startup that would enable small merchants to accept credit card payments on their smartphones. Today, the company has more than 2,500 employees, and it boasts a market cap of $20 billion. Below is an excerpt from our conversation about entrepreneurship, competition, and how we can all turn our outlandish ideas into viable businesses.
Amazon wasn't your only problem. You also founded Square in the midst of the last recession. As the world grapples with a global pandemic and a potentially very severe economic downturn, what are some of the similarities you're seeing in the landscape now? There's a time you should feel incompetent. There's a time you should feel unqualified. And that's when you're doing something truly new.
But at some point, you have to get the product in the hands of customers and see if they'll tolerate it even though it's not perfect. I went through a lot of reprogramming in my own head after Square because there were certain things I had believed were sacrosanct, and it turns out I lived through the opposite experience.
It's what happened with Square, it's what happened with Ikea, it's what happened with Bank of America, it's what happened with a bunch of companies that ended up dominating their field.
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