From the Ground Up Inc.

Ever wonder what it takes to start a second company? For our last episode of the season, we wanted to take a look at what it’s like to start up from scratch—to scale it, to take it public, to become a household name. And, after all that, to decide to do it all over again. So we sat down with Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Mike McNamara, former CEO of Flex. Their new company is called Samara, and their first product is an accessory dwelling unit that can be transported and placed on the property of a typical home. It’s called the Backyard. They spoke about all the challenges of starting a company again, but also about how much easier it is to accomplish certain goals, such as gaining the trust of venture capitalists and hiring employees.
Read this story and see full transcript on Inc.com.
To read more about Samara

From a business news standpoint, the first few months of 2024 had it all: the rare IPO of a social media company, a very strange economic situation facing founders, and enough developments in artificial intelligence to train a new LLM. Inc.'s editors have been chewing over all of it.

In this roundtable episode of From the Ground Up, we hear from Inc. reporter Ben Sherry about the state of AI use in the American workforce, the latest in the AI safety debate out of Silicon Valley, and what's going on within OpenAI.

Inc.'s new Editor-in-Chief, Mike Hofman, discusses the unusual state of the American economy, and how entrepreneurs are feeling amid wildly mixed signals from the Fed, consumers, and what seems like a cooling labor market.

We also examine what's happened at Reddit since its March IPO--and how the massive community-based social network finally, after years of false starts, made its unusual public debut.

There is such a wide range of shocks that can happen to your supply chain and to the demand for what you’re making. Can you ever truly prepare? What kinds of projections are most useful, and how can you set yourself up for success if you do have the ability to anticipate a surge in demand?
We decided to ask someone who has worked with many companies, large and small, to make their supply chains more diversified and flexible. She’s also something of a supply chain influencer (the LinkedIn variety, not TikTok!). She’s Lisa Anderson, president of LMA Consulting Group.

No matter how sturdy your supply chain is, sometimes, crisis hits. And sometimes, it's due to something that seems positive: A sudden surge in customer demand.

For The Woobles and founder Justine Tiu, a huge order of her pre-started crochet kits was delivered with flaws. Could she get her customer orders out on time? For Bobbie infant formula co-founder Laura Modi, it was a nationwide formula shortage that caused her to rethink her customer communications--and cut off new orders on her website altogether. Hosts Diana Ransom and Christine Lagorio-Chafkin unpack all the complex supply-chain management issues and customer communications strategies that come with a sudden surge in demand.

Article and Transcript

Read more about Bobbie.

Bobbie's website.

How Bobbie handled the formula shortage.

Read more about The Woobles.

The Woobles website.

This week, we’re following up our discussion about how to make sure your mission fits your business with an interview with one of the most fascinating sustainability experts working today: Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s director of philosophy. Patagonia has been one of the most notable brands in environmentally responsible business practices and production for decades, and Vincent has been with the company, evangelizing about what makes Patagonia unique, since even before it was called Patagonia.
 
Host Diana Ransom talks to Stanley and is told some stories from Patagonia's history that we've never heard before, revealing tipping points that caused the company to adapt its social mission from outdoor-enthusiasm to one that includes a sustainable supply chain and responsible manufacturing, and led to the adoption of a profit-donation model as well. He shares his perspective on making a company's mission more than just a statement, but a way of operating that builds trust and engagement among employees--and spurs creativity too.
Read the full transcript
Learn more about social responsibility at Patagonia
Read more about The Future of the Responsible Company: What We've Learned from Patagonia's First 50 Years by Stanley and founder Yvon Chouinard
Learn why Patagonia was Inc.'s 2022 Company of the Year

What happens when a company's giving back ... just isn't enough? In a special panel at this year’s SXSW festival, co-host and Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom led a discussion with Jacq and Scot Tatelman, the co-founders of State Bags, as well as Mandy Teefey, the CEO of Wondermind, which she co-founded with her daughter Selena Gomez. The conversation gets into the difficulties and successes of mission-driven businesses, and how these creative founders have adapted their missions to best serve the communities that inspired them.
Read the story at Inc.com and see the full episode transcript.
Read more about this conversation about mission-based businesses.
Learn more about Wondermind
Learn more about State Bags