DoorDash: Tony Xu

Today’s callers: Whitney in Utah wonders how to bridge the gap between pre-seed and institutional investment for her fitness/retail combo space. Then Chloe in the U.K. considers which markets to target for her at-home crafting kits. And Christy in Washington wants to convert gift ...  Show more

In 2004, German programmer Tobias Lütke was living in Ottawa with his girlfriend.An avid snowboarder, he wanted to launch an online snowboard shop, but found the e-commerce software available at the time to be clunky and expensive.So he decided to write his own e-commerce softwar ...  Show more

It's 1990 in Champaign, Illinois, and 15-year-old Tony Xu is washing dishes in the Chinese restaurant his mother manages. He wants to help people like his Mom, but it'll be many years before he hits on his solution for small businesses. 

Across the Atlantic, Bastian ...

It's December 2011 in San Francisco. Bastian Lehmann is getting ready to launch his courier app, Postmates. But when he and his co-founders discover people want food delivered, not objects, they pivot to a business already cornered by Grubhub. 

Meanwhile, 30 miles a ...

Paula Haines is the CEO of Freedom a la Cart. Paula Haines graduated college with a degree in marketing. Freedom a la Cart is a nonprofit that empowers women of Ohio who are survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation. The cafe ...

This episode is brought to you by Wondery in partnership with Dell Technologies. In honor of small businesses, we're featuring inspiring stories of successful companies that started out small.

It’s 1961 and Tom Monaghan is about to drop out of college and put his all int ...