Co-founder of Block, formerly Square, Former Chair of the St. Louis Fed, and Professional Glass Artist
Jim McKelvey: Biography at a Glance
- Jim McKelvey co-founded Square, now known as Block, which revolutionized mobile payments and expanded to offer comprehensive business-management tools.
- In addition to co-founding Square, Jim founded LaunchCode, a nonprofit providing free programming education, helping thousands secure tech jobs in under six months.
- He is the author of The Innovation Stack and multiple other works, including textbooks and a guide on glassblowing, a field where he is a master artist with work featured in MoMA and the Smithsonian.
- Jim has served on the board of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, led corporate transformations at Emerson Electric, and is currently involved in innovative projects like plastic-free diapers and digital identity management.
- Along with his entrepreneurial ventures, Jim is passionate about glassblowing and speaks to share his insights on innovation, tailoring his talks to suit diverse audiences.
Videos
Biography
There’s a good chance you’ve encountered a Square device, especially if you’ve recently visited a food truck or small business. The small piece of plastic that allows merchants to accept credit cards on their smartphones has become ubiquitous across the U.S. and recently expanded into Australia, offering a comprehensive suite of business-management tools. Co-founded by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey (also known for co-founding Twitter), the company now employs over 2,500 people and has a market value exceeding $30 billion.
Since co-founding Square—now Block—and witnessing its valuation surge to over $100 billion, Jim McKelvey has continued his mission to drive innovation. He founded LaunchCode, a nonprofit organization that offers accessible programming education and enables individuals to secure full-time tech jobs in under six months. Now in its second decade, LaunchCode has helped thousands of graduates, all free of charge.
Jim is also the author of several books, including The Innovation Stack, which outlines how world-changing companies are built on a foundation of innovative, competition-proof strategies. His other works include two textbooks on computer programming and The Art of Fire, the leading guide on glassblowing, a field in which he is considered a master artist. His work in industrial design is featured in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Jim also operates Third Degree Glass Factory, one of the largest centers for glassblowing arts in the United States, located in St. Louis.
In addition to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Jim has served six years on the board of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, where he was involved in recruiting its new President. He currently serves on the board of Emerson Electric, guiding them through a corporate transformation. His latest projects include helping individuals take control of their digital identities, developing the world’s first plastic-free disposable diaper, and working to streamline the FDA drug approval process.
Though widely recognized for co-founding Square, Jim is equally passionate about his work as a glass artist and his commitment to solving difficult, often overlooked challenges. He enjoys speaking because it allows him to share his insights on complex topics, and he tailors his talks to meet the unique needs of each audience.
Topics
The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time
Just as Square was taking off, Amazon launched a similar product, marketed it aggressively, and undercut Square on price. For most ordinary startups, this would have spelled the end. Instead, less than a year later, Amazon was in retreat and soon discontinued its service. How did Square beat the most dangerous company on the planet?
Square co-founder Jim McKelvey reveals the strategy that led to the company’s success: the Innovation Stack.
McKelvey's fascinating and humorous stories of Square's early days are blended with historical examples of other world-changing companies built on the Innovation Stack to reveal a pattern of ground-breaking, competition-proof entrepreneurship that is rare but repeatable.
The Innovation Stack is a thrilling business narrative that's much bigger than the story of Square. It is an irreverent look inside the world of entrepreneurship, and a call to action for all of us to find the entrepreneur within ourselves and identify and fix unsolved problems--one crazy idea at a time.
Customer-Driven Innovation
The Outdated Ritual of Asking for Permission
What’s stopping you from doing what you would like to do? We no longer need to ask anybody permission to do anything. The tools that exist today thanks to the Internet allow you to get started by ourselves and to learn as we go along, at our own pace.
The Role of Focus in Solving a Problem
Jim noticed a very talented artist who was living in his beat up car and wondered why. He was a talented artist who could be getting paid well for his work. Why wasn’t he? Jim realized the artist had no access to the systems that paid him. As he built Square, Jim always kept this one artist in mind and thought about how he was solving this one artist’s problem.
Go Build Something
Getting out there and trying to build is one of the best ways to get started on learning technology skills. You don’t have to quit your job. See if your employer has time set aside for personal learning. Join a hack-a-thon and start tinkering. Just try building something.
