Susan Lyne dropped out of college and lived in a commune. She wrote for magazines and founded her own movie magazine. She green-lighted Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and The Bachelor while leading ABC Entertainment. She led Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia while Martha was in prison. She led Gilt Groupe to financial success during the recession. And she's now helping female founders through a fund called Built by Girls, or BBG. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Lyne spoke w...
Jan 05, 2018•32 min
For startups on the path to success, there's often one moment or decision that catapults them from obscurity to the big leagues. This year on " Success! How I Did It ," founders of companies such as PayPal, Lyft, and Dropbox shared how they built their companies into massive successes. And while a lot goes into building a company, the leaders we've interviewed all had surprising stories. Sometimes it's an inspired decision that leads to success; other times it's luck and timing. If you're huntin...
Dec 29, 2017•11 min
On this episode, a different view of how to "make it." Business Insider’s senior strategy reporter Richard Feloni spoke with Buddhist monk and bestselling author Matthieu Ricard while he was promoting his new book "Beyond the Self," which he co-authored with neuroscientist Wolf Singer. For the last 50 years Ricard has lived in Nepal, often with no electricity or running water. Despite that, he's given not one but two viral TED Talks, and been called "the the happiest man in the world." But to Ri...
Dec 22, 2017•29 min
Venus Williams is one of the most dominant players in tennis, and has been for over two decades. A tennis prodigy who turned pro at age 14, she’s broken through barriers to win four Olympic gold medals and seven Grand Slam singles titles. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell asks Williams about her rise to superstardom, and the hardships and successes she’s faced along the way. The interview took place in Manhattan at The Wing, a coworking ...
Dec 15, 2017•21 min
Max Levchin cofounded PayPal with Peter Thiel and built it into a Silicon Valley success with the help of Reid Hoffman and Elon Musk. They took it public and sold to eBay in 2002, then all four left the company. But Levchin couldn't let go. He'd still show up at the office. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Levchin talks about how he struggled to find himself after the acquisition, so much so that his girlfriend dumped him (but they later married). He has since gone on to launch a bunc...
Dec 08, 2017•30 min
Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sits down with three of the journalists whose reporting led to a national reckoning with sexual harassment. Jodi Kantor is one of two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein harassment story . Irin Carmon told the story of Charlie Rose’s alleged victims. And over at The Hollywood Reporter, Kim Masters uncovered alleged harassment by Pixar’s John Lasseter and Amazon Studios' boss Roy Price . On this special bonus episode of "Su...
Dec 06, 2017•30 min
Megyn Kelly was already a rising star at Fox News when she hit the big time by taking on a Presidential candidate named Donald Trump. Then, we learned Kelly had been sexually harassed by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. He was fired — the first volley in a national reckoning. Kelly left for NBC News, where she now hosts the third hour of the Today Show. It’s a departure for the former lawyer. At Fox, she faced criticism for being too outspoken and prosecutorial. At NBC, critics say she’s too soft. For ...
Dec 01, 2017•30 min
It takes a lot of hard work to become an effective leader. In this Master Class episode of "Success! How I Did It," top executives and tech CEOs reveal their secrets to being a successful leader in any industry. Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti, Lyft’s John Zimmer, Fox News’ Dana Perino, and more share their insights and best tips. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Nov 24, 2017•11 min
Tim Ferriss first found fame with his 2007 book " The 4-Hour Workweek ." After taking a break from writing in 2012, he became an accidental podcast star with " The Tim Ferriss Show ," which is approaching 200 million downloads. He sat down for an interview with Business Insider senior reporter Richard Feloni for this episode of " Success! How I Did It ." This hasn't been a typical year for Ferriss. He celebrated the 10th anniversary of "The 4-Hour Workweek," then decided to leave his successful ...
Nov 17, 2017•26 min
People talk about Reid Hoffman as the philosopher of Silicon Valley. That’s by design. Before starting his career as an investor and master of social networks, he planned to be a "public intellectual." Hoffman says his philosophical training guides his business and investment strategies every day. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Hoffman spoke with Business Insider senior strategy reporter Richard Feloni about his 30-year friendship with his political opposite, Peter Thiel, and his lo...
Nov 10, 2017•27 min
Before finding fame on "Shark Tank," and before building her New York real-estate empire, Barbara Corcoran was one of 10 kids in a working-class New Jersey family. If nothing else, she learned how to take a risk. She started with a $1,000 loan from her then boyfriend to go into the real-estate business. After a few years they broke up, then the company broke up, and she built her half into the Corcoran Group, a real-estate behemoth that she sold for $66 million in 2001. From there, she landed a ...
Nov 03, 2017•31 min
Dana Perino didn’t crave the limelight. Then she landed one of the most public jobs — as George W. Bush's White House press secretary. Now Perino is at Fox News, where her star has been rising in the wake of sexual-harassment scandals at the network. The scandals led to the ouster of its CEO and a number of on-air talent, including its biggest star, Bill O’Reilly. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Perino spoke with Business Insider US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell about how she went ...
Oct 27, 2017•32 min
Spencer Rascoff knows a lot about running a company during a crisis. He’s the CEO of Zillow, which he ran through the housing crash. That was after he ran Hotwire, which survived the dot com crash only to learn it sold plane tickets to the 9/11 hijackers. Through personal and professional tragedies, Rascoff and his companies bounced back. Zillow’s now worth $5 billion. On this episode, Rascoff tells how he did it. Plus, he tells us about working with Uber’s new CEO, and what it was like touring ...
Oct 20, 2017•29 min
John Zimmer is the cofounder and president of the ride-hailing service Lyft, which has faced a fierce competitor in Uber since the beginning. Lyft is valued at $7.5 billion, covers 94% of the US population, and one of its biggest advantages seems to be its "nice guy" reputation. But it can be hard for nice guys not to finish last. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Zimmer tells us how he got rich by not caring about money, plus how he survived early startup years by living on a friend's...
Oct 13, 2017•28 min
When Chef Jose Andres arrived in the United States 26 years ago, few Americans had heard of tapas. Since then, Americans have warmed up to Spanish small plates and Andrés has gone on to lead 26 restaurants and win two Michelin stars. He even claims to have created the best Philly cheesesteak. This past April, Andrés was invited to speak at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta by Intersport for a summit on leadership. On this edition of "Success! How I Did It," Andrés talks about his life, how ...
Oct 06, 2017•30 min
Tony Robbins has used his commanding presence to build a career as the world's most famous life and business coach, helping people like President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and the Golden State Warriors. He recently hosted the winners of the Shopify Build a Bigger Business competition at his Fiji resort, Namale, where he also sat down with Business Insider senior strategy reporter Richard Feloni. They talked about how his childhood experiences made him want to help other people, and how he was...
Sep 29, 2017•25 min
Joanna Coles is the Chief Content Officer at Hearst, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Cosmo and Marie Claire before that. She's also the executive producer of a hit show on Freeform and a member of Snap's board. Coles told Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell how she had to throw someone out of a cab to get a job, her negotiation strategy, and the power of a good network on this episode of "Success! How I Did It." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Priv...
Sep 22, 2017•27 min
John Brennan is the former director of the CIA, a position he held until this past January. Now he’s attempting to retire for the second time. In April, Brennan was invited to speak at The Masters golf tournament in Augusta by Intersport for a summit on leadership. Business Insider’s US Editor in chief, Alyson Shontell interviewed him there about everything from how he joined the agency to president Trump, to what it was like in the situation room when Osama Bin Laden was killed. T See Privacy P...
Sep 15, 2017•30 min
Ben Lerer spent his 20s co-founding Thrillist, a local recommendation site for “civilized bros.” He's now the CEO of digital holding company Group Nine, which is a merger of four brands: Thrillist, The Dodo, video news network NowThis, and Discovery’s science site, Seeker. The process was messy and difficult. But they got it done, and Discovery invested about $100 million in Group Nine. Lerer told Business Insider's Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell how he went from a self-described “decently spoi...
Sep 01, 2017•30 min
In this Master Class episode of "Success! How I Did It," Fortune 500 CEOs and top executives reveal what it takes to reach the top, and how to set yourself up for eventual business world domination in your 20s and 30s. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman and others share the career advice that was invaluable to them on their journeys. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do...
Aug 22, 2017•11 min
Dan Schulman is the CEO of PayPal. But his career began at AT&T, where he was paid an annual salary of about $14,000 a year. He rose through the ranks to run its core consumer business, then went on to run three public companies including Priceline, American Express, and Virgin Mobile. Schulman told Business Insider's Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell how he built his career, and how practicing Krav Maga martial arts helped him find success on this podcast interview for "Success! How I Did It....
Aug 16, 2017•30 min
John Sculley is the former CEO of Pepsi and Apple. He was brought on to be Steve Jobs’ adult supervision, and to teach him marketing. But the job was tough, and working with Apple’s brilliant founder was, too. During one particularly tense moment, Scully actually made Jobs cry. Since leaving Apple, Sculley has become an investor in many companies, and he’s currently working on a health startup that he thinks could grow to become bigger than Apple. Sculley told Business Insider’s US Editor-in-Chi...
Aug 09, 2017•31 min
Jason Calacanis founded Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs Inc, Mahalo, and Inside.com. He made an early bet on Uber that paid off, and he’s now an investor and has his own syndicate. But he had a hard time getting there, including a huge fall from grace when the dotcom bubble burst. Back then, he was worth negative $10,000. Now, he's clawed his way back and generated $100 million. Calacanis told Business Insider’s US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell about that experience and more for this episode o...
Aug 03, 2017•29 min
Steve Ballmer spent more than 30 years at Microsoft where he rose to become CEO. But his decade at the helm was full of challenges, ranging from the rise of Google to learning how to manage around Microsoft's cofounder, Bill Gates. Ballmer became a billionaire at Microsoft and after he retired in 2014, he bought the LA Clippers. Ballmer talks about his career and his enviable retirement on this episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It" with US Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontel...
Jul 25, 2017•34 min
Aaron Levie is co-founder and CEO of Box, a cloud-based file sharing service. He took Box public when he was 29, and now it has a $2.5 billion market cap. But it took a lot of work to get there, including sleepless nights on yoga mats in the office, and the decision to turn down a $600 million acquisition offer from Citrix that his board wanted him to accept. Levie told Business Insider’s US Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontell, about those experiences and more for this episode of “Success! How I Di...
Jul 13, 2017•22 min
Vlad Tenev is co-founder and co-CEO of Robinhood, a mobile app that lets you trade stocks free of charge. It's only a few years old and millennials are all over it – the average age of the app’s two million users is 30. The latest fundraising round valued Robinhood at $1.3 billion, with backers like Snoop Dogg and Marc Andreessen. But it took a lot for Robinhood to get where it is today, which Tenev explains in this episode of "Success! How I Did It" with Business Insider US Editor-in-Chief, Aly...
Jul 06, 2017•23 min
Payal Kadakia is the founder of ClassPass, a fitness class booking company that can be found in 39 cities around the world. ClassPass has generated more than 30 million class reservations since 2013 and its new valuation is about $470 million. Kadakia recently stepped down from her role as CEO, a decision she explained in this episode of “Success! How I Did It” with Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at ...
Jun 19, 2017•29 min
Drew Houston is the founder and CEO of DropBox, an online file storage and sharing service that just turned ten years old. DropBox has grown to over 500 million users, has been valued at about $10 billion, and generates over a billion dollars in annualized revenue. The company is probably planning to go public soon. In this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Drew Houston and Business Insider’s US Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontell, discuss the creation of DropBox on a bus, meeting Steve Jobs, and...
Jun 12, 2017•26 min
Jonah Peretti is the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, a digital media empire that started as an Instant Messenger bot. The bot spotted trending links across the web and sent them to groups of friends. Peretti grew that into a $1.5 billion media company that's on the verge of going public, and he's turned down giant acquisition offers along the way. Before BuzzFeed, Peretti cofounded The Huffington Post with Andrew Brietbart and others. In this episode, Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Sh...
Jun 01, 2017•40 min
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has taken a series of smart risks throughout his career that have helped him reach the top. He began as a college student in Boston who managed a strawberry farm. He later became a hotshot Internet advertising salesman who sold the first-ever $1 million campaign online. He impressed Google's cofounders in an early job interview, and helped build their advertising business from scratch. Now he is the CEO of AOL, and he has lots of advice for others who want to run corporate ...
May 26, 2017•33 min
