#51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. For every business, there's an appropriate scale. That one we got wrong twice. But I'm not complaining. We actually got what we wanted. Today we are happy and grateful. Our kids are in their early 20s, and although they've heard from a lot of other people that their parents started Banana Republic, they haven't heard much about it from us.
Kids love to look forward, so we did very little looking back. We tell this story now for them, hoping they will one day find the time to read it. We also hope our story will suggest to restless, creative people everywhere that creation begins with creating the life you would like to live without fear or inhibition. It's never a straight or smooth road, but in our experience, it was the bumps and the breakdowns, the mishaps and the wrong turns that stimulated the breakthroughs we needed to get where we wanted to go. A special bonus for us in the process of writing? We got to do it together, and it brought back all over again how much fun it was. Okay, that's an excerpt from the end of the book that I want to talk to you about today, which is Wild Company, The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Mel and Patricia Ziegler. So before I jump back into the book, first of all, welcome to Founders. If you're new here, the premise of this podcast is straightforward. Every week, I read a biography of a company builder and then share some of the things that I learned.
So first I want to talk about how I found this book. I actually saw this really useful thread on Twitter where somebody was asking for recommendations of biographies of Founders. And I went through the list and I saw a bunch of the ones that I've read already and made into previous Founders podcasts. But then I saw this one and it said, Wild Company, the story of starting and scaling Banana Republic. So I was like, ooh, that sounds interesting. I immediately downloaded the Kindle sample on my iPhone, read the sample, immediately downloaded the book and devoured it within two days. Not only are Mel and Patricia gifted Founders, but they're fantastic storytellers as well. Okay, so three quick things before I jump back into the book. Number one, for those who are asking how to get in touch with me, my Twitter is davidsenra1.
founderspodcast.com has been updated, so you'll find my Twitter linked on below every episode now. And it's also in the show notes. If you want to reach out to me, Twitter's probably the best way to do that. Number two, something I failed to mention last week, but just a reminder, if you like this podcast, if you're a regular listener, if you leave a review on Apple podcasts or anywhere else you listen, and you take a screenshot and email it to foundersreviews.gmail.com, I reply back to every email with a private RSS feed, a private podcast feed of podcasts that I create exclusively for those that have taken the time to actually review and help spread the word. So almost everybody that listens to this podcast listens to it on Overcast or Apple podcast. So on Overcast, you can't leave a review, but you can recommend podcasts. So you have like a little gold star there. So once you recommend, just find an episode that you liked. Once you press that gold star, it'll go from clear to gold. And if you take a screenshot, send that to me. I will reply back. So so far, I've done two reviewer only podcasts. One was on Max Lepchkin, and it focuses on the beginning time of PayPal, which is very fascinating. And then the other one is called The Steve We Knew, which is based on Ed Catmull, who is the founder of Pixar, is the person that worked the longest consecutive time with Steve Jobs. He worked with him for 26 straight years up until Steve Jobs' death. So he tells stories in his book that I pulled out and turned into a podcast about just what it was like knowing Steve Jobs for 26 years. And I've read two books on Steve Jobs.