1955
Steve Jobs said he was born in 1955 and Robert Noyce in 1927.
“Yeah, I was born in 1955, so he was almost thirty years older than me.”
Topic
Steve Jobs
38 facts from 19 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1976
Steve Wozniak sold his HP calculator and Steve Jobs sold his VW bus to fund the early Apple.
“Woz sold his HP calculator, which were very expensive things at the time, and I sold my VW bus.”
1983
John Sculley, the Pepsi marketing executive behind the Pepsi Challenge, left Pepsi in 1983 to become CEO of Apple after Steve Jobs recruited him.
“finally, in 1983, he gets an offer that he can't refuse. Steve Jobs comes to pitch him and says, do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life?”
1984
Steve Jobs said the first Macintosh was the first computer with beautiful typography, thanks to a calligraphy class he had taken at college.
“It was the first computer with beautiful typography.”
1986
Senra says Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas for $5 million and committed at least another $5 million of investment.
“He bought it from George Lucas for $5 million with the agreement that he's going to give George Lucas 5 million and then commit to investing at least another 5 million.”
1996
According to the book's introduction to Part Three, Apple lost $800 million in the year before Steve Jobs returned.
“Apple had lost $800 million that year, but he also found many employees whose talents and love for Apple struck him as phenomenal.”
1997
Apple acquired NeXT in 1997, which brought Steve Jobs back to the company.
“Apple's 1997 acquihire of Steve Jobs. Greatest acquihire of all time.”
1997
After returning to Apple, Steve Jobs cut the company's product offerings from seventeen to four.
“Soon after he returned, he slashed the company's product offerings from seventeen to four.”
1997
Steve Jobs told Apple employees that 70 percent of the items on the product roadmap had been eliminated.
“We actually got rid of 70% of the stuff on the product roadmap.”
1997
Steve Jobs said a friend, identified by Senra as Andy Grove, told him he did not care about Apple, which helped Jobs realize he did, before he returned as interim CEO.
“Steve, I don't give a shit about Apple.”
1997
Brian Chesky says Apple was about ninety days from bankruptcy when Steve Jobs returned in 1997.
“Steve Jobs, when he came back to Apple in 1997, in July of 1997, they were ninety days from bankruptcy.”
1998
Steve Jobs said Apple posted profits of $47 million in one quarter and $55 million in the next as part of its recovery.
“Apple delivered profits of $47 million in the next quarter, and then delivered a quarter, uh, the quarter after that, of $55 million in profits.”
1998
Steve Jobs said Apple's market value rose from $1.8 billion to about $4 billion in roughly a year after his return.
“the market value of Apple has risen from $1.8 billion a year ago to about $4 billion yesterday.”
2000s
Eich says the first Safari had private windows and a third-party cookie blocker, which Firefox lacked at the time.
“Mozilla did not lead on privacy as well as Steve Jobs did at Apple. The very first Safari had private windows.”
2003
In 2003, Jeff Bezos and a group from Amazon visited Apple's campus in Cupertino to meet Steve Jobs.
“Jeff and a bunch of people from Amazon traveled to the Apple campus in Cupertino to meet Steve Jobs”
2003
Steve Jobs told Jeff Bezos that Amazon had a decent chance of being the last place to buy CDs, a business he said would be high margin but small.
“Amazon has a decent chance of being the last place to buy CDs.”
2006
Bob Iger appeared at Apple's keynote to announce that Disney and ABC content would be available for the video iPod.
“Bob Iger walks out on stage and says all our Disney and ABC content”
2007
Bret Taylor says that when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, few expected people would write most of their email by typing on a touch screen.
“I imagine in 2007, when Steve Jobs, uh, introduced the iPhone, few of us would have contemplated that we'd send nearly 100 of our email by thumb typing on a touch screen.”
2008
Schultz says Steve Jobs advised him to replace his entire leadership team, and that all but the general counsel eventually left.
“you go back to Seattle and you fire everyone on your leadership team.”
2009
Fortune magazine named Steve Jobs CEO of the decade, and Genentech CEO Art Levinson, on Apple's board, congratulated him by email.
“Fortune magazine named Steve CEO of the decade.”
2011
In his resignation letter, Steve Jobs recommended Tim Cook as his successor as Apple CEO.
“I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.”
Undated
Apple's announced iTunes podcast support gave Rose and Alex Albrecht a distribution channel for their show Dignation.
“Steve Jobs had announced that there was something called podcast that they were going to support and build that into iTunes.”
Undated
Sam Altman recounts an unverified story that Steve Jobs put a handle on the first iMac so people would know they could throw it out of a window.
“I don't know if it's true, I hope it is. Is that the reason Steve Jobs put that handle on the back of the first iMac”
Undated
David Senra says Steve Jobs, in his twenties, met the elderly Edwin Land and described the visit as like visiting a shrine.
“He goes and meets Edwin Land and he goes, visiting Edwin Land was like visiting a shrine. He's like, he is my hero.”
Undated
David Senra says Steve Jobs's phrase about the intersection of technology and liberal arts was taken directly from Edwin Land.
“oh, we're building at the intersection of technology and liberal arts. He put it up on the screen. He ripped that off wholesale. Edwin Land said that exact word.”
Undated
The host recounts a story from a Steve Jobs biography in which Jobs, who was seriously ill with cancer, agreed to rebuild a nearly finished Apple store prototype from scratch.
“Steve quietly says, He's right. Do what he says, start from scratch. We're doing it all over again.”
Undated
Taylor recalls a story from NeXT in which Steve Jobs cared about the inside of the workstation as well as its outside appearance, as an example of craftsmanship.
“where Steve cared about the inside of the workstation, not just the outside, and like how it looked”
Undated
Steve Jobs ultimately invested about $60 million of his own money in Pixar.
“Steve's enthusiasm kept him writing check after check to Pixar, ultimately investing some $60 million of his own money.”
Undated
As a young founder, Steve Jobs asked Intel and AMD figures such as Bob Noyce, Andy Grove and Jerry Sanders to lunch once a quarter, and they agreed.
“I'm just wondering if I could buy you lunch once a quarter and pick your brain.”
Undated
In his Stanford commencement address, Steve Jobs said his biological mother was an unwed graduate student who put him up for adoption.
“My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption.”
Undated
Brené Brown recounts that Steve Jobs said his children did not have an iPad.
“it's like when they asked Steve Jobs, Boy, your kids must love the iPad. Steve Jobs said, My kids don't have an iPad.”
Undated
David Senra quotes Steve Jobs as saying intuition is more powerful than intellect.
“Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion.”
Undated
Brian Chesky says he held about thirty-five hours of group meetings a week in founder mode, similar to Steve Jobs's approach at Apple.
“So I probably did thirty five hours of meetings, which is very similar to the way Steve ran Apple.”
Undated
Brian Chesky says Hiroki Asai was Steve Jobs's creative director at Apple, working on ads and graphic design.
“He was Steve Jobs' creative director. It was a function under marketing. He did the ads, he did the graphic design.”
Undated
Brian Chesky says Apple was worth a few hundred billion dollars when Steve Jobs died and is now worth multiple trillions.
“They were a few 100 billion dollar company. When he died, they're like a multi 1 trillion dollar company.”
Undated
The host says Ed Catmull told him Steve Jobs fired two Pixar board members because they never disagreed with him.
“He says that Steve Jobs fired two members of the Pixar board, and the reason that he fired them surprised most people because they never disagreed with Steve.”
Undated
The Walter Isaacson biography, as read by the host, says Steve Jobs wanted a legacy placing him among or above figures like Edwin Land, Bill Hewlett and David Packard.
“He wanted to be in the pantheon with, and indeed a notch above people like Edwin Land, Bill Hewlett, and David Packard.”
Undated
Schmidt argues that only founder Steve Jobs could oversee Apple's transformation, and that others who tried could not.
“Could anyone else have overseen the transformation of Apple, except for Steve Jobs? A number tried, they couldn't do it.”
Episodes
- 24 Nov 2025Coca-Cola4h 2m
- 4 Jun 2024Starbucks (with Howard Schultz)3h 14m
- 29 Mar 2023Sessions: David Senra (Founders Podcast)3h 20m
- 15 Feb 2022The Browser (with Brendan Eich, Chief Architect of Netscape + Mozilla and CEO of Brave)1h 43m
- 30 Aug 2021Kevin Rose from Web 2.0 to Web31h 40m
- 17 Mar 2020The Top 10 Acquisitions of All-Time1h 51m
- 25 Nov 2019Disney, Plus2h 19m
- 3 Nov 2025Brené Brown: We're In A Spiritual Crisis! The Hidden Epidemic No One Wants To Admit!2h 0m
- 25 Mar 2023#367 – Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO on GPT-4, ChatGPT, and the Future of AI2h 28m
- 5 Sep 2026#432 The Mind of Napoleon55m
- 19 Jul 2026#425 The Merchant Bankers46m
- 8 Jan 2026#409 The Creative Genius of Rick Rubin42m
- 14 Aug 2025#398 Steve Jobs In His Own Words (Make Something Wonderful)2h 1m
- 21 Sep 2023#321 Working with Jeff Bezos57m
- 31 Jul 2023#314 Paul Graham (How To Do Great Work)57m
- 21 Oct 2026Eric Schmidt: The Age of Agents, Superintelligence, and Why Europe Is Falling Behind43m
- 20 Nov 2024How agentic AI will save customer service, with Bret Taylor38m
- 5 May 2026Brian Chesky - AI Founder Mode - [Invest Like the Best, EP.471]1h 16m
- 3 Sep 2024Bret Taylor - The Agent Era - [Invest Like the Best, EP.386]1h 28m