Leap Forward

What could happen if we electrified everything? Sam Calisch & His Mentor Saul Griffith

In 2021, the book Electrify offered one of the most detailed, practical maps yet for America’s decarbonization. It went viral in climate & policy circles and helped shape

How Reddit Was Born, Sold, Broken…and Rebuilt: Steve Huffman & first employee Chris Slowe

Today, Reddit is the sixth largest website in the world. But it almost stopped existing. A few times. In July 2015, more than 2,000 subreddits went dark, the CEO resigned

Season 1: What We Learned

This summer, Leap Forward is going on a short break. We’ll be back this fall with more episodes. Listen for a look back on Season 1 and a taste of what’s next, including

The Strange Origins of Live Streaming: Twitch's Michael Seibel & His Co-founder Justin Kan

Live streaming feels inevitable now. But it started as what Michael Seibel called a "dumb idea."In this episode, Michael traces the unlikely path from a post-Yale road tr

From Design Thinking to $1 Billion Healthcare IPO: Omada’s Sean Duffy + His Former Boss

When Sean Duffy was a medical student interning at IDEO, he came face to face with a hard truth: millions of Americans with chronic disease weren’t getting the support th

Created By Humans: Trip Adler & His Dad

Scribd took off fast - then hit a wall that nearly broke the company. In this episode, Trip Adler tells the story of building the “Netflix for books,” only to face the mo

Bobbie: Laura Modi & Her Mentor

It’s common for a tech startup employee to start their own tech startup. It’s rarer for a startup employee to go on to build a baby formula company. When Laura Modi showe

Plug: Jimmy Douglas & His First Investor

Jimmy Douglas didn’t learn how to fundraise in business school. He learned it at 14, selling vacuum cleaners on commission to help pay the bills after his father - an ent

Segment: Peter Reinhardt & His College Roommate And Cofounder

Peter Reinhardt co-founded the analytics firm Segment, and built it into a company that sold for $3.2 billion. But before it worked, everything else they tried didn’t.  I

Airbnb: Nathan Blecharczyk & Their First Advisor

Nathan Blecharczyk turned a social experiment into Airbnb: a company that would remake travel. But first, it had to survive.Before it reshaped an industry, Airbnb looked

Mercury: Immad Akhund & His Mom

After more than a decade of mixed success with tech startups, Immad Akhund decided to try something even harder: starting a bank.Today, Mercury is valued at $3.5 billion

Y Combinator: Jessica Livingston & Paul Graham

Y Combinator is the legendary startup program that has launched more than 5,000 companies, collectively worth over a trillion dollars. Household names like Airbnb, DoorDa

Season 1 Trailer

Leap Forward is a show about founders and the people who believed in them before anyone else. Each episode traces the real story behind a company you might know, both fro