Success! How I Did It

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." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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-Chief Alyson Shontell about that experience and more for this episode of “Success! How I Did It.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 of “Success! How I Did It.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 Shontell. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 Did It.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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, Alyson Shontell. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 the advice he would give to young entrepreneurs. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 Shontell asks him about both experiences, media industry trends, startup advice, and timely news, like the Trump-Russia dossier that BuzzFeed was first to publish. We also got the story behind a lewd Ivanka Trump tweet Jonah wrote that went viral. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 America some day. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

LeBron James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He sat down with Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontell, for a video interview to discuss his team's epic comeback in the 2016 NBA finals, what he eats, how he works out, and how he leads on and off the court. As it looks more and more likely that LeBron will be heading to another finals soon, we've taken that audio from that August 2016 interview and turned it into a special episode of "Success! How I Did It." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Two years ago, her husband Dave Goldberg suddenly died at age 47. She founder herself in a dark place, but had to figure out how to live in this new reality — "Option B" — without him. Sandberg spoke with us about how you can build resilience like a muscle, how she overcame her darkest days, how Mark Zuckerberg has helped her through, and why companies should think of sick leave, the same way they think of maternity or paternity leave. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gary Vaynerchuk has millions of followers on social media, and has built two businesses to tens of millions in revenue. The "Planet of the Apps" star, investor and best-selling author reveals how he built his career, what it's like to eat dinner with Mark Zuckerberg, and tips for success (like dumping any "loser" friends who are holding you back). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Neil Vogel is the CEO of About.com, a beloved website from the 1990s. He's trying to modernize it by doing something that sounds crazy: He's shutting down the site, and launching a half dozen new brands in its place. Neil is also the founder of the Webby Awards and Internet Week, and was an early employee at dotcom success story Alloy Media. When he was 32, he took a year off to travel the country in a Ford Bronco, which changed his life and career. Here's his story. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

TheSkimm is a morning email newsletter that tells 5 million subscribers — including Oprah — the news they need to know. But it was not easy for founders Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg to get TheSkimm off the ground. The two were roommates who had a "quarter-life-crisis" and quit their jobs at NBC. Then hundreds of startup investors rejected them, and the went into credit card debt. Finally, the found success. They share their war stories and future plans on this episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It" with host Alyson Shontell. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal met while getting their MBAs at Wharton. They cofounded a glasses retailer, Warby Parker, and couldn't decide who should become CEO, so they both took the job. The Co-CEOs sat down with Business Insider's US Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell to discuss how they built a billion-dollar brand, and how they scaled the company as first-time founders. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scott Belsky began his career at Goldman Sachs. But he didn't like it, so he saved $18,000 and bootstrapped a startup, Behance. He later sold it to Adobe for $150 million and made sure half his employees became millionaires. He also put early money in startups like Pinterest and Uber. Here's his best career and startup advice. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bryan Goldberg, 33, is the founder of Bustle, a digital-media startup with 55 million monthly readers that covers everything from politics to "The Bachelor." Its latest valuation puts it on par with Goldberg's last startup, Bleacher Report, which sold for about $200 million to Turner Media. Goldberg reveals how he's built multiple valuable companies, and divulged details on a wild "OMFG" party he and his cofounders threw for Bleacher Report employees in Las Vegas after the acquisition. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sean Rad, the founder of dating app Tinder, knew right away he had a hit app on his hands. In an interview with Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell, Rad discusses the highs and lows of building a business. He explains how he came up with the idea for Tinder, how his team marketed the app so it'd go viral, and how hard it is to run a startup in your 20s — even when the startup is successful. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.