134: Pivoting, Building, and Scaling startups with Jason Shen

David speaks with Jason Shen, a three-time founder, writer, executive coach, and NCAA gymnastics champion. Jason Co-founded RideJoy, a ridesharing platform backed by Y Combinator, and later built Midgame, an AI gaming company that was bought by Meta. As CEO of Refactor Labs, he helps founders and teams build successful companies. He wrote The Path to Pivot and Weirdly Brilliant, sharing lessons on resilience, leadership, and reaching your full potential.

They talked about:

🚀 The realities of startup founding and pivoting

🤝 Navigating co-founder relationships

🌱 How early experiences shape entrepreneurial paths

💡 The power of focus in building successful businesses

🧭 Coaching founders through critical challenges

🚧 Choosing your path as a founder

📜 Full transcript:

theknowledge.io/jasonshen-2/

📹 Watch on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/j84a6-GuF18

🗣 Mentioned in the show:

Stanford University | https://www.stanford.edu/about/

Y Combinator | https://www.ycombinator.com/about

Etsy | https://www.etsy.com/

Burning Man | https://burningman.org/about/about-us/

Boston University | https://www.bu.edu/admissions-overview/

Kelly Wilde Miller | https://kellywildemiller.com/

Ray Kurzweil | https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-Kurzweil

Paul Graham | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer)

Jessica Livingston | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Livingston

Sam Altman | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman

Christopher Columbus | https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus

Nassim Taleb | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb

Richard Dawkins | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins

NVIDIA | https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/

East India Trading Company | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

Connect with Jason:

Twitter: https://x.com/JasonShen

Website: https://www.jasonshen.com/

The Path to Pivot: https://amzn.to/4iFFRfh

👨🏾‍💻 About David Elikwu:

David Elikwu FRSA is a serial entrepreneur, strategist, and writer. David is the founder of The Knowledge, a platform helping people think deeper and work smarter.

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