Categories: Articles

What A Three Billion Dollar Company Looks Like

He has had many successes. Prior to January 14th, 2003 most people knew Fadell as the person that Apple called in 2001 to help design a MP3 player that would work with their iTunes platform, because the company felt that most of the other players on the market were too complicated. Of course, this became the first version of the iPod. He left Apple in 2008 but re-emerged on the tech scene in 2010 as the co-founder of Nest. Nest Thermostat is the connected thermostat for the home. Late last year, the company also launched Nest Protect, which is a connected smoke detector. Both devices have helped usher in The Internet of Things. A world where all appliances and devices are connected to the Internet, controllable through a smartphone or tablet, and able to leverage that connection to make your home (or work) environment that much more efficient. But, the story doesn’t end there. Nest rocked the world last week when it was acquired by Google for over three billion dollars (not a typo). After three years of being in business.

3 Billion Dollars… how did Tony Fadell do it?

Kevin Rose (co-founder of Digg and now at Google Ventures) sat down with Fadell at the Google Ventures CEO Summit and recorded this in-depth conversation with him (which was recorded prior to the acquisition by Google) for his always-fascinating Foundation podcast.

Here is their conversation…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.