#105 AOL Founder & CEO Revolution, Steve Case: The Rise of the Rest

Guest: Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution and author of The Rise of the Rest In this episode, we cover: Why Steve got demoted as CEO of AOL before it went public (04:55); His new book, The Rise of the Rest, and his previous book, The Third Wave (11:08); Democratizing capital for startups across America — and flying on Air Force One (18:43); America’s entrepreneurial success “didn’t happen by accident” (22:36); AOL’s early market motions and the resurgence of the “business person” in tech (25:16); The earliest days of online computer services pre-AOL (29:13); Steve’s entrepreneurial origins and believing in the potential of the internet (35:20); A short-lived Apple partnership in the 1980s, and the invention of “America Online” (39:49); Being a shock absorber for the rest of the company (44:28); The difficulty of scaling AOL and betting big on community over content (48:54); AOL and Time Warner’s notorious merger, and Steve’s tactical decision to step down as CEO (56:08); The aftermath of his resignation: “It was frustrating to go from leading to watching” (01:03:25); Managing a family in tandem with a fast-scaling startup (01:07:54)