Tony Fadell
Principal, Build Collective. On 3 shows, 5 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
engineerfounderexecutiveinvestorauthor@tfadell ↗LinkedIn ↗buildc.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Fadell is widely recognized as the co-creator of the iPod and iPhone at Apple, and co-founder and CEO of Nest Labs. Today, he leads the deep-tech investment and advisory firm Build Collective and authored the bestselling book Build.
3shows
5appearances
96statements
18resolved
13supported
3contradicted
72%fully supported
49said about them ↓ Everything Tony Fadell said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Fadell: Google sidelined Nest due to cultural and business mismatches
“The whole organization was a stepchild for whatever reason, you know, there was cultural mismatch. There was, you know, probably a business mismatch.”
Fadell: Investing at 9- or 10-digit valuations cannot yield venture returns
“Well that doesn't work from a venture perspective. Like with those kinds of, you'd never get the venture returns. You can't invest in things. When the valuations are already nine digits or 10 digits, and you think you're gonna, a small portfolio that's got lik…”
Fadell: Remote employees lacking face time will be fired first during downturns
“Two in, especially now in a financial disaster that we have on our hands, who's going to be the first one to get fired? The ones who don't come into work are the ones who do come into work and have some face time and show value beyond just coming to a meeting.”
Fadell: iPod's original strategy was driving Mac sales, which failed
“We're going to sell the iPod. It's going to be so awesome that people will buy Macs so they could use their iPod. We're going to sell more Macs because they're going to need to buy one to use an iPod that they're going to have to have. Well, guess what? The fi…”
Fadell: Single-use plastic recycling is "a bunch of bullshit"
“Recycling is basically a bunch of bullshit, especially when it comes to single-use or low-use plastics versus durable-use plastics.”
Jobs told iPhone touchscreen dissenters to get on board or leave
“And guess who wins at the end of the day? Steve jobs, opinion. And he was like, if you're not going to get on board, get out of this room and you can go work on another project, but you're not going to work on this.”
Fadell: Novel V1 products require opinion-based decisions from small leadership teams
“When you're doing a one point O of anything, When you're doing, if you're doing anything that matters, and it's a one point on, it's a new category, or it's a new device the world hasn't seen before. You have very few analogs that you can use to make data driv…”
Fadell: Relying entirely on data for new products creates undifferentiated offerings
“Because if you try to do data-driven decisions all the way along, You're either not doing a differentiated product because you're taking data from another thing, or you're just getting just bullshit data, right?”
Fadell: The market timing is perfect for a 'Nest 2.0' hardware startup
“Oh, for sure. For sure. People keep asking me, what are we going to get? It's like, no, absolutely. It's now's the, I now's the time. If it isn't already happening, I'm actually getting business plans of people who are like, Hey, you know, is this interesting?…”
Fadell: Without iPod, there would be no iPhone and Apple likely would have failed
“And that's how iPhone was able to be created because without the iPod there, I'm pretty sure there would have been no iPhone. There would have probably been no Apple because it was close to bankruptcy.”
Fadell: Fast, AI-generated software creates crippling technical debt for startups
“We got fast software, but software, if you're going to build a real company, can't be throwaway. Maybe it can, but I don't think it can be, if you're really going to do this because you get just technical debt and you've got to start over again.”
Fadell: AI cannot build innovative v1 products without human taste
“Because an opinion based thing on highly innovative, differentiated stuff, it doesn't have a model for that. There's not that stuff in there. You gotta, you still need the very version one to be done.”
Fadell predicts AI hardware still requires visual displays; screenless devices will fail
“When we can trust the models and when they have memory and when they do this stuff, then we're still going to need a display. Cause sorry, people, unless we're plugging it into our brain, like a BCI brain computer, or there's some laser thing going into our re…”
Fadell: Device UI must invert to prioritize voice first and touch last
“We need to flip it. We need to absolutely flip it, and we have to say, and this is what I always wanted to do at Nest, which is, I want to remove displays, and we need to have voice as the number one primary feature, and you build around voice. Then we have ke…”
Tony Fadell: Every startup founder needs a co-founder with complementary skills
“You need a co-founder. Because there's, one, they should be complimentary with your skills. Two, you need a partner who you can share all the things you can't talk to the board about, or you can't talk to the management team about. You can't go talk to your si…”
Fadell: Never invest in startups with four or more co-founders
“I don't like any, I don't like companies with more than three co-founders. I prefer it with two. Three can get as long as people, but four above forget. I don't want to go there.”
Fadell: Waiting for consensus data means the opportunity is already overpriced
“Everybody else wants data. And the only way to get data is when everybody's there, Getting those hard numbers and saying, okay, now I'm convinced to go in there because everyone else is there. But guess what? Everyone else is there already. You got to trust yo…”
Fadell: Lavish corporate perks are designed to keep employees working continuously
“Some companies make it so coddled, but you get so coddled in companies that you, they never want you to leave. They just want you to work all the time. You get all your food there, your laundry done, whatever else.”
Fadell: Laissez-faire work styles do not produce major success
“I've never seen anyone be successful with this. You know, with this, ah, let's say fair, whatever happens, I'm going to be, no, that's not how the world works because everybody's competing.”
Fadell: Climate infrastructure startups will become blue-chip monopolies like Standard Oil
“These kinds of things are big money. And you know what? What's even better is once you build them, They are one of these blue, they will be a blue chip in 20 years, in 30 years, because they're gonna be the new standard oils and the, you know, what have you, r…”
Fadell: Products must optimize around a single primary customer path
“And sometimes we'll like go, it's a third. I'm like, well, then we're going to try to please everyone and please no one. So pick one. There's always got to be a one priority path. If not, you probably not structured your product right. So you pick that primary…”
Fadell: Plant-based materials will be cheaper than petroleum at scale
“Typically, yeah, it might be more expensive today for that material, but as soon as that volume hits, And we get, it takes off. Actually, it's going to be cheaper than the petroleum based product because it's built with plants and it's easier to make the plant…”
Fadell: Steve Jobs taught that the best marketing is truth-telling
“Steve said the best marketing, Steve Jobs, the best marketing is just truth telling. As long as the product meets the expectations you set for it, the best marketing is just telling the truth.”
Fadell: Excess capital prevents teams from imposing critical product constraints
“I don't like any team swimming in money. I saw that too many times at other companies I've worked with or for. And it does not set up for good constraints to make sure you're making great decisions because the market moves on.”
The other half of the tape: Tony Fadell's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 48 times in 20 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 16Hugo Barra 7Dmitry Zlokazov 6Wesley Chan 3Scott Belsky 3David Singleton 3René Haas 2Oji Udezue 2
Statements about Tony Fadell, by other people (1)
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 32
Lenny's Podcast 16
2025 9 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2023 11 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
- Lessons on product sense, AI, the first mile experience, and the messy middle | Scott Belsky (Adobe)
- Building a culture of excellence | David Singleton (CTO of Stripe)
- Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff: The $1BN Amazon Acquisition; How Richard Branson Invested | 20VC #984 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- What sets great teams apart | Lane Shackleton (CPO of Coda)
- Tomer Cohen: Why LinkedIn Stories Failed; How LinkedIn's Feed Was Born; AI Startups | E1019 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2022 21 mentions in 7 episodes 3 per episode
- Hugo Barra: How I Built Hardware for Android, Xiaomi, and Oculus | 20VC #947 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 20VC: Arm CEO Rene Haas on How The Best Leaders Make Decisions and The Trade-Off Between Speed and Quality | Leadership Lessons from 7 Years at Nvidia | How Companies Can Retain Speed, Innovation and Agility at Scale
- Semil Shah: Lessons Learned Scaling from a $1M to a $50M Fund | 20VC #951 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Spotify CTO Gustav Söderström: TikTok's Music; How Olivia Rodrigo Gamed the Algo | 20VC #936 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Kevin Weil: Lessons from Leading Product at Instagram & Twitter | 20VC #934 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 20VC: WTF Is Going On? 3 Outcomes for What Could Happen From Here; What Needs to Happen To Avoid Recession? Why Stagnation is Most Likely and What This Means for Startups and Venture & Why Catastrophe is More Likely Than Ever and Switzerland Could Be a "H
- 20 Product: Scott Belsky on How to Hire Your Product Leader and Team, 3 Questions All Great Product Leaders Ask, How To Structure and Run Effective Product Reviews & Is Product More Art or Science?
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2016 5 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Felicis' Wesley Chan on The Rise of IoT, Getting Recruited by Larry Page & Creating Google's Biggest Success Disaster
- 20VC: The Information's Jessica Lessin on The Future For Online Journalism & The Benefits Of A Subscription Based Business Model
- 20VC: Niccolo De Masi on The Bursting Of The Tech Bubble and What It Takes To Be A Celebrity Partner with Glu Mobile
- every mention in 2016, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Tony's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Principal, Build Collective | 3 +1 | 57 | 73% 8/11 | full record on 20VC → |
| LENNY'S PODCASTLEDGER | Principal, Build Collective | 1 | 23 | 100% 3/3 | full record on Lenny's Podcast → |
 AMERICAN OPTIMISTLEDGER | Principal, Build Collective | 1 | 16 | 50% 2/4 | full record on American Optimist → |