Jun 24, 2019 · 59m · how-i-built-this
Yelp: Jeremy Stoppelman
0:00 / 0:00
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Host Guy Raz interviews Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, exploring how an overlooked feature turned a struggling local referral concept into a multi-billion-dollar review platform, alongside an entrepreneurial spotlight on Dr. Liz Bales's feline feeding venture.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 33.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.2 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 0.8 Guy pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 38:30 Rejecting the Silicon Valley romanticization of failure
Stoppelman rejects the popular tech trope of failing fast, asserting there is zero glory in failure and quoting another founder on how nobody actually wants to be a serial entrepreneur.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 23:35 Challenging the heavy equity concession in seed roundRaz asks pointedly whether giving up 40 percent equity for one million dollars with no business plan was truly the best option available.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 27:20 Educating on post-crash venture capital prejudiceStoppelman explains to Raz that VC rejections were not about the product idea itself, but post-dot-com PTSD and prejudice demanding gray-haired executives over young founders.
Guy holds their own ▶ 45:49 Demonstrating consumer rating discrepancy realitiesRaz raises the common consumer frustration of finding favorite local businesses rated surprisingly low on the platform, forcing Stoppelman to articulate Yelp's aggregate accuracy.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summit Announcement and Fellowship Opportunity | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory monologue and promotional announcement for the summit fellowship, setting the stage for the episode without interview interaction. | |
| Childhood Fascination with Computers and Business | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz demonstrates background knowledge about Stoppelman's early investments and youth trading, prompting an easy, nostalgic discussion. | |
| Moving to Silicon Valley and Meeting Elon Musk at X.com | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Stoppelman explains the wild hiring climate of late 90s Silicon Valley and meeting Elon Musk at X.com, sharing first impressions in a cooperative narrative. | |
| The PayPal Merger and Rise to VP of Engineering | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz lists the legendary PayPal mafia figures present during the merger, while Stoppelman demystifies the aura by clarifying they were mostly young beginners at the time. | |
| Harvard Business School and Max Levchin's Incubator | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Stoppelman describes his decision to attend HBS to counter Silicon Valley stereotypes against engineer CEOs, and his eventual pivot to Max Levchin's incubator. | |
| Brainstorming Local Search and Securing Seed Funding | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Raz presses on the equity terms and the lack of a traditional business plan when securing seed money from Levchin, with Stoppelman defending the deal context. | |
| Domain Acquisition, VC Skepticism, and Initial Launch Flop | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Stoppelman recalls Sand Hill Road VCs demanding gray-haired adult supervision and describes the grim realization of their initial October 2004 launch failing. | |
| Mid-Roll Interlude: 'Wisdom from the Top' and Luminary Promotion | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Following the mid-roll break, Stoppelman shares the critical pivot to organic review writing and discovering early urban adopters through local meetups. | |
| Series A Funding, City Expansion, and Early Monetization | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz probes the Silicon Valley ethos of failure and early monetization; Stoppelman pushes back against romanticizing failure and explains city-by-city scaling. | |
| The iPhone App Launch and Handling Merchant Backlash | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Raz addresses merchant backlash and lower-than-expected ratings; Stoppelman defends Yelp's statistical accuracy and compares reviews to traditional critics. | |
| Rejecting Google's Acquisition Offer and Advice from Steve Jobs | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Stoppelman discusses rejecting Google's half-billion-dollar acquisition bid, dealing with content scraping, and receiving a surprise supportive call from Steve Jobs. | |
| Public CEO Leadership, Managing Criticism, and Attributing Luck | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Stoppelman reflects on handling public criticism, scaling into a public company executive, and candidly attributing 60 percent of his success to luck and timing. | |
| How You Built That: Dr. Liz Bales and the Indoor Cat Feeder | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Standard 'How You Built That' interview with Dr. Liz Bales, sharing the development, Kickstarter funding, and distribution of her indoor cat hunting feeder. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Elon Musk pitched taking down Visa and MasterCard in 1999
“He was gonna, he's, you know, said right out of the gate, oh, we're gonna take down Visa and MasterCard.”
Early PayPal operated solely as a money transfer service, not a bank
“PayPal was doing something very similar. The only difference is they weren't running a bank. They were just kind of a money transfer service.”
Only top executives were obvious future stars at early PayPal
“I don't think you could have really predicted it. Obviously, Max was already pretty far along for a 24 year old, so it was obvious, you know, he was gonna be someone interesting in the industry, you know, Peter Thiel, same thing. So, you know, I'd say the top …”
Stoppelman would have joined SpaceX if Elon Musk replied sooner
“And it's kind of a funny question of what would have happened if Elon had responded faster. I probably would have gone to SpaceX just because, I don't know, hedge fund versus rocket ship company. I might be tempted by the rocket ship company for the summer.”
Max Levchin invested $1M for 40% equity to start Yelp
“So Max committed the million dollars. He got a large chunk of equity. I think it was 40%.”
Max Levchin's incubator launched four projects with a 50% hit rate
“I mean, he had essentially three or four, I think it might have been four as the total count in the incubator. You know, of those two, two really worked out, and then two did not.”
Yelp succeeded because post-crash 2004 had few competing internet startups
“That was part of why I think we ultimately were successful, is there were just so few people working on new internet ideas in 2003, 2004, around that time period.”
Yelp bought its domain name for $5,000 from a squatter
“And then it also turned out that you could buy it for 5000 dollars right there just by putting in your credit card like a domain squatter. Owned it and had put up a page saying it's for sale.”
VCs in 2004 demanded Yelp replace its young founders with seasoned executives
“So in our case, we're young, we're technical, and so we look kind of like what happened in the late nineties, and so everyone still had PTSD from the dot-com bust, And so one of the common refrains to me was, you know, and this is straight to my face, was like…”
Stoppelman: Writing online reviews functions as self-expression like blogging
“The idea shifted from, hey, the only way that we're going to get reviews is if you're asked a question, to, hey, maybe reviews are a form of self-expression. You know, just like someone writes a blog for fun to talk about what's going on in their life, or what…”
Yelp's early adopters were urban culture seekers, not techies
“I assumed that the first users of Yelp would be tech early adopters. You know, in my mind, we're a technology site. But I would actually say the early users of Yelp were urban early adopters. Like, they're looking for what's new and cool and interesting in the…”
Stoppelman: Founders only become serial entrepreneurs when previous companies fail
“I remember a guy who was branded as serial entrepreneur told me, I'm only a serial entrepreneur because it hasn't worked out. Nobody wants to be a serial entrepreneur.”
Yelp had a native app ready on day one of the App Store
“So we actually had a, an app ready to go day one when the app store opened.”
Google licensing clash led directly to Yelp acquisition talks
“We started by licensing our content to them in a way that we thought was reasonable, and then over time, it became clear that they really wanted to compete with us directly and collect information. Reviews themselves. And so then they said to us, well, we're g…”
Steve Jobs called Stoppelman urging Yelp not to sell to Google
“You know, he said, don't sell to Google. We think you're a great company. We think what you're doing is really interesting. He didn't say, oh, well, Apple, you know, is interested in you, but he did say, is this about money? Because Apple has a lot of money, a…”