Jim McKelvey

Jim McKelvey is an inventor, entrepreneur, artist, author and licensed pilot. While perhaps best known for co-founding Square, one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups, McKelvey is, in some circles, better known as a master glass artist and author, having written the world’s most widely read text on the subject, The Art Of Fire.

His most famous venture, Square, is changing payments. His latest venture, LaunchCode, is making it possible for anyone to learn programming and land a full-time job in under six months–for free.

A 1987 Washington University Economics and Computer Science graduate, McKelvey will discuss founding successful companies in payments, education, scientific publishing, construction, printing, glassblowing and software. Each business is founded upon a simple idea and run by people committed to that idea. Jim has never sold any of his companies and as a result now oversees a diverse portfolio of businesses. Referencing personal experiences and local challenges, McKelvey offers a fresh, Silicon Valley-approach to problem solving.

McKelvey is founder of Third Degree Glass Factory, one of the nation’s main centers of glassblowing arts. His own trademark hand-blown glass faucets can be seen in homes from Abu Dhabi to Mill Valley. McKelvey also founded Mira Digital Publishing, an early digital technology startup, where he gave a young programmer an internship and a place to hone his tech skills. That programmer, Jack Dorsey, went on to create Twitter and partner again with McKelvey in the development of the Square Payments Platform.

Jim is the author of three textbooks, two on computer programming and one on glassblowing. He teaches at Washington University in St. Louis and lectures internationally on art and entrepreneurship.

McKelvey, and his wife, Anna (a programmer and attorney), have a four-year-old son.

Speaking Topics

• The Outdated Ritual of Asking for Permission 
  What’s stopping you from doing what you would like to do? We no longer need to ask anybody permission to do anything. The tools that exist today thanks to the Internet allow you to get started by ourselves and to learn as we go along, at our own pace.
• The Role of Focus in Solving a Problem 
  Jim noticed a very talented artist who was living in his beat up car and wondered why. He was a talented artist who could be getting paid well for his work. Why wasn’t he? Jim realized the artist had no access to the systems that paid him. As he built Square, Jim always kept this one artist in mind and thought about how he was solving this one artist’s problem.
• Go Build Something 
  Getting out there and trying to build is one of the best ways to get started on learning technology skills. You don’t have to quit your job. See if your employer has time set aside for personal learning. Join a hack-a-thon and start tinkering. Just try building something.