Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

Book: "To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History" | Episode #182

·59 min·5 clips

When Steve Jobs first invested, Pixar was worth negative $50 million—a hole so deep its survival seemed impossible.

Daniel Scrivner hosts this solo episode analyzing Lawrence Levy's book 'To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History.' The episode focuses on the business and strategic challenges Pixar faced, contrasting with the well-known creative narrative. It begins by describing Pixar's dire financial state in 1994, when Steve Jobs had invested $50 million, yet the company was valued at negative $50 million. Scrivner explains Pixar's origins as a hardware and software company, highlighting the failure of the Pixar Image Computer and the pivot to animation. The core of the story revolves around the initial Disney contract, signed when Steve Jobs was in a weak position, which gave Disney 90% of profits and full creative control. Pixar's only path to survival was making Toy Story a blockbuster. The episode details Lawrence Levy's analysis of Pixar's business, including the challenges of 'carrying costs' for full-time animators between films. Scrivner outlines the four-pillar strategy developed by Levy and Jobs: quadrupling profit share, raising $75 million via IPO, increasing film release frequency, and building a global brand. The episode covers how Pixar accomplished these goals, including the successful IPO that raised $140 million and the 1997 renegotiation with Disney for a 50-50 profit share and co-branding. Scrivner delves into negotiation lessons from the book, emphasizing Steve Jobs' rejection of positional bargaining, the separation of leverage and tactics, and the importance of timing. The episode concludes with Pixar's acquisition by Disney for $7.4 billion, which first made Steve Jobs a billionaire. Throughout, Scrivner draws parallels between Pixar and Walt Disney's early struggles, noting both were technology pioneers in animation.

As heard by us

A clear business-focused look at how Pixar's creative ambition met capital pressure and carrying costs.

Lawrence Levy's account of Pixar recasts a familiar creative legend as a business story about survival, timing, and pressure. The episode follows the company from late 1994, after it had burned through almost $50 million of Steve Jobs' money and carried a negative $50 million…

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Why you'd press play

Want the business story behind Pixar's climb from negative $50 million on paper to its 2006 Disney sale?

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