Last week I listened to the audiobook Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration written by Ed Catmull, one of the founders of Pixar.
Some thoughts and things I learned >>
Some thoughts and things I learned >>
2) I was excited to dig into this one, because I had previously listened to Bob Iger's audiobook which talked a fair bit about the acquisition of Pixar and the integration.
https://twitter.com/dunkhippo33/status/1478261606018473984?s=20
3) Let's dig in.
Ed Catmull had an engr background & had wanted to be an animator. He says his art skills were not good, so he was unable to become a Disney animator.
Disney offered him a job in Imagineering (which many incl myself would've loved) but he turned it down.
Ed Catmull had an engr background & had wanted to be an animator. He says his art skills were not good, so he was unable to become a Disney animator.
Disney offered him a job in Imagineering (which many incl myself would've loved) but he turned it down.
4) With his CS chops, after his PhD, he set out to become an animator via computer graphics and he set up a computer graphics studio to attempt animation. A rich benefactor funded all of this research.
5) Eventually he found a job at Lucasfilm to do the same thing. But George Lucas eventually had to make budget cuts and decided CG animation wasn't a priority so he shopped that dept around looking for a buyer.
6) No banker or VC was interested in buying this studio.
Except eventually Steve Jobs personally took an interest in this. He paid Lucasfilm $5m for the rights and injected $5m into Pixar company to be spun out as an independent entity and he owned 70% of the business.
Except eventually Steve Jobs personally took an interest in this. He paid Lucasfilm $5m for the rights and injected $5m into Pixar company to be spun out as an independent entity and he owned 70% of the business.
7) Although this sounds like an amazing investment in retrospect, Pixar was floundering.
They were trying to sell hardware - machines that other ppl could use to make animations and then could later make their own movies.
But there was no product-market fit.
They were trying to sell hardware - machines that other ppl could use to make animations and then could later make their own movies.
But there was no product-market fit.
8) Eventually they signed a contract with Disney to make Toy Story.
As the release of Toy Story was approaching, Ed praises Steve Jobs for encouraging them to go IPO right after the movie launch.
As the release of Toy Story was approaching, Ed praises Steve Jobs for encouraging them to go IPO right after the movie launch.
9) Steve believed that the hype from the amazing movie would be beneficial to an IPO road show, and that would help them raise a lot of money so they could a) have more leverage in negotiations with Disney and b) have more buffer in such a capital intensive endeavor
10) In fact, beyond the initial $5m investment into the company, Steve had to inject a lot more capital into Pixar before Toy Story just to keep it alive.
That is amazing faith from an investor.
That is amazing faith from an investor.
11) Going IPO was the right business move, because they negotiated hard with Disney after Toy Story. Disney inevitably wanted to work with Pixar again, but this time Pixar could demand a lot more.
12) Despite this interesting history, a lot of the book talks about setting up company culture and learnings along the way.
Eventually, we all know that Disney later came back and bought Pixar & the book talks about culture, M&A, and leadership.
Eventually, we all know that Disney later came back and bought Pixar & the book talks about culture, M&A, and leadership.
13) Some interesting tidbits -- in doing Toy Story 2, the story wasn't quite right, and they only realized this once a lot of the movie had been created.
With that lesson, they create braintrust who would work with each movie to provide their critiques.
With that lesson, they create braintrust who would work with each movie to provide their critiques.
14) As such, Ed talks a lot about giving feedback. They train their people to embrace feedback and emphasize that feedback is about the product not about the person. This is obviously a hard thing to engrain in company culture but impt.
Every startup should do this too.
Every startup should do this too.
15) The braintrust at Pixar also doesn't offer solutions. They just provide feedback on how they feel about the work. It is up to the respective movie teams to fix it.
In some cases, fixes were very minor but in other cases, fixes could involve changing a story almost entirely.
In some cases, fixes were very minor but in other cases, fixes could involve changing a story almost entirely.
16) For Monsters Inc, for example, they changed the premise for why monsters scared ppl. They changed Boo several times from an older kid to an adult back to a little girl.
Stories could go through large changes.
Stories could go through large changes.
17) As such, their workflow is to have many storylines in the works because it's unclear if/when any of them will get to production.
18) For Toy Story 2, when they started over, they made their team give up their lives to make this movie so that it could make the release deadline.
After that, the braintrust became impt to create quicker / tighter feedback loops so they wouldn't have thrash in redoing a movie
After that, the braintrust became impt to create quicker / tighter feedback loops so they wouldn't have thrash in redoing a movie
19) Ed talks about how when he was tasked with helping Disney animation around (post-acquisition of Pixar), he realized that there were many things about their culture that had prevented them from creating stand out movies the last decade.
20) Disney animators were not rewarded for taking risk or speaking up unlike at Pixar where direct feedback from anyone was impt.
Ed didn't want to make Disney animation like Pixar, but that was an impt part to change so that Disney animation could come back.
Ed didn't want to make Disney animation like Pixar, but that was an impt part to change so that Disney animation could come back.
21) On the whole, the Pixar story is such a fun one for me. Great lessons in this book about:
-creating a culture of feedback and risk-taking
-mgmt lessons
-the Pixar-Disney story
-creating a culture of feedback and risk-taking
-mgmt lessons
-the Pixar-Disney story
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