John Levisay: "Johnny99”
This Week's Guest: John Levisay
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
If your cool uncle or old college friend were to give you straight-up advice on founding a company, selling a company, and managing teams so that they can be as creative and courageous as possible, this episode would be his account.
John Levisay is the founder and CEO of Bluprint, formerly Craftsy, where people can access classes in dozens of crafts taught by creative professionals. Because, as John says, “There's something profoundly fulfilling about being on a creative journey.” And being on a creative journey is just how he views his own career, which began at GE and eBay and is now settled in Denver at Bluprint.
John gives some much-needed perspective on why we can go ahead and look outside of Silicon Valley for promising start-ups and brilliant ideas. And as someone who has run a company for nearly a decade, he puts on his founder hat and reminds us how to get the most out of our work efforts—from ourselves and our teams.
LINKS AND ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Melinda’s book that she read in preparation for interviewing with eBay: The Perfect Store: Inside eBay by Adam Cohen
More About Our Guest
Founder and CEO of Bluprint (formerly Craftsy)
John as lead singer in “Negative Feedback,” eBay’s corporate band that won the Fortune Magazine Corporate Battle of the Bands in 2004.
John oversaw Craftsy’s growth from 4 employees to over 250 employees, and raised $90M in venture capital. In 2017, Craftsy sold to Comcast/NBCU. John has remained on at NBCU and still runs Bluprint.
Prior to Founding Craftsy in 2010, John held executive roles at eBay and servicemagic.com. He joined eBay in 1999, as head of Strategy & BD for eBay Motors, helping grow it into a $14 billion a year global business. John later ran the various categories on eBay and served as CEO of Kruse International, a 100-employee subsidiary of eBay Motors.
At ServiceMagic, now Home Adviser, John was instrumental in the strategy and implementation of a marketplace strategy for home service professionals that helped set the stage for the growth that resulted in the eventual merger with Angie’s List and recent IPO.
Prior to eBay, John spent 6 years at General Electric, graduating from GE’s Financial Management program and Corporate Audit Staff. John received his MBA from The University of Michigan and his BA from Colgate University, where he double-majored in History and English.
John is married and has two children, Karen (11) and Thomas (7). His wife, Dr. Catherine Levisay, is a Neuropsychologist and a writer. John is a musician, avid reader, and fan of movies, TV, and live music.
