Building Pixar, Working With Steve Jobs, and Cultivating Creativity | Ed Catmull

Ed Catmull is the co-founder of Pixar and the former president of Disney Animation. He grew up in 1950s Utah wanting to animate for Disney. Convinced he couldn't draw well enough, he studied physics and computer science at the University of Utah instead, landing in one of the great talent incubators in computing history. In 1972, he animated his own left hand—one of the first 3D computer renderings ever made. Since childhood he had carried a single ambition: to make the first feature film animated entirely by computer. Reaching it took more than 20 years. George Lucas hired Catmull in 1979 to build a computer division at Lucasfilm. When Lucas needed cash, Steve Jobs bought that division in 1986 for $5 million and spun it out as Pixar. For years it sold imaging computers and lost money while Catmull and John Lasseter made short films to keep the dream alive. Jobs sank roughly $50 million of his own money into it. In 1995, Pixar released Toy Story, the first feature animated entirely by computer, and went public days later. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, and Up followed. Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion and put Catmull in charge of both studios; he revived a faltering Disney Animation with films like Frozen. Catmull cared about the conditions that let creative work survive its own fragility. Every original idea, he argues, starts out ugly and broken, and management exists to protect it long enough to get good. At Pixar that meant the Braintrust: a room where directors got blunt feedback with no authority attached and the conversation stayed on the problem, never on who was right. He laid it all out in Creativity, Inc. Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/ed-catmull Made possible by Ramp: ⁠https://ramp.com AppLovin: https://axon.ai/senra Deel: https://deel.com/senra Follow David Senra X: https://x.com/davidsenra Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidsenra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsenra Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/senrashow Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidsenra Spotify: https://spti.fi/TVrr557 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4msoZtb Website: https://www.davidsenra.com Chapters 00:00:00 Most Companies Are Full Of Shit 00:04:28 The Brain Trust Mechanism 00:10:13 Why Steve Jobs Was Banned From The Braintrust 00:17:48 Your Job Is To Manage The Dynamics 00:23:27 Betting The Company On Toy Story 00:24:35 Engineering Eisner's Worst Nightmare 00:36:51 Bob Iger's Crappy Hand 00:38:44 Why Disney Never Asked What Pixar Was Doing 00:43:48 Take The Hard Problem 00:44:38 The Director Can't Lose The Team 00:48:48 Quality Is The Best Business Plan 00:52:32 What Walt Disney Taught Him 00:59:25 George Lucas And The Motion Blur Problem 01:08:48 Now What's The Point Of My Life 01:13:31 How Much Of This Was Me 01:16:10 George Lucas Wanted The Whole Industry Healthy 01:25:11 Refusing To Let Anyone Feel Second Class 01:32:38 The Truck In The Building #davidsenra #pixar

David SenrahostEd Catmullguest

Jun 14, 20261h 34mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: June 14, 2026
Duration: 1h 34m
Channel: David Senra
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Ed Catmull is the co-founder of Pixar and the former president of Disney Animation. He grew up in 1950s Utah wanting to animate for Disney. Convinced he couldn't draw well enough, he studied physics and computer science at the University of Utah instead, landing in one of the great talent incubators in computing history. In 1972, he animated his own left hand—one of the first 3D computer renderings ever made. Since childhood he had carried a single ambition: to make the first feature film animated entirely by computer. Reaching it took more than 20 years. George Lucas hired Catmull in 1979 to build a computer division at Lucasfilm. When Lucas needed cash, Steve Jobs bought that division in 1986 for $5 million and spun it out as Pixar. For years it sold imaging computers and lost money while Catmull and John Lasseter made short films to keep the dream alive. Jobs sank roughly $50 million of his own money into it. In 1995, Pixar released Toy Story, the first feature animated entirely by computer, and went public days later. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, and Up followed. Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion and put Catmull in charge of both studios; he revived a faltering Disney Animation with films like Frozen. Catmull cared about the conditions that let creative work survive its own fragility. Every original idea, he argues, starts out ugly and broken, and management exists to protect it long enough to get good. At Pixar that meant the Braintrust: a room where directors got blunt feedback with no authority attached and the conversation stayed on the problem, never on who was right. He laid it all out in Creativity, Inc. Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/ed-catmull Made possible by Ramp: ⁠https://ramp.com AppLovin: https://axon.ai/senra Deel: https://deel.com/senra Follow David Senra X: https://x.com/davidsenra Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidsenra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsenra Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/senrashow Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidsenra Spotify: https://spti.fi/TVrr557 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4msoZtb Website: https://www.davidsenra.com Chapters 00:00:00 Most Companies Are Full Of Shit 00:04:28 The Brain Trust Mechanism 00:10:13 Why Steve Jobs Was Banned From The Braintrust 00:17:48 Your Job Is To Manage The Dynamics 00:23:27 Betting The Company On Toy Story 00:24:35 Engineering Eisner's Worst Nightmare 00:36:51 Bob Iger's Crappy Hand 00:38:44 Why Disney Never Asked What Pixar Was Doing 00:43:48 Take The Hard Problem 00:44:38 The Director Can't Lose The Team 00:48:48 Quality Is The Best Business Plan 00:52:32 What Walt Disney Taught Him 00:59:25 George Lucas And The Motion Blur Problem 01:08:48 Now What's The Point Of My Life 01:13:31 How Much Of This Was Me 01:16:10 George Lucas Wanted The Whole Industry Healthy 01:25:11 Refusing To Let Anyone Feel Second Class 01:32:38 The Truck In The Building #davidsenra #pixar

SPEAKERS

David Senra
host
Host of the podcast Founders, interviewing notable founders and creators.
Ed Catmull
guest
Co-founder of Pixar and former president of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of David Senra, featuring David Senra and Ed Catmull, Building Pixar, Working With Steve Jobs, and Cultivating Creativity | Ed Catmull explores ed Catmull on Pixar culture, Steve Jobs, and creative truth-seeking Catmull argues most companies only perform “truth-seeking” and explains how Pixar’s Braintrust built real candor by designing meeting dynamics that reduce politics and ego.

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