Ed Catmull, Co-founder of Pixar

June 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Ed Catmull spent decades building Pixar into one of the most creatively successful companies in history. But when Toy Story was finally released and became a smash hit, he did not feel triumphant. He felt lost. The goal he had pursued for twenty years was achieved, and he suddenly had no clear next mission. That personal crisis forced him to think deeply about what makes a creative organization sustainable, and the result was a set of principles about candor, team dynamics, and the relationship between technology and art that he spent the rest of his career refining.

The brain trust and the problem with power

The most famous mechanism Catmull created was the "brain trust," a group of directors and writers who would give brutally honest feedback on each other's films. The key insight was that the discussion had to be about the problem, not about who was right. The director presenting a work-in-progress already knew it was broken—they were vulnerable. The brain trust's job was to solve the film, not to protect egos.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:09) **Ed Catmull’s Core Insight: The Brain Trust vs. Steve Jobs’ Approach** - Catmull explains the Brain Trust as a mechanism for honest feedback, contrasting it with leaders who only hear what they want.
2 (04:28) **The Mechanism of the Brain Trust: Creating a Safe Space for Vulnerability** - Catmull details the psychology of the Brain Trust, where the discussion is about the problem, not who is right.
3 (06:54) **The Origin of the Brain Trust: Replacing an "Outside Force"** - Catmull explains the Brain Trust was created to replace the outside perspective they lost when Disney’s Tom Schumacher left.
4 (10:19) **Why Steve Jobs Was Banned from the Brain Trust** - Jobs was excluded because his powerful presence would derail the delicate dynamics required for honest feedback.
5 (14:55) **The Steve Jobs Effect: Why His Notes Broke Through** - Jobs often said the same things as others, but his clarity and force made the feedback land when others' didn't.
6 (17:49) **The Job of the Leader: Observing and Managing Dynamics** - Catmull defines his role as ensuring the team works well together, not making the movies himself.
7 (23:11) **Betting the Company: The Logic Behind the Toy Story IPO** - Catmull recounts Steve Jobs’ plan to take Pixar public the same week as Toy Story’s release.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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

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 Po