We need to sharpen the brain to make the most of the time we have and a simple quote can change the year. Here are 400 unique quotes from successful entrepreneurs that will focus your mind.
Also read: 25 companies show you their best SaaS pricing models as examples
When was the last time you woke up and said “today I’m going to buy some software/consulting/services/apps/etc?”.
Seriously, when was it?
No One Gives A Sh*t About Your Product.
They want to buy a specific RESULT your product gives them.
Spanx sells undergarments, but is in the RESULTS business of helping women appear slimmer immediately, without having to lose weight.
BeachBody sells workout programs, but is in the RESULTS business of helping you get in shape without having to leave your house.
— Mitchell Harper, Founder of BigCommerce
I know most people are looking for our “one top tip” or the magical “hack” that got us customers, there really isn’t any one thing. We grew email by email, Skype by Skype, webinar by webinar, and looking back I can’t distill it down to any one thing.
— Des Traynor, Co-founder Intercom, link
Products tend to succeed thanks to a single core use case that really mattered to users
— Othman Laraki, Co-founded Mixer Labs link
Keep track of how many times you say ‘if’ when you explain how you’ll be successful
— Othman Laraki, Co-founded Mixer Labs link
I’ll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup’s success or failure
— Marc Andreessen, Co-founded Netscape, VC link
Each time I have built a team, personal traits — not professional skills — have been what propelled the company forward
— David Cancel, Founded Compete link
The single best decision we ever made was to make customer service everyone’s job
— David Cancel, Founded Compete
People not caring enough about your product is your true competition, not some other startup
— David Cancel, Founded Compete link
Warning signs that your product sucks: “I’m really busy right now but I’ll start using your app soon.”
— David Cancel, Founded Compete
The startup “valley of death” lies in between startup success and startup failure and it’s the worst place to get stuck
— David Cancel, Founded Compete
The four most powerful words coming from a new hire are: “I’ll figure it out.”
— David Cancel, Founded Compete link
The second biggest cause of startup failure: the cost of acquiring customers
— David Skok, Serial entrepreneur, VC link
In the startup world, if your primary focus is on making money, you usually won’t make money
— David Skok, Serial entrepreneur, VC link
The most important factor to increasing growth is not the Viral Coefficient, but the Viral Cycle Time
— David Skok, Serial entrepreneur, VC link
Let’s drop the farce, ok? Even when you had to work eighty hours, you didn’t, really
— Naval, Founder & CEO, AngelList link
Keep the team small. All doers, no talkers. Absolutely no middle managers
— Naval, Founder & CEO, AngelList link
There isn’t a shortage of developers and designers. There’s a surplus of founders
— Naval, Founder & CEO, AngelList link
No, people aren’t getting any smarter or harder-working. But the amount of leverage is obscene
— Naval, Founder & CEO, AngelList link
All sorts of businesses are being built by violating assumptions about the privacy of data
— Naval, Founder & CEO, AngelList link
The 5 main qualities of an ‘exceptional startup’. 1. Traction
— Naval, Founder & CEO, AngelList link
You just have to throw away much of your guilt and self-doubt
— Erica Douglass, Serial Entrepreneur link
You can’t “success” your way out of comparing yourself to others
— Erica Douglass, Serial Entrepreneur link
Too many entrepreneurs go after tiny markets and then charge too little to really make a difference
— Erica Douglass, Serial Entrepreneur link
When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance
— Bob Parsons, Founder, GoDaddy link
Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, follow paths without making their own
— Derek Sivers, Founder, CD Baby
You can’t please everyone, so proudly exclude people
— Derek Sivers, Founder, CD Baby link
If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, then say no
— Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby link
Smart people don’t think others are stupid
— Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby link
Shut up! Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them
— Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby link
I’m (almost) always encouraged when I hear people complain about the service, because it means that people care
— Daniel Ek, Co-founder, Spotify link
Avoid letting raising money distract you from what really matters — building a great product and delighting your users
— Ian Hogarth, Co-founder, SongKick link
Forget startup orthodoxy. Just do it! Practical action is the antidote to anxieties about your skills deficiencies
— Michelle You, Co-founder, SongKick link
Our overnight success took 1000 days
— Brian Chesky, Co-founder, Airbnb
One reason you need resilience in a startup is that you are going to get rejected a lot
— Jessica Livingstone, FoundersAtWork link
This is one of the biggest things the rest of the world doesn’t understand about hackers. They simply enjoy building things
— Jessica Livingstone, FoundersAtWork link
The only products we make at Evernote, we make for ourselves. We are the customers.
— Phil Libin, Founder & CEO, Evernote link
Everyone else is your boss — all of your employees, customers, partners, users, media are your boss.
— Phil Libin, Founder & CEO, Evernote link
Observe the world around you — everything you do, and especially everything you hate to do
— Aaron Patzer, Founder, Mint.com link
I’m not that good at changing the world through art, and should stick to what I know: science.
— Max Levchin, Co-founded Paypal link
The path forward for me is to seek that balance of hard, valuable and fun in every project I start
— Max Levchin, Co-founded Paypal link
If you aren’t willing to take a shot by going full time it tells investors you aren’t confident enough in the idea or in yourself
— Mark Suster, Entrepreneur, VC link
Entrepreneurs don’t “noodle,” they “do.” This is what separates entrepreneurs from big executives, consultants and investors
— Mark Suster, Entrepreneur, VC link
Your founding team should never have more than 2 people total (including you)
— Mark Suster, Entrepreneur, VC link
The degree to which a company can utilize habit-forming technologies will increasingly decide which products succeed
— Nir eyal, Writer, TC, Forbes, NirandFar link
People ask me who inspires me. I have been inspired in my work by stuff that people make
— Caterina Fake, Co-founded Flickr, Hunch link
The best time to start a company is always two years ago, and the next best time is now
— Caterina Fake, Co-founded Flickr, Hunch link
Ask yourself the question: what do you wish someone would make for you?
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
Determination. This has turned out to be the most important quality in startup founders
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
You need persistence because everything takes longer than you expect
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
To make a startup recession-proof is to do exactly what you should do anyway: run it as cheaply as possible
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
You can only avoid competition by avoiding good ideas.
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
Founders are more motivated by the fear of looking bad than by the hope of getting millions of dollars
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
I noticed a pattern in the least successful startups we’d funded: they all seemed hard to talk to
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
The people who started using it used it the way we had hoped. I think those few people kept Pinterest going
— Ben Silbermann, Co-founder, Pinterest link
The few people who used it, myself among them, really loved it. Instead of changing it, we’d find more people like me
— Ben Silbermann, Co-founder, Pinterest link
A modern productive worker is someone who does a great job in figuring out what to do next
— Seth Godin, Entrepreneur, Author link
Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. Persistence is having the same goal over and over.
— Seth Godin, Entrepreneur, Author link
You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones
— Seth Godin, Entrepreneur, Author link
The more aggressively you redefine the problem, the more likely it is you’re going to solve it
— Seth Godin, Entrepreneur, Author link
This is not checkers; this is mutherfuckin’ chess — Technology businesses tend to be extremely complex
— Ben Horowitz, Entrepreneur, VC link
CEOs often either: 1. take things too personally 2. Do not take things personally enough
— Ben Horowitz, Entrepreneur, VC link
It generally takes years for a founder to develop the CEO skill set
— Ben Horowitz, Entrepreneur, VC link
My single biggest personal improvement as CEO occurred on the day when I stopped being too positive
— Ben Horowitz, Entrepreneur, VC link
Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven
— Fred Wilson, VC, Union Square link
Ideas that most people derided as ridiculous have produced the best outcomes. Don’t do the obvious thing
— Fred Wilson, VC, Union Square link
I’d rather have conviction and be wrong than have doubts and be right
— Fred Wilson, VC, Union Square link
“Fail!” is the cry of someone who doesn’t create, doesn’t ship, doesn’t launch, who doesn’t make things
— Anil Dash, Serial Entrepreneur, Writer link
Sometimes if you do something very difficult, and you do it really well, the end result is that your achievement becomes completely invisible
— Anil Dash, Serial Entrepreneur, Writer link
When you operate believing you’re the best person, or the only person to do specific task, you undermine the confidence of your employees
— Mike Michalowicz, CEO, Provendus link
Under Promise, Over Deliver
— Mike Michalowicz, CEO, Provendus link
Startups are not about working on a great idea — they are the relentless pursuit of doing stuff for customers
— Elad Gil, Co-founded MIxer Labs link
4 Ways Startups Fail. 1. Run out of money
— Elad Gil, Co-founded MIxer Labs link
If your startup needs multiple miracles to succeed, you need to go back to the drawing board
— Elad Gil, Co-founded MIxer Labs link
Avoiding perpetual “try not to die mode” is the only way to rediscover the ambition and drive to shoot really big
— Elad Gil, Co-founded MIxer Labs link
Many startups fail because the founding team thinks ‘too big’ from day one
— Elad Gil, Co-founded MIxer Labs link
A key job of the founder is to identify the single binding constraint for the startup at any given time
— Albert Wenger, VC, Entrepreneur link
Offense is the best defense for startups… As a startup you don’t really have anything to defend yet
— Albert Wenger, VC, Entrepreneur link
As soon as your new startup has some actual end users a fear of changes sets in
— Albert Wenger, VC, Entrepreneur link
First-time entrepreneurs often fail to realize that when you build something new, no one will care
— Chris Dixon, Entrepreneur, Investor link
There’s great stuff between failure and Facebook
— Chris Dixon, Entrepreneur, Investor link
The next big thing always starts out being dismissed as a ‘toy’
— Chris Dixon, Entrepreneur, Investor link
Startups are primarly competing against indifference, lack of awareness, and lack of understanding — not other startups
— Chris Dixon, Entrepreneur, Investor link
Everyone should have vesting. If you have a lawyer who tells you otherwise, get a new lawyer
— Chris Dixon, Entrepreneur, Investor link
You must confirm the marketing ahead of time: blogs, twitterers, ad buys, etc… Don’t leave it up to chance.
— Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo, AppSumo link
Instant Value. This is easily the most important thing.
— Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo, AppSumo link
You should always try to have at least six people interview each candidate that gets hired
— Joel, Co-founder, Fog Creek link
A new business is like a shortwave radio. You have to fiddle patiently with all the dials until you get the reception you want
— Joel, Co-founder, Fog Creek link
Single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make: Re-write from scratch
— Joel, Co-founder, Fog Creek link
Customers Don’t Know What They Want. Stop Expecting Customers to Know What They Want.
— Joel, Co-founder, Fog Creek link
Surprisingly few companies take the basic step of attempting to learn about their customers
— Eric Ries, Lean Startup Legend link
In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself
— Eric Ries, Lean Startup Legend link
Vanity metrics: numbers that give the illusion of progress but often mask the true relationship between cause and effect
— Eric Ries, Lean Startup Legend link
The difference between companies that fail and those that succeed is “the ability to defer gratification.”
— Marc Andreessen, VC, Co-founded Netscape link
Entrepreneurs measure progress by “accomplishing their goals”
— Steve Blank, Mr.Customer Development link
The founders that make a dent in the universe are dissidents. They are not afraid to tell their bosses they are idiots
— Steve Blank, Mr.Customer Development link
A Pivot should not be an excuse for a lack of a coherent strategy or a lack of impulse control
— Steve Blank, Mr.Customer Development link
Does anybody really care, or are they giving you polite nods and little more
— Steve Blank, Mr.Customer Development link
For startups, the product is the entire startup, not just the product that’s sold
— David Cummings, CEO of Pardot link
If you build it and users come and say “this is great!” almost from day one, then the idea is good
— James Altucher, Investor, Entrepreneur link
The most common startup mistake is being afraid to make mistakes
— James Altucher, Investor, Entrepreneur link
To sell your company, start getting in front of your acquirers a year in advance
— James Altucher, Investor, Entrepreneur link
Don’t buy into the 20 hours a day entrepreneur myth. You need to sleep 8 hours a day to have a focused mind
— James Altucher, Investor, Entrepreneur link
The MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Have a customer before you start your business
— James Altucher, Investor, Entrepreneur link
One trend I noticed between successful startups and failures, is that the failures made a lot of marketing mistakes
— Neil Patel , Co-founder Kissmetrics link
Show passion, not perfection
— Neil Patel , Co-founder Kissmetrics link
Not one of the successful entrepreneurs I know started as an expert
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
Features, messaging, the path to customers, your competitive edge, your pricing model — all this gets figured out as you go
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
The fallacy is that you’re searching for a theory in a pile of data, rather than forming a theory and running an experiment
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
It’s not your purpose to “beat” another company. It’s your purpose to define yourself on your own terms
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
Impostor syndrome: 40% of successful people consider themselves frauds
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
Do you want to be different from 99% of other companies? Be honest. Be genuine
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
Even a $500 million market is too small for a mega-corporation to attack
— Jason Cohen, Founder, WP, Smart Bear link
If you don’t have passion for your code/product/startup everyone will know
— Rob Walling, Serial solo entrepreneur link
Your market is most likely not the people who read Digg. Nor the people who read TechCrunch
— Rob Walling, Serial solo entrepreneur link
How do we make our customers smile? Every single decision we make comes down to that
— Jason Goldberg, Co-founder, Fab link
Mature, but don’t grow up
— Jason Goldberg, Co-founder, Fab link
People will do great things for you because they want to, not because they have to
— Jason Goldberg, Co-founder, Fab link
The CEO of a startup must, must, must be the product manager. He/she must own the functional user experience
— Jason Goldberg, Co-founder, Fab link
Be technical. You don’t have to write code but you do have to understand how it is built and how it works
— Jason Goldberg, Co-founder, Fab link
Customers cannot tell you what they need
— Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop link
Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence
— Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop link
Experts — journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers, and gurus can’t “do” so they “advise.”
— Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop link
Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs: 1. “Our projections are conservative.”
— Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop link
Innovation — the internet and digital kind — are rarely the result of the work of a task force
— Rex Hammock, CEO, Hammock link
“kick your own ass” before someone else does
— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur link
What a bunch of BS. ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get
— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur link
Every no gets me closer to a yes
— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur link
If someone else makes their product easier to buy or use than you, that is when you lose customers the fastest
— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur link
There are no shortcuts. NONE
— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur link
In a recession, the use of Facebook, Linked In, eCommerce, blogs will increase
— George Colony, CEO, Forrester Research link
Until you have 10,000 folks a day coming directly to your domain name, you’re not a brand
— Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur, Investor link
If this was Hollywood, the folks who pay to present to investors are ugly, unpopular and lack talent
— Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur, Investor link
Go to each of your vendors every 6–9 months and ask for 10–30% off
— Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur, Investor link
You don’t need a PR firm, you don’t need an in-house PR person and you don’t need to spend ANY money to get amazing PR
— Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur, Investor link
Buy second monitors for everyone, they will save at least 30 minutes a day, which is 100 hours a year
— Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur, Investor link
if you’re not hearing no a lot (from people or the market) you’re not trying hard enough
— Gabriel Weinberg, Founder DuckDuckGo link
Mentors are there to call you on all your bullshit
— Gabriel Weinberg, Founder DuckDuckGo link
An ambitious startup idea with just a little bit of traction attracts all the right body parts
— Gabriel Weinberg, Founder DuckDuckGo link
5 startup Traction mistakes: 1. They don’t pursue traction in parallel with product development
— Gabriel Weinberg, Founder DuckDuckGo link
We’re not competing for attention but for memory
— Gabriel Weinberg, Founder DuckDuckGo link
At Balsamiq, we don’t have deadlines. Ever.
— Peldi, Founder & CEO, Balsamiq link
song: “Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching”
— Peldi, Founder & CEO, Balsamiq link
The middle stage between startup and established business is the hardest in an organization’s growth
— Alex Payne, Programmer, Writer, Investor link
The reason a person is critical of a thing is because he is passionate about that thing
— Alex Payne, Programmer, Writer, Investor link
We chase patterns that aren’t there and miss eager markets right in front of us
— Alex Payne, Programmer, Writer, Investor link
The team should own the vision and direction for the part of your product that it works on
— Adam Wiggins, Co-founder, Heroku link
Listen to your customers, but don’t let them tell you what to do
— Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub Co-founder link
When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say “wow, that was an adventure,” not “wow, I sure felt safe.”
— Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub Co-founder link
Truly good decisions are forged from the furnace of argument
— Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub Co-founder link
99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns
— Gary Vaynerchuck, Entrepreneur link
People are the people that can help you. Be completely transparent
— Gary Vaynerchuck, Entrepreneur link
I encourage you to reconsider the word “user” and what you call the people who love what you’ve created
— Jack Dorsey, Twitter creator link
Our single greatest innovation however, was recognizing that they (people) could do a better job innovating than us
— Jack Dorsey, Twitter creator link
I started eBay as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job,
— Pierre Omidyar, Founder, Ebay link
Once people are connected… they’re discovering that they can contribute to a community, which is an empowering experience
— Pierre Omidyar, Founder, Ebay link
Technology always changes, but people always stay the same
— Andrew Chen, Entrepreneur, Former VC link
When’s the last time you spoke to your target customer? If it’s been more than a month, then shame on you!
— Andrew Chen, Entrepreneur, Former VC link
You should give people valves to tell you “I hate this!” so that you can learn more faster
— Andrew Chen, Entrepreneur, Former VC link
You need a central design vision — there’s no way around that
— Andrew Chen, Entrepreneur, Former VC link
When you have a small dataset and lots of variables, you can’t predict shit
— Andrew Chen, Entrepreneur, Former VC link
Business models are a commodity now, so “how will they make money?” isn’t an interesting question
— Andrew Chen, Entrepreneur, Former VC link
Users aren’t customers, and brand doesn’t equal sales
— Erin Bury, Managing Editor, BetaKit link
Suggestions on Interacting with VCs: 1. Be human; be yourself
— John Lilly, Former Mozilla CEO, VC link
Data: It’s what turns designers from artists into the most important decision makers in a company
— John Lilly, Former Mozilla CEO, VC link
That’s the biggest message from Jobs’ life. Don’t try to be like Steve. Don’t try to be like anyone
— John Lilly, Former Mozilla CEO, VC link
Being a good leader: People I’ve worked with know that I really want to help them win
— John Lilly, Former Mozilla CEO, VC link
Our most successful companies are led by entrepreneurs who have a unique talent — they are heat seeking missiles
— Josh Kopelman, Entrepreneur, VC link
There is a huge burden to getting a consumer to pay anything — and entrepreneurs underestimate the level of effort
— Josh Kopelman, Entrepreneur, VC link
Business plan: The moment an entrepreneur hits “save” or “print” the plan is out of date
— Josh Kopelman, Entrepreneur, VC link
Deliver different messages to different users based on where they are in their lifecycle
— Josh Kopelman, Entrepreneur, VC link
A company’s risk-tolerance level is set by a leader’s reaction to failure
— Josh Kopelman, Entrepreneur, VC link
Your friends and family won’t understand what you do
— Jason Baptiste, CEO, Onswipe link
Your long term vision and the path that gets you there cannot be stolen
— Jason Baptiste, CEO, Onswipe link
If your goal has primarily monetary motivations, look at the unsexy
— Jason Baptiste, CEO, Onswipe link
DON’T BREAK WHEN BROKEN
— Jason Baptiste, CEO, Onswipe link
We did a lot of things that went against the DNA of our product
— Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg link
A lot of what we then considered “working hard” was actually “freaking out”
— Caterina Fake, Co-founded Flickr & Hunch link
Address bad news, develop methods to accelerate your personal recovery time, and then quickly take steps to right the ship
— Jordan Cooper, Entrepreneur, Investor link
In long term vision, metrics and heuristics cross the chasm from logical to spiritual
— Jordan Cooper, Entrepreneur, Investor link
Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity, second, motivation…
— Jay Meattle, Doer, Shareaholic link
Raising “too much” capital for an idea is poison
— Jay Meattle, Doer, Shareaholic link
When you are working on something that has to ship in two weeks, you realize how much stuff is trying to get your attention that isn’t a priority
— Brad Feld, MD, Foundry Group link
Have every employee do customer support for 2 weeks
— Brad Feld, MD, Foundry Group link
When you accept the complete and total unimportance of suffering, you can actually enjoy The Struggle
— Brad Feld, MD, Foundry Group link
People who get stuff done strive for “good enough.”
— Ben Casnocha, Entrepreneur, Author link
How to get useful feedback on your projects: Avoid Like/Dislike
— Ben Casnocha, Entrepreneur, Author link
Most eureka moments happen iteratively; that is, one small creative burst leads to another which leads to another
— Ben Casnocha, Entrepreneur, Author link
Probability of a deal ever closing declines by 10% each day it doesn’t close
— Mike Cassidy, Serial Entrepreneur link
Speed in hiring: Have an offer letter ready before interviewee arrives
— Mike Cassidy, Serial Entrepreneur link
“What did you do to build such a strong community on reddit?” We gave a damn
— Alexis Ohanian, Reddit link
You don’t find a technical cofounder, you earn one
— Jason Freedman, 42Floors link
Too many MBAs think that their education in business can be applied directly to startups
— Jason Freedman, 42Floors link
Figure out exactly what you need and just ask for it. Don’t play games, don’t posture, don’t hint
— Jason Freedman, 42Floors link
Be yourself. Abnormal people create abnormal returns
— Jason Freedman, 42Floors link
We don’t ever engage in some interview question process that has nothing to do with what it’s really like to work with us
— Jason Freedman, 42Floors link
Good Design = Elicits the Desired “Feeling/Motivation”
— Tony Wright, Entrepreneur, Designer link
Can you tell a story about the product that would make a blogger say, “Holy crap”
— Tony Wright, Entrepreneur, Designer link
Fabulous storytelling solves 75% of your PR problems
— Tony Wright, Entrepreneur, Designer link
The thing that can pull a team through these rough spots is belief in SOMETHING
— Tony Wright, Entrepreneur, Designer link
It doesn’t matter a damn bit what you’re saying, it matters what’s being heard
— Tony Wright, Entrepreneur, Designer link
Too few startups these days are genuinely solving super painful problems
— Ben Yoskovitz, Founded Standout Jobs link
A product manager is a CEO without all the “other crap” you have to deal with in running a business
— Ben Yoskovitz, Founded Standout Jobs link
Product Managers are “NO” people, not “YES” people
— Ben Yoskovitz, Founded Standout Jobs link
The Hustler learns the rules quickly — breaks those he needs to — and dances around those he shouldn’t
— Ben Yoskovitz, Founded Standout Jobs link
You learn more than you ever could, you can build an incredible network, and you’ll have radically new experiences
— Ben Yoskovitz, Founded Standout Jobs link
Technology seems simple if the design is great
— Don Dodge, Entrepreneur (AltaVista) link
Don’t pay crazy amounts of money for a domain name. Make your name mean something with good branding and marketing
— Don Dodge, Entrepreneur (AltaVista) link
Never start a business focused on solving a big company’s problem. They don’t know they have a problem
— Don Dodge, Entrepreneur (AltaVista) link
In big companies: Markets that don’t exist can’t be analyzed or justified
— Don Dodge, Entrepreneur (AltaVista) link
How can you get noticed? Don’t expect to tell the whole story, just enough to get them curious and wanting to know more
— Don Dodge, Entrepreneur (AltaVista) link
You’re not innovating if: You are always worrying about what other companies are doing
— Quintin Adamis, Entrepreneur, VC link
Cliche as it may sound, Knowledge is Power. It allows you to price your products how you like…
— Quintin Adamis, Entrepreneur, VC link
Customers are giving us hints. Repeated hints are patterns. Repeating patterns are preferences
— Robert Stephens, Founder, Geek Squad link
The publishing industry has been evolving the design of images and text for centuries. Tablet and touch allows it to come together
— Robert Stephens, Founder, Geek Squad link
Money is not the motivator of employees. Development, knowledge and passion is
— Manish Soni, Some random optician
A good idea is worthless without impeccable execution and a commitment to iterate
— Zach Klein, Co-founded Vimeo link
The first question a user has of your site: “Why should I care about this?”
— Bob Walsh, Entrepreneur, Writer link
It may not be in their job descriptions, but everyone in a startup should be selling
— Martin Zwilling, Startup Professionals link
First take the time to understand what drives you and why
— David Lerner, Entrepreneur, Investor link
There was something about the idea that I might have died in a grey train full of grey commuters, having not truly lived, that I could not stand
— Daniel Tenner, Co-founder, Woobius link
Don’t worry about age. Great entrepreneurs can get started at any age
— Daniel Tenner, Co-founder, Woobius link
We all have beliefs that are holding us back. Sometimes we’re aware of them, sometimes not
— Daniel Tenner, Co-founder, Woobius link
Unless you have something practical that you need to do, reading about startups, business, and so on, is a waste of time
— Daniel Tenner, Co-founder, Woobius link
Networking to find a cofounder is like going to a party to find a wife
— Daniel Tenner, Co-founder, Woobius link
I’ve personally made the mistake of trying to jump to “big” too soon many times before
— Joel Gascoigne, Founder, Buffer link
Disengaging is probably one of the most challenging aspects of running a startup
— Joel Gascoigne, Founder, Buffer link
Trust that you will learn everything you need to know
— Joel Gascoigne, Founder, Buffer link
Embrace feeling uncomfortable
— Joel Gascoigne, Founder, Buffer link
The only way to be able to work full-time on a startup was to build a product which generated revenue early
— Joel Gascoigne, Founder, Buffer link
How to start your startup in 4 steps. 1. Have an idea. 2. Cut it down
— Joel Gascoigne, Founder, Buffer link
The coffeeshop fallacy is a mismatch between the work one imagines to be involved in a pursuit and the actual day-to-day labour
— Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder, Dex.io link
Code is to tech startups what staff is to real-world service businesses. A big fixed cost that you want to delay
— Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder, Dex.io link
The riskiest part of the company is going to be what you, personally, as an individual, are worst at
— Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder, Dex.io link
Until you’ve passed a thousand signups, the CEO should be personally emailing every new user
— Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder, Dex.io link
Important doesn’t mean hard and striving isn’t progress
— Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder, Dex.io link
The top cause of startup death is trying to grow before the foundation is solid
— Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder, Dex.io link
If you are constantly looking at why something will fail you are going to go out of business pretty quickly
— David Alison, Entrepreneur, Blogger link
Nothing gets VCs to move faster than traction
— Mark MacLeod, Advisor, Seed investor link
You cannot (usually) raise $ for a services business. Why? Hard to scale without adding lots of bodies
— Mark MacLeod, Advisor and seed investor link
Questions co-founders need to ask each other before starting: “Can you fire me? Can I fire you?”
— Charlie O’Donnell, VC, Brooklyn Bridge link
If you reduce a big opportunity into a simple solution and be amazing at it, you’ll do quite well
— Charlie O’Donnell, VC, Brooklyn Bridge link
The problem with startup advice: We remember ourselves as being smarter than we really are
— Charlie O’Donnell, VC, Brooklyn Bridge link
Need a Technical Co-founder? Hire a Product Design Lead First
— Charlie O’Donnell, VC, Brooklyn Bridge link
Startups are the natural evolutionary answer to this new environment
— Fred Destin, VC at Atlas link
The classic mistake is to confuse a few early adopters with a market
— Fred Destin, VC at Atlas link
If you nail a large category in a local market, you can certainly build a company worth $300M or more
— Fred Destin, VC at Atlas link
If you don’t have something that turns your customers into fans, then you’re sunk
— Hiten Shah, Co-founder of Kissmetrics link
If you miss the chance to make the best of every moment, what kind of future will you create?
— Hiten Shah, Co-founder of Kissmetrics link
If you’re an entrepreneur, rules aren’t your friend
— Hiten Shah, Co-founder of Kissmetrics link
Don’t take this shit for granted! If someone helps you out — be really appreciative of it
— Howard Kingston, Future Ad Labs link
Nobody owes you anything and your college degree means nothing
— Howard Kingston, Future Ad Labs link
Just take action — good things that you can never foresee will come from it
— Howard Kingston, Future Ad Labs link
Often, people’s “needs” are much more flexible than they think
— Marco Arment, Founder, Instapaper link
Starting makes things real. Starting builds momentum. Starting gets you excited. Starting eliminates all your excuses
— Bill D’Alessandroh, Partner, Skyway link
The market does not care how long you worked on something
— Carson McComas, Co-founder, DownDetect link
Success almost never comes from a mind-blowing idea, so sitting around trying to find one is a waste of time
— Ramit Sethi, Co-founded PBwiki link
“We don’t know anything until we launch” is completely false
— Joshua Porter, Co-founded Performable link
Interface Design is Copywriting. Designing an interface is largely an exercise in choosing the right words
— Joshua Porter, Co-founded Performable link
When designs fail to provide an appropriate next step for users it stops them in their tracks
— Joshua Porter, Co-founded Performable link
Humans are hard-wired for attention
— Joshua Porter, Co-founded Performable link
Your job as designer is to pull your clients, despite their protests, kicking and screaming into the future
— Joshua Porter, Co-founded Performable link
Don’t worry about stating the obvious…the obvious almost never is
— Joshua Porter, Co-founded Performable link
A lack of commitment to one thing is just as productive as doing nothing at all
— Andrew Dumont, BD SEOmoz link
I came into the interview ready to react. I had an answer for everything, but no real story that I was going to tell
— Andrew Peek, Founder, Rocketr link
The most destructive thing smart people do is spend their lives waiting
— Dustin Curtis, Creator, Svbtle link
Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we’re going to make it happen
— Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX link
Simplicity isn’t enough — clarity is where it’s at
— Dan Martell, Founder of Clarity link
For the things in my life that actually mattered, I’ve never needed any to-do list to tell me to do them
— Jeff Atwood, Co-founder, StackOverflow link
The moment you get paid for your product, is the moment you emerge from the warm, caring Silicon Valley cocoon into the real world
— Ilya Lichtenstein, Co-founder, Mixrank link
Talking constantly to other entrepreneurs may cause “collaborative fixation”. Everyone will end up thinking of the same stuff
— Noah Smith, Half-Elven Finance Prof link
(on A/B testing): It’s incredibly easy to interpret data in a way that suits your needs and justifies your conclusions
— josh brewer, Principal Designer at Twitter link
Startups are coached to death when it comes to their demo day pitch. The pitch has become so formulaic, it’s almost laughable
— Kate Hough, Co-founder, Huedio link
(VC) If they don’t want to lie, they just don’t respond
— Josh Breinlinger, VC, Entrepreneur link
Just about every startup is for sale
— Dan shapiro, Entrepreneur link
Why I sold my startup: “When I start my next company, I can swing for the fences”
— Dan shapiro, Entrepreneur link
If two people work on a task, it takes twice as long
— Dan shapiro, Entrepreneur link
Chopping features is hard but a simple first step is just “Who’ll use this, and how often?”
— Des Traynor, COO, Intercom link
You can’t judge the market for a five star hotel by building a seedy motel
— Des Traynor, COO, Intercom link
If you join a startup early, you’re a shoe-in for executive positions. Nope
— Michael O.Church, Entrepreneur link
When you manage people like children, that’s what they become
— Michael O.Church, Entrepreneur link
No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try
— Yoda, Jedi inc
On Failure: It’s about understanding, and accepting our limitations
— Micah Baldwin, Founder, Graphicly link
Things don’t have to be in balance to be in balance. You can work 16 hours a day and be in balance
— Micah Baldwin, Founder, Graphicly link
You should recruit people that give you an unfair advantage. You should try to win the game before it starts
— Chris Dixon, Founder, Investor link
Divine inspiration fallacy: You think that the product spec comes from the mouth of God directly to your mind
— Justin Kan, Founder, Justin.tv link
When you look for reasons not to do something, you will always find them
— Justin Kan, Founder, Justin.tv link
Empowerment doesn’t mean letting everyone do whatever the fuck they want
— Justin Kan, Founder, Justin.tv link
My experience with the press has taught me to be careful, be focused and be strategic
— Rand Fiskin, CEO & Founder, SEOmoz link
Those who think very highly of themselves tend to make for poor employees, partners, service providers…
— Rand Fiskin, CEO & Founder, SEOmoz link
Take 1,000 “brilliant jerk” founders and I’d bet that less than 2 will have enough brilliance to overcome the jerkiness
— Rand Fiskiny, CEO & Founder, SEOmoz link
I’m going to tell you a dirty little secret — investors think valuations are bullshit too
— Joe Stump, Founded SimpleGeo link
On being acquired: “Selling out isn’t a dirty choice”
— Matt Gemmell, UX Designer, Writer link
I believe that the top creative people are at their peak when they see something for the first time
— Paul English, CTO & Co-founder, Kayak link
Website visitors don’t seem to care how long the trial period is
— Duane Jackson, Founder, KashFlow link
Standout by putting your company’s value proposition (not logo) on a t-shirt
— Alex Debelov, Co-Founder, Virool
Realize the daily highs and lows are what actually make your life meaningful
— Ryan Carson, Founder, Treehouse link
3 mistakes I made as a young entrepreneur. 1. Treating employees like friends
— Ryan Carson, Founder, Treehouse link
Define the simplest “productised” derivation of the Grand Vision that generates value
— Jason Winder, Co-founder, MakeLeaps link
Stop being an emotionally distant founder. You made a commitment to this startup
— Wesley Tansey, Co-founder, Curvio
Startups are not engineered. They’re hacked, scrapped for parts, and reassembled endlessly until something sticks
— Wesley Tansey, Co-founder, Curvio link
What matters is “Return on Luck” or how you take advantage of good luck and avoid choking
— Jason Shen, Co-founder, Ridejoy link
Don’t ask customers what they’ll pay. Tell them
— Ash Maurya, Founder Spark59 link
The right response to an unacceptable offer is a counter-offer
— Jacques Mattheij, Coder, Entrepreneur link
The single most important aspect of Silicon Valley is that it’s where many great people choose to live
— Patrick Collison, Stripe, Co-founder link
Opportunity is all around us, but we have beliefs and habits that block it
— Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail link
Pick three key features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else
— Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail link
Prediction made in 2000 for 2010: Google will be a big success, possibly as big as Yahoo
— Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail link
Instead of asking, “What’s the most likely outcome?”, I like to ask “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “Could it be awesome?”
— Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail link
If you’re starting something new, expect a long journey. That’s no excuse to move slow though
— Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail link
Lose your technical and design snobbery. Whatever works, works
— Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail link
Surely if you’re building software, it is the ultimate in swapping between analytic and empathetic
— Garry Tan, Co-founded Posterous link
On leadership: If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts
— William Deresiewicz, Writer, Literary Critic link
Motivating the tech co-founder: Anytime my cofounder needed a push — I’d bring in loads more signups
— FindTheTechGuy, Blog link
Pretty much everything you’re working on is critical to the product, which isn’t true at large companies
— Jean Hsu, Graduate, ObviousCorp link
The idea is typically worth anywhere between 10%-30% of a bump in equity
— Manu Kumar, Entrepreneur, Investor link
The best work, IMHO, gets done when the core tech team is within shouting distance of each other
— Manu Kumar, Entrepreneur, Investor link
A lifestyle business’s job is to provide a great quality of life to its owners
— Corbett Barr, Founder, Think Traffic link
Overly networked individuals suffer from a lack of honest feedback
— Chris Savage, Co-founder & CEO, Wistia link
Products best path: The fastest way your product solves your own problem
— Chris Savage, Co-founder & CEO, Wistia link
Frequency of execution is perhaps more important than the duration of execution
— Jocelyn K. Glei, Editor-in-Chief of 99u link
A small success for your startup is probably 80% of the way to a huge success
— Andy Swan, Serial Entrepreneur link
When you have a well-defined core, YOU will be 90% of the feedback that you need
— Andy Swan, Serial Entrepreneur link
(on some entrepreneurs): They’re chasing results. Chasing trends. Following. They have no core.
— Andy Swan, Serial Entrepreneur link
I want to ride with people that will find a way over the concrete wall, not “pivot”
— Andy Swan, Serial Entrepreneur link
Force yourself to innovate through voluntary restriction
— Andy Swang, Serial Entrepreneur link
When a VC tells you what’s good for you, check your wallet, then count your fingers
— Jamie Zawinski, Co-founder, Netscape link
I prefer great vision and bad execution to bad vision and great execution
— Vinod Khosla, VC, Co-founded Sun link
Apparently $50 million is the new $100 million and I never got the memo
— Rob Hayes, VC, First Round link
“Letting go” is uncomfortable enough for normal folks; for entrepreneurs it can be terrifying
— Rob Hayes, VC, First Round link
Instead of a one-size-fits-all product, you often end up with a one-size-fits-none product
— Sahil Lavingia, Founder, Gumroad link
Leverage is what gets people excited… the ability for the seed of an idea to turn into a game-changer.
— Sahil Lavingia, Founder, Gumroad link
People run the fastest they’ve ever run when death is right behind them
— Sahil Lavingia, Founder, Gumroad link
You are the least responsible for your success and failure. So just, do
— Sahil Lavingia, Founder, Gumroad link
Aim for the experience that is most useful rather than the simplest
— Sahil Lavingia, Founder, Gumroad link
Startup mistake: They focus their networking on the top instead of the middle
— Adam Rodnitzky, Co-founder, Favo.rs link
Most people like to build and grow things. You can chalk the psychology up to our agrarian past
— Brad Hargreaves, Co-founder, GA link
The winners of a unit economics contest would be more likely to build successful companies
— Brad Hargreaves, Co-founder, GA link
Martyrs inspire guilt, and guilt is a terrible emotion to inspire in a group
— Brad Hargreaves, Co-founder, GA link
The scene will kill you and your company
— Brad Hargreaves, Co-founder, GA link
(getting funded) It’s a guaranteed lifetime addiction to entrepreneurship
— Brad Hargreaves, Co-founder, GA link
A TechCrunch article is no way for your users to hear news about your company
— Brian Bailey, Author, Team Gowalla link
The key to staying sane at a startup is hanging out with a different social circle (non-tech)
— Paul Stamatiou, Co-founder, Picplum link
Once you have around 1000 users, shift all your energy to engaging/understanding them
— Sean Ellis, CEO/Founder Qualaroo link
Areas that prevent creative problem solving. 1. Too much focus on financial rewards
— Sean Ellis, CEO/Founder Qualaroo link
Take the time to build relationships with potential acquirers. You never know when you may need them
— John O’Farrell, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz link
I think of bootstrapping as a very slow form of raising money
— Tony Stubblebine, CEO, Lift link
Startup years are like dog years — One year at a startup is like seven anywhere else
— Eric Stromberg, Co-founder, Oyster link
I believe strongly that these “20 seconds of interaction” will be increasingly important
— Eric Stromberg, Co-founder, Oyster link
The lower the CEO salary, the more likely it is to succeed
— Peter Thiel, Co-founded Paypal, Investor link
I believe in market-first approach. Any sufficiently big market will give you tons of interesting ideas
— Paras Chopra, CEO, Wingify link
You hear just how screwed up most of these successful startups were on the way up
— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y-combinator link
Let’s stop giving lying on stage and vanity metrics a free pass
— Eric Ries, Lean startup legend link
Never let a line of communication go cold with a potential acquirer
— Jason Roberts, Founder AnyFu, AppIgnite link
Revenue first is key when you don’t have a cofounder
— Tracy Osborn, CEO, WeddingLovely link
Everything Apple develops today is tied back into their operating system — the trunk
— Spencer Fry, Co-founder, Uncover link
You will not be very helpful if you cannot code pre product market fit
— Ching Naiyun, Turned hacker aged 27 link
If you’re only getting “That’s cool”, then it’s time to worry. You need to get to “Oh my god”
— James Yu, Co-founder, Parse link
I argue that along with hard work, you need to know when to double down
— James Yu, Co-founder, Parse link
An inward-facing thought process is exactly what you don’t want
— James Yu, Co-founder, Parse link
Problems that Introverts Have with Networking. 1. Making small talk
— Nathan Hurst, Founder, Ohours, Hirelite link
It took us almost three years to know what exactly we had to do during those three days
— Vinicius Vacanti, Co-Founder & CEO, Yipit link
Put headphones on, people distract you less. Listen to foreign music, it distracts you less
— Andy Crump, Co-Founder, Bluefields link
Investors: They hate MBA speak, they find it pretentious and boring
— Jacob Brody, Startup/VC Stuff at MESA+ link
Don’t get lost in the feedback maze. Everyone on the planet loves to give feedback…
— Jesse Middleton, Head of Biz Dev, Jirafe link
Don’t fear the no-man’s land between early adopters and mainstream. Use the Chasm Shield
— Nikhil Kalghatgi, VC, Gangnam Style link
For an idea to replicate it has to be simple enough for a friend to talk about it at a party
— Jonah Peretti, Co-Founder, BuzzFeed link
You Have To Grit Your Teeth, Be A Warrior, Or Do Something Less Disruptive
— Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber link
(with acquirers) Just avoid dropping your pants completely until you get the ballpark offer
— David Cohen, Founder/CEO, TechStars link
I created more fear of not starting than the fear of starting
— Amir Khella, Creator of Keynotopia link
Diversity of channels actually increases your risk that you never find a scalable channel at all
— Brian Balfour, Co-founded 4 companies link
No matter which chicken or the egg problem you are solving for, don’t be afraid of brute force
— Brian Balfour, Co-founded 4 companies link
Yes,” means no. “Where can I buy that?” means maybe. “Here’s $20 dollars,” means yes.
— Tristan Kromer, Grasshopper herder link
Three elements must converge for a behaviour to occur: Motivation, Ability and Trigger
— BJ Fogg, Innovator, Psychologist link
If you don’t excite people first, no one will bother to spend time understanding your website
— Josh Liu, Co-founder/Product Acrossio link
Something people seldom talk about with entrepreneurship is how corrosive it can be to relationships
— Pete Warden, Founder, Jetpac link
It’s paramount to at least be open about messing up
— Kyle Bragger, Makes things (Forrst) link
You can’t 80/20 everything. There are some things that you have to go beyond that and be the best in the world at
— Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder, Facebook link
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works
— Steve Jobs, Apple link
(web) It bypasses all middlemen. And, it turns out, there are a lot of middlepersons in this society
— Steve Jobs, Apple link
What people mention far less often is that entrepreneurship is also tedious
— Alison Johnston, Co-founder, InstaEDU link
Trouble usually arises when, under the guise of efficiency, people stop talking and just start doing
— Bryce Roberts, VC (OATV) link
Do you want to build an institution fit for a future worth fighting for?
— Umair Haque, Author, Economist link
