400 Quotes to Focus and Motivate SaaS Companies

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 primarily 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