“A company is a group organized to create a product or service, and it is only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating.”
“Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.”
“Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.”
“Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold.”
“Constantly think about how you could be doing things better.”
“Don’t delude yourself into thinking something’s working when it’s not, or you’re gonna get fixated on a bad solution.”
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
“I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that.”
“I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.”
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
“I think most of the important stuff on the Internet has been built. There will be continued innovation, for sure, but the great problems of the Internet have essentially been solved.”
“If something has to be designed and invented, and you have to figure out how to ensure that the value of the thing you create is greater than the cost of the inputs, then that is probably my core skill.”
“If you’re co-founder or CEO, you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do… If you don’t do your chores, the company won’t succeed… No task is too menial.”
“It is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done. Numbers will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer – two people who don’t know something are no better than one, will tend to slow down progress, and will make the task incredibly expensive.”
“It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”
“My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.”
“One of the really tough things is figuring out what questions to ask. Once you figure out the question, then the answer is relatively easy.”
“People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.”
“People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.”
“Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.”
“Really pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it, particularly from friends… Hardly anyone does that, and it’s incredibly helpful.”
“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”
“Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive, and determination of the people behind it as the product they sell.”
“Talent is extremely important. It’s like a sports team, the team that has the best individual player will often win, but then there’s a multiplier from how those players work together and the strategy they employ.”
“The first step is to establish that something is possible then probability will occur.”
“There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.”
“Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
“You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”