Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.
You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.
We pretty much won't fund a company now where the founders don't have vested equity because it's just that hard to do.
I prefer to invest in a company that's going after a small but rapidly growing market than a big but slow growing one.
We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.
You also want people who are maniacally determined and that is slightly different than having a risk tolerant attitude.
For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
The way to build billion dollar companies is to first build something people love. There isn't really a shortcut there.
People that are really smart and that can learn new things can almost always find a role in the company as time goes on.
You should always know how you're doing against your metrics. You should always have a weekly review meeting every week.
As you grow, the productivity I think, goes down with the square of the number of employees if you don't make an effort.
One of the pieces of advice that we give at YC is: try to work together on a project rather than just doing an interview.
... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.
Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that's a big deal. Also, lack of money is very stressful.
People always make the mistake of calling an idea small or stupid because they don't understand how it's going to evolve.
Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster
Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
Virgin America flyers tend to be more likely to be using a mobile device and tapping social networks - even at 35,000 feet.
If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.
Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.
If someone is choosing between joining McKinsey or your startup it's very unlikely they're going to work out at the startup.
A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
The natural state of a start-up is to die; most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate.
Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley. Most people don't want Ferraris, they want a winning seed investment.
If you're not in college and you don't know a cofounder, the next best thing I think is to go work at an interesting company.
The biggest part of Loopt is about discovering the world around you, never replacing a social experience - only adding to it.
1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
Most great companies in tech have been built by personal referrals for the first...at least 100 employees and often many more.
Just put a little pin in your mind: when you cross 50 employees, there are a new set of HR rules that you have to comply with.
The best source by far for hiring is people that you already know and people that other employees in the company already know.
... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.
M&A negotiations feel really fun. This is one of the biggest killers of companies, is they entertain acquisition conversations.
You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.
Investors will sort of like write the check and then, despite a lot of promises, don't usually do that much; sometimes they do.
I don't invest in companies where my mental model is that they need to get themselves acquired in the next few years - or ever.
You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
Really dig into projects people have worked on and call references; that is another thing that first time founders like to skip.
You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.
If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone.
Every first time founder waits too long, everyone hopes that an employee will turn around. But the right answer is to fire fast.
Many of the companies in the mobile location space are trying to figure out different ways to tie what they're doing to commerce.
Even though plans themselves are worthless, the exercise of planning is very valuable and totally missing in most startups today.
Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire.
You never want to be in a place where an employee has vested 3 out of the 4 years of stock and they start thinking about leaving.
You're saying no ninety-seven times out of a hundred, and most founders find they have to make a very conscious effort to do this.
You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back.