The benefit to building a startup is that customers don’t have the same kind of friction when they adopt new technology.
AARON LEVIEThere’s a lot of pride that business owners have. It’s actually really critical that pride and ownership extends to everyone in the organization. I think of everyone is in the same boat in driving the company forward.
More Aaron Levie Quotes
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Startups often win because it’s easier to see what comes next when you don’t have to worry about maintaining what came last.
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When you’re doing something you’re passionate about, stress becomes a featurenot a bug.
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All we’re really doing is repeating technologies that were tried 10, 20, 30 years ago… it’s just that it was too expensive, too unusable, and we didn’t have the enabling technologies to make it possible.
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Opportunity lives at the intersection of what people need tomorrow and can be just barely built today.
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You’ll learn more in a day talking to customers than a week of brainstorming, a month of watching competitors, or a year of market research.
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Go after the customers that are working in the future, but haven’t totally lost their minds.
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Always look for these changing technology factors- any market that has a significant change in the underlying raw materials …or enabling factors, is an environment that is about to change in a very significant way.
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The best technology is aimed far enough in the future that it stands out, but close enough to the present that it blends in.
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Everything about the enterprise, and then by definition the software the enterprise uses has changed – just in the last 5 years.
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A lot of being productive personally is determined by how you organize your entire business. You can’t separate those two things.
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If you don’t go to every level of your company, you distance yourself from the marketplace and from your people.
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The IT model of the enterprise has become a lot more user lead.
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You can keep ‘consumer’ DNA at the center of your product. That will always mean that adoption is easier.
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I think bad politics are incredibly dangerous, so it’s important to make sure that people are communicating well. Culture and morale are super important. It’s best to not force it, but let it happen organically and genuinely.
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Start with the assumption that the best way to do something is not the way it’s being done right now.
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We’re going from a world of customized software to standardized platforms.
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I think I’m the kind of person who would be very difficult to employ – I’m pretty annoying, but driven.
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Look for new enabling technologies that create a wide gap between how things have been done and how they can be done.
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You intentionally start small, because you will not be able to compete with an incumbent… because the incumbent is always going to go for the full solution.
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Start with something simple and small, then expand over time. If people call it a ‘toy’ you’re definitely onto something.
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I’m certainly not into money and prestige. For me there is simply nothing more exciting than people involved in the creation of great products. That is what drives me.
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Innovation is hard because solving problems people didn’t know they had & building something no one needs look identical at first.
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I think people are always able to achieve more than they think they can. While that’s cliche, I don’t know if managers think about that enough. You have to set your sights extremely high.
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The 10% between 90% done to 100% done takes most of the time, causes most of the stress, but is all of the value.
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My dad is a chemical engineer, and my mom was a teacher. They were pretty serious about education, but I always thought about things a little bit differently.
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If you’re waiting for encouragement from others, you’re doing it wrong. By the time people think an idea is good, it’s probably too late.
AARON LEVIE