Don’t feel as though you have to trim equally across eng, ops, sales and marketing.Simon Khalaf
If you’re in a market that’s not accelerating and you are going to cut, cut deep.Gina Bianchini
When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. ... But I think the underlying cause is usually that they’ve become demoralized.Paul Graham
It was so far off that we had to acknowledge that people just didn’t want to do what we were trying to get them to do.Payal Kadakia
Lead with conviction. If you don’t, you double your chances of failing.Payal Kadakia
Well, do I think that I’m lucky or do I think that I’m actually good at this? And if I’m actually good at this, then I should actually double down on myself and invest in myself.Katrina Lake
It wasn’t obvious that it was a good business, but it was the only business I was actually interested in running.Emmett Shear
We were in denial about the fact that our business was making some money and kind of okay but not really growing and heading for a cliff.Emmett Shear
Ultimately, placing this bet was my call to make and I got this wrong.Tobi Lütke
The hardest thing to manage in a crisis is your own psychology. People look in your eyes, and if you think you’re screwed, they see it in your eyes.Brian Chesky
In a crisis, I don’t think you make business decisions as much as you make principle decisions.Brian Chesky
Managers must lay off their own people. They cannot pass the task to HR or a more sadistic peer.Ben Horowitz
Once you decide that you will have to lay people off, the time elapsed between making that decision and executing that decision should be as short as possible.Ben Horowitz
As a general rule, don’t let your company start doing the next thing until you’ve dominated the first thing.Sam Altman
There are no silver bullets for this, only lead bullets.Ben Horowitz
Nothing kills startups like distractions. The worst type are those that pay money: day jobs, consulting, profitable side-projects.Paul Graham
Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent.Paul Graham
Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriting your product, moving into a different market.Marc Andreessen
Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?Jeff Bezos
Most people will solve problems that they understand how to solve. They will solve B+ problems instead of A+ problems.Keith Rabois
You can add all the ammunition you want, but if you have only five barrels in your company, you can literally do only five things simultaneously.Keith Rabois
If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?Andy Grove
Act on your temporary conviction as if it was a real conviction; and when you realize that you are wrong, correct course very quickly.Andy Grove
It’s easier to walk away when you know what you’re walking toward.Annie Duke
The best quitting criteria combine two things: a state and a date.Annie Duke
When you have a deadline, all of a sudden you have to make decisions.Ryan Singer
Estimates start with a design and end with a number. Appetites start with a number and end with a design.Ryan Singer
Next time you say yes to something, ask yourself if yes means yes, I can do that, or yes, I can spend my attention on that.Jason Fried
The more friction that has to be overcome to get to the perceived value, the lower the price needs to be.Elena Verna
Unfortunately, those pricing experiments took place with weak messaging and badly designed plans. So what I really found, was the highest price points my crappy marketing site was capable of.Ruben Gamez
Each tier is roughly double the previous tier, but we deliver more than double the benefits.Jason Fried
The only answers that matter are dollars spent. People answer when they pay for something.Jason Fried
The lower the price, the less likely someone is to search for another solution to their problem. By keeping a nice value buffer you avoid customers even considering switching away from your product.Nathan Barry
Generally speaking, the lower your product’s price point, the higher your churn.Rob Walling
Taking prices up, or using your volume to drive costs down, in order to get to positive gross margins is a lot harder than most people think.Fred Wilson
A 20% price cut needs a 25% increase in number of customers to maintain the same amount revenue.Jason Cohen
You just said no one complained, so double your prices again. Do that until somebody complains about it, of course.Jason Cohen
I guarantee you in most B2B software products, 20% to 30% of your base is willing to pay for priority support.Patrick Campbell
If you have support problems or NPS issues, you shouldn’t be raising your prices. You need to go solve those product problems first.Patrick Campbell
New cohorts of customers don’t notice price increases. To them, that’s just how your pricing works.Kyle Poyar
Just don’t literally ask them “how much are you willing to pay?” They’ll low-ball you.Kyle Poyar
The more margin your customer has, the more they can pay you for your product.Tomasz Tunguz
You have to at the very least be aware of the value your product delivers to an org, and the buying power of the org, to have an intelligent price.Des Traynor
For any growing business, the biggest amount of revenue is going to come from the future. It’s not from your current customer base.Des Traynor
If you have organic customers, they shouldn’t be included in the spend calculus. They would have arrived regardless of spend.Bill Gurley
If one asserts that buying customers below what they charge them is a corporate strategy, this is in essence an arbitrage game, and arbitrage games rarely last.Bill Gurley
Having too few escalated deals could indicate the sales team is finding it too easy to sell. You need to ask yourself whether you priced your product high enough.Madhavan Ramanujam
Leave your luck while winning. All the best players do it. A fine retreat is as good as a gallant attack.Baltasar Gracián
In his writings, a wise Italian says that the best is the enemy of the good.Voltaire
Why must our company grow 100% next year? Of course we hope we can grow at a high rate, but you should not let growth anxiety affect you.Zhang Yiming
The ability to stick around for a long time, without wiping out or being forced to give up, is what makes the biggest difference.Morgan Housel
No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: you can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.Warren Buffett
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.Frederick P. Brooks
Expensive solutions to any kind of problem are usually the work of mediocrity.Ingvar Kamprad
Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.John Gall
There are two ways of constructing a software design: one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.Tony Hoare
Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.Edsger W. Dijkstra
Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better, because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.Dieter Rams
The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don’t. It’s just that simple.Charlie Munger
The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.Al Ries and Jack Trout
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.Herbert Simon
There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.Peter Drucker
The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. Without trade-offs, there would be no need for choice and thus no need for strategy.Michael Porter
Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.Zig Ziglar
The price a customer is willing to pay, and therefore the price a company can achieve, is always a reflection of the perceived value of the product or service in the customer’s eyes.Hermann Simon
Sales cure all. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.Mark Cuban
It is no coincidence that companies that put a heavy emphasis on LTV are also the ones that have massive losses as they scale, frequently even through an IPO.Bill Gurley
They sheepishly charge a low price, attracting the worst kinds of customers: the ones who can’t afford a proper solution, but occupy the greatest amount of time in tech support.Jason Cohen
Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.Naval Ravikant
The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything.David Ogilvy
India is a tough market to earn in. If we had advertised, much of our profits would have gone to Google and Meta.Nithin Kamath
Products are built to fit with channels. Channels do not mold to products.Brian Balfour
There’s just not going to be that one thing that flips you from the long, slow ramp of death to the hockey stick inflection curve. It’s going to be lots and lots of little things.Gail Goodman
A price war has only one winner: the supplier with the lowest cost. Most likely, that’s not you.Madhavan Ramanujam
Market and price, then design, then build. In other words, design the product around the price.Madhavan Ramanujam
There is no competitor who released your ImaginationWare into the market; you’re competing only with what actually exists, not with what could exist.Patrick McKenzie
If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10%, then you’ve got a terrible business.Warren Buffett
The first rule is to maintain an extremely low level of prices. But they must be low prices with a meaning. We must not compromise either functionality or technical quality.Ingvar Kamprad
When we buy a product, we essentially hire it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, we’ll hire it again. If it does a crummy job, we fire it and look for something else.Clayton Christensen
The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined. That grew. The railroads are in trouble today not because the need was filled by others but because it was not filled by the railroads themselves.Theodore Levitt
The customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him.Peter Drucker
Recruiting 10 customers who have a burning problem is much better than 1000 customers who have a passing annoyance.Geoff Ralston and Michael Seibel
People stop lying when you ask them for money.Rob Fitzpatrick
You aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.Rob Fitzpatrick
Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. Very little magic and a lot of hard work are involved.Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Writing to me is an advanced and slow form of reading. If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.Toni Morrison
Professionalism is not enough: the good is the enemy of the great. What professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks, and what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression.Milton Glaser
Design is not the act of amazing an audience with the novelty of forms or materials; it is the originality that repeatedly extracts astounding ideas from the crevices of the very commonness of everyday life.Kenya Hara
Shitty first drafts: all good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.Anne Lamott
Skill in writing frees you to write what you want to write. It may also show you what you want to write. Craft enables art.Ursula K. Le Guin
I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one.James Dyson
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.W. Edwards Deming
Quality control was always foremost in our minds, because if a tool failed, it could kill someone, and since we were our own best customers, there was a good chance it would be us.Yvon Chouinard
Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.Dieter Rams
The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it.Paul Graham
For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you.Ira Glass
When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.Steve Jobs
There are those who, having acquired a few livestock, imagine themselves to be rich, and become lazy, boastful and careless in their work.Abai Kunanbaev
They may not endeavor to improve their skill by seeking to learn from better artisans. Content with what little proficiency they have, such people indulge in indolence.Abai Kunanbaev
When first observed, the stupid person has the form of an intelligent person, and his intention is a sound intention. Frequently, his deliberation lands him in evil, even though he was not aiming to fall into it.Al-Farabi
When he borrows he must pay back promptly, so that others will readily lend to him when he asks them. As long as he is flexible in transactions and his conduct is upright, he will not lack for funds when he needs them.Yusuf Balasaguni
He ought to be close-fisted rather than open-handed. Then the treasury won’t be squandered. Liberality is a fine thing in its place, but not with another man’s property!Yusuf Balasaguni
If they do some work for you, pay their wages promptly, and give them liberally of food and drink, lest you earn a bad name among the people.Yusuf Balasaguni
Treat them kindly and you may be sure that your good name will travel far. For these are they who spread one’s name abroad, be it good or bad.Yusuf Balasaguni
A wise enemy is preferable to a foolish friend.Amir Timur
I asked counsel from all, but I considered the good and the evil of every opinion, and from each I selected those things which were just and expedient.Amir Timur
Victory over the foe proceedeth not from the greatness of armies, nor defeat from inferiority of numbers.Amir Timur
One tried soldier, of magnanimity, and of bravery, and of resolution, and of skill, and of circumspection is more valuable than a thousand men who want discretion and knowledge. For one experienced and able soldier can direct the efforts of thousands of thousands.Amir Timur
Of the requisites for conducting the affairs of dominion, nine tenths are deliberation, and counsel, and provident measures; and the sword is one portion only.Amir Timur
Venture capital is not about many winners. In every niche at most one big player survives. Another can survive, but a hundred times smaller.Alex Mashrabov
Selling off other people’s shelves is easier at the start, but much more likely to hit a dead end halfway.Alexey Li
People are afraid to share an idea in case it gets stolen. Far more likely, talking about it develops the idea and wins it supporters who show you new openings. You may even find the person you will build it with.Daniyar Amanaliev
I have met so many people with good ideas that ideas lost all value in my eyes long ago, because people do not carry them out anyway.Daniyar Amanaliev
When we raised our first money we started not with the biggest funds but with lesser known players. After the first deal everything changes: once one investor believes in the company, the rest start looking harder.Akylai Kasymkulova
Many people think the main thing at the start is chasing investment or building a network. First find the market: what problem you are solving, and whether it is big enough to build a global company on.Akylai Kasymkulova
The ideal case is when the product is a kind of continuation of its author’s own personality.Arman Suleimenov
We look at the products in version one and we are deeply ashamed. We look at version two and we are merely ashamed. So the trend is positive.Arman Suleimenov
Number one means a gap of four or five times over your nearest competitors. That is what gives you the ability to dictate your terms in the market.Nikolai Babeshkin
I do not hire people who need to be told what to do step by step. In their own field a person should understand it better than I do.Nikolai Babeshkin
We did a very simple thing: opened the telephone directory, started calling companies and booking meetings. In Moscow it takes fifty calls to get past the secretaries. In Almaty, seven calls in ten ended in a meeting.Timur Turlov
If I had properly understood what Kazakhstan was when we entered that market, I might never have come. But I could not see why it should not work out for me.Timur Turlov
Luck is at least half of success. But activity raises the odds of it falling your way: do a hundred meetings instead of twenty and your chances of a good deal go up fivefold.Ramil Mukhoryapov
It takes five to ten years to make all the basic business mistakes. Make them between fourteen and twenty four, while there is no family and no obligations, and you will feel far less social pressure than starting at thirty.Ramil Mukhoryapov
The meanings you create work as a filter: the people they do not grip quietly drain away. What is left is the people for whom it genuinely matters.Arsen Tomsky
I thought the site would pay for itself in a year or two. In fact it took about seven. But everything we did along the way gave us pleasure.Arsen Tomsky
We look for injustice systematically. When we find it, we can launch either a new business or some nonprofit initiative around it.Arsen Tomsky
I do not believe in the advantage of being first. I believe in the advantage of being second.Mikheil Lomtadze
However complicated the service, the description of it has to be simple enough that even a schoolchild understands.Mikheil Lomtadze
On a big market you can afford to be wrong: you can grow while losing customers and still show growth. In Kazakhstan you cannot. If a million customers do not love you, you have no chance of launching the next product.Mikheil Lomtadze
We wrote the application as honestly as we could: what’s already done, what works, and what doesn’t yet. Embellishing is pointless, the YC partners see thousands of applications and sense fakery instantly. From repeat applicants they want to see one thing: progress.Beknazar Abdikamalov
As a matter of principle I didn’t want to raise money just for an idea, the way many people do.Dadamukhammad Salimov
If the product is merely an alternative to booking by telephone, it has no future.Dadamukhammad Salimov
Many people think venture money is easy money. In fact it is very responsible money.Uchkun Tulavov
If you can sell the idea, the product will most likely take off. If you can’t, it’s just interest without real demand.Uchkun Tulavov
Reality is always simple: the proof that it works is profit. If you have steady income, you don’t spend your time on endless pitches and hunting for investment.Dildora Atadjanova
A startup isn’t always about a platform or a technology; it’s more about the ability to grow several times over once the model starts to scale.Dildora Atadjanova
Money isn’t always what you need in order to make a product that works.Dildora Atadjanova
The first hundred customers were hard to win, but once they felt the value they began recommending us to others, and the business gradually started to grow.Rustam Khamdamov
Sometimes we slept in the stores: ran inventories, helped during promotions when the crowds came. I stood behind the register many times myself, to understand how it all works from the inside.Rustam Khamdamov
Another mistake: we kept polishing the product toward perfection. We wanted to build the whole feature set at once, every detail worked through. In effect we tried to build a corporate service instead of quickly assembling an MVP, testing demand and starting to sell.Rustam Khamdamov
In a family, emotions prevail; in business, only cold calculation. These are opposite feelings.Akmal Paiziev
Local stories aren’t interesting; they may fail to find a market and die quickly.Akmal Paiziev
A good business should sit in the second row from power.Zafar Khashimov
Specialization matters enormously. Don’t be a duck: you’ll be able to fly, swim and walk, and do every one of them very badly. Better to fly, or swim, or walk. One thing.Zafar Khashimov
The valuable idea lies in how to do it: what will put me ahead of the whole crowd attempting the same thing, how to do it at better quality and more cheaply.Zafar Khashimov
In business I have the feeling we’re on an escalator running backwards; you have to run just to stay where you are.Zafar Khashimov
And if you don’t admit it, and go on resuscitating the corpse, you lose money and time.Akmal Paiziev
I always do my shopping at korzinka.uz. You must taste your own business.Zafar Khashimov
Working at a company is first of all about gaining experience. Who would I learn from at my own company?Akmal Paiziev
Three things to beware of in business: loss of reputation, unjustified risks, and too many promises.Akmal Paiziev
If you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business, no matter how good the product.Peter Thiel
Focusing is about saying no. And you’ve got to say no, no, no. ... The result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.Steve Jobs
Would your users be truly bummed if your company went away?Sam Altman
It’s not the product that should be insanely great, but the experience of being your user.Paul Graham
Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great.Jeff Bezos
Like acting, sales works best when hidden.Peter Thiel
It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.Steve Jobs
It’s much better to first make a product a small number of users love than a product that a large number of users like.Sam Altman
There are things founders can do that managers can’t, and not doing them feels wrong to founders, because it is.Paul Graham
A remarkable customer experience starts with heart, intuition, curiosity, play, guts, taste. You won’t find any of it in a survey.Jeff Bezos
Most businesses get zero distribution channels to work: poor sales rather than bad product is the most common cause of failure.Peter Thiel
Whatever you wish to undertake, first consult your own heart, only then other people; and if your heart is not pleased with it, then stay away from it.Yusuf Balasaguni
I try to see the mistake as early as possible, and if it can’t be corrected I close the project. That way it costs me less.Akmal Paiziev
A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.Steve Jobs
Resist the urge to derive your self-worth from your number of employees.Sam Altman
You can’t wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them.Paul Graham
Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering? We want to fight entropy. The bar has to continuously go up.Jeff Bezos
What important truth do very few people agree with you on?Peter Thiel
A locomotive cannot arrive at point B leaving the last car at point A.Zafar Khashimov
First they look at you, then at the idea, then at the numbers. The weightiest factor is people: you, your team.Akmal Paiziev
Success and good luck make a man drunk. Only one in a thousand can keep cool and reasonable.Abai Kunanbaev
Unless you have tested the assumptions in your business model first, outside the building, your business plan is just creative writing.Steve Blank
In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.Seth Godin
The product has to be good from the start. We can’t afford to experiment on our customers.Mikheil Lomtadze
Focusing is about saying no. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.Steve Jobs
The best case, by far, is to have a good cofounder. The next best is to be a solo founder. The worse case, by far, is to have a bad cofounder.Sam Altman
Actually startups take off because the founders make them take off.Paul Graham
Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.Jeff Bezos
The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.Peter Thiel
The valuable idea is how to do it: what will put me ahead of the whole crowd trying to do the same thing, how to do it better and cheaper.Zafar Khashimov
Whatever you undertake, consider what the issue will be, for if you fail to reckon the expense, it will turn out to be a loss.Yusuf Balasaguni
Copying well is an art too. Anyone who thinks I just skim the cream off other people’s ideas should try stealing something competently and building a product out of it.Akmal Paiziev
In a great market, a market with lots of real potential customers, the market pulls product out of the startup.Marc Andreessen
Peacetime CEO works to minimize conflict. Wartime CEO heightens the contradictions.Ben Horowitz
The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his or her supervision or influence.Andy Grove
Sometimes I look at someone’s product and think: how is this even possible? Does the head of that company actually use this product himself?Mikheil Lomtadze
You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.Steve Jobs
The most counterintuitive secret about startups is that it’s often easier to succeed with a hard startup than an easy one.Sam Altman
The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself.Paul Graham
Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death.Jeff Bezos
All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.Peter Thiel
By planning, you can set your compass, but not the road itself.Zafar Khashimov
If you won’t admit it, and go on resuscitating the corpse, you lose money and you lose time.Akmal Paiziev
A common man renowned for his cleverness is greater than a king who has been raised up by good fortune. A youth who sells his handiwork is worthier than an old man selling his beard.Abai Kunanbaev
Adequate performance gets a generous severance package.Patty McCord
Nothing else you do will matter if you are not making something people want. You can be the best spokesperson, the best fundraiser, the best programmer, but if you aren’t building a product that satisfies a real need, you’ll never succeed.Jessica Livingston
Given a choice between what a successful team has learned and the source code they have produced, I would take the learning every time.Eric Ries
First principles is a kind of physics way of looking at the world. And what that really means is that you boil things down to the most fundamental truths and then reason up from there.Elon Musk
You can’t sell somebody on the solution until they’ve bought the problem.Des Traynor
The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader.Derek Sivers
Better a good product than a mediocre one with big cashback. Cashback buys a customer’s loyalty by making them dependent.David Melikidze
At YC, we were challenged to do things that don’t scale: to start with the perfect experience for one person, then work backwards and scale it to 100 people who love us.Brian Chesky
I strongly dislike the idea of money that isn’t working, wherever it happens to be sitting.Timur Turlov
Starting a company is like throwing yourself off the cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down.Reid Hoffman
The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.Marc Andreessen
When a person is not doing his job, there can only be two reasons for it. The person either can’t do it or won’t do it; he is either not capable or not motivated.Andy Grove
There are no facts inside your building, so get outside.Steve Blank
If you don’t ship, you actually haven’t started anything at all.Seth Godin
The customer doesn’t care what technology you use. The customer sees, feels, hears, and touches it with their hands.Mikheil Lomtadze
A good test for an idea is if you can articulate why most people think it’s a bad idea, but you understand what makes it good.Sam Altman
Live in the future, then build what’s missing.Paul Graham
I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried.Jeff Bezos
Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.Peter Thiel
The story of success and the story of mistakes are inseparable. A success story is exactly that: the story of a chain of mistakes.Zafar Khashimov
Success is an illusion: it makes a person weak and vulnerable. You have to understand that the probability of failure is higher than the probability of success.Akmal Paiziev
The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins.Tony Fadell
If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.Toni Morrison
Growing users without growing users that complete the core action is the empty calories of growth. It feels good, but it’s not good for you.Sarah Tavel
A flower is simply a weed with an advertising budget.Rory Sutherland
Executives spend more time on managing people and making people decisions than on anything else, and they should. No other decisions are so long lasting in their consequences or so difficult to unmake.Peter Drucker
If your product is Great, it doesn’t need to be Good.Paul Buchheit
Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.Naval Ravikant
There are bad ideas. But you don’t know an idea is bad until you’ve tried it.Marc Randolph
A good rule of thumb is to hire only people who are better than you. Do not compromise. Ever.Laszlo Bock
Radical Candor really just means saying what you think while also giving a damn about the person you’re saying it to.Kim Scott
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce.Kevin Kelly
Great vision without great people is irrelevant.Jim Collins
How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?Jerry Colonna
Today is brutal, tomorrow is more brutal, but the day after tomorrow is beautiful. However, the majority of people will die tomorrow night.Jack Ma
Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.Gabriel Weinberg
Leadership is about empowering other people as a result of your presence, and making sure that impact continues into your absence.Frances Frei
The happiest and most successful people I know don’t just love what they do, they’re obsessed with solving an important problem, something that matters to them.Drew Houston
When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.David Ogilvy
The reality of growth is that there is never a silver bullet.Brian Balfour
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.Bill Gates
Positioning defines what market you intend to win and why you deserve to win it.April Dunford
Make your customer the hero of your story.Ann Handley
When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins. When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins. When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.Andy Rachleff
Over time, all marketing strategies result in shitty clickthrough rates.Andrew Chen
Retention is the single most important thing for growth.Alex Schultz
The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.Alex Rampell
A business leader’s job is to create great teams that do amazing work on time. That’s it. That’s the job of management.Patty McCord
Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together.Julie Zhuo
I’d say determination is the single most important quality in a startup founder. If the founders I spoke with were superhuman in any way, it was in their perseverance.Jessica Livingston
One of the things you can definitely guarantee is where there are no customers, there are also no competitors.Jensen Huang
There’s a silly notion that failure’s not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.Elon Musk
Until you have users, you don’t have a product. Until they’re paying you, you don’t have a business.Des Traynor
Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.Derek Sivers
The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs.Brian Chesky
Losing money isn’t the frightening part. Losing trust is.Timur Turlov
If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.Reid Hoffman
Markets that don’t exist don’t care how smart you are.Marc Andreessen
The Struggle is when people ask you why you don’t quit and you don’t know the answer.Ben Horowitz
Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left.Andy Grove
Skill is established in you only by repeating its actions many times. Repeat bad writing and bad writing is what takes hold; repeat excellent writing and you get that instead.Al-Farabi
No business plan survives first contact with customers.Steve Blank
Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt.Seth Godin
For a first business the only thing that matters is starting. It doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is aiming, from the first day, to build it better than anyone in the world.Ramil Mukhoryapov
No one will deny that in questions of historic authenticity hearsay does not equal eye-witness.Al-Biruni
If there is quarrelling at the plowing, there will be no fighting at the threshing. Settle the matter at the start of the dealing, so no dispute appears at the end.Mahmud al-Kashgari
The best ideas are fragile; most people don’t even start talking about them at all because they sound silly.Sam Altman
Startups rarely die in mid keystroke. So keep typing!Paul Graham
I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.Jeff Bezos
When mistakes are hidden, they breed new mistakes, or the problem gets worse. I allow mistakes, only not repeated ones.Zafar Khashimov
The sooner you admit the mistake to yourself, the cheaper it costs you.Akmal Paiziev
If you want to be rich, learn a trade. Wealth diminishes with time, but a skill does not.Abai Kunanbaev