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The Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Jay Samit Quotes

Too many startups get in the habit of continually raising more and more money, which has the deleterious effect of both pushing out profitability and limiting your exit options. The less rounds of capital you need to raise, the more of your company you get to own.

– Jay Samit

So many of the major decisions that affect the entire future of your enterprise happen during its first year in business. In fact, most don’t make it because they don’t know how to get the resources they need to survive.

– Jay Samit

Instead of focusing the traditional planning cycles where companies benchmark their businesses against existing competition, teams need to be developed to foster internal change and disruption. Self-disruption is akin to undergoing major surgery, but you are the one holding the scalpel.

– Jay Samit

There is a huge difference between failing and failure. Failing is trying something that you learn doesn’t work. Failure is throwing in the towel and giving up. True success comes from failing repeatedly and as quickly as possible, before your cash or your willpower runs out.

– Jay Samit

My job is to hire the best and brightest employees and empower them to do their best work. As a manager, I am not a mind reader nor an expert at every job function. Therefore, it is incumbent on all hires to feel empowered to tell me what resources they need to do their job.

– Jay Samit

Most startup entrepreneurs unnecessarily spend half their time and give up half their equity in search of funding from angel investors and venture capitalists. Tens of millions of dollars are available to them for free from partners who not only don’t want their equity, they don’t even want to be paid back.

– Jay Samit

Most companies overlook the most basic of all training functions: the onboarding of new employees into their corporate culture.

– Jay Samit

Historically, more media has been consumed sitting in front of the television than any other device. Controlling this screen has been the goal of major technology, consumer electronic, and telecommunications companies.

– Jay Samit

Whether by design or circumstance, every startup will eventually get disrupted.

– Jay Samit

For all founders, going public is a momentous milestone that has to be experienced to be fully understood. It is the culmination of years of hard work and personal sacrifice.

– Jay Samit

As good and as smart as you may be, no one knows everything. I truly wish I was as smart as I thought I was when I started my first company.

– Jay Samit

Some incubators, like Y Combinator and TechStars, were started by successful entrepreneurs wishing to help the next generation learn from their experiences. Other programs, such as Viterbi Startup Garage and Austin Technology Incubator, were created by universities to help young entrepreneurs bridge the knowledge gap from student to funded company.

– Jay Samit

Never expect that your startup can cover every aspect of the market. The key is knowing what segment will respond to your unique offering. Who your product appeals to is just as important as the product itself.

– Jay Samit

I always say the more problems you have, the more opportunities you have.

– Jay Samit

Valuations are actually quite simple to grasp. A company is only worth what two acquirers are willing to pay for it. Don’t you just need to find that one buyer? If there is only one potential company interested in buying your startup, chances are you won’t be hearing the word ‘billion’ in the offer.

– Jay Samit

I’d been on the Internet since the 1970s when it was just for nerds. I started saying, ‘Who would benefit from this?’ I started imagining a world where young people could have their own email address, back in the days of family AOL accounts.

– Jay Samit

Every company, regardless of size, is competing for the same pool of talent, which is why top recruiters can even command equity for finding key hires. Internships give startups a chance to hire the best and brightest from our universities at a fraction of the cost that these same minds will command when they receive their degrees.

– Jay Samit

Big ideas developed in a vacuum are doomed from the start. Feedback is the essential tool for building and growing a successful company.

– Jay Samit

Venture-backed startups with billion dollar market caps are called ‘unicorns’ because they are supposed to be rare mythical creatures that few entrepreneurs will ever ride.

– Jay Samit

While commercials interrupt consumers’ enjoyment of a TV program, social media allows video to enter the conversation between friends in a non-intrusive way with an opt-in choice.

– Jay Samit

Microsoft first entered the living room with Ultimate TV way back in 2000 – a year before Apple’s first iPod was announced. Ultimate TV offered consumers a DVR and supporting online services, including 14 days of programming and the ability to record 35 hours of programming. Microsoft’s reach was then thwarted when Echostar acquired DIRECTV.

– Jay Samit

The secret to fundraising comes down to three magic words: before, more, and strategic.

– Jay Samit

In my experience, there are only two valid reasons to take a company public: access to growth capital and investor fatigue.

– Jay Samit

Distributers don’t need massive amounts of square feet to stock digital products. Retailers don’t need brick-and-mortar stores to sell them. The entire supply chain for these select items has been permanently dematerialized. The marketplace has been blown to bits.

– Jay Samit

As a serial investor who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for startups, I know that the business plans coming out of incubators tend to be vetted and more thoroughly validated. The incubator’s input into your business plan will make you look far more polished and experienced – even if you have never run a business before.

– Jay Samit

Startups are now creating specialized 3-D printers capable of producing everything from synthetic hamburgers to multi-story apartment buildings.

– Jay Samit

Entrepreneurs always begin the journey believing that they have the next big idea. They dream of the fame and fortune that awaits them if only they had the funding to pursue it. But the reality is that as the product is built and shared with customers, flaws in their concept are discovered that – if not overcome – will kill the business.

– Jay Samit

Betting all your funds on the belief that you know what consumers want and are willing to pay for is like jumping into a river to test its depth – you’ll need a lot of luck to stay afloat. To have a truly successful product launch, the conversations with your customers must start long before you write your first line of code.

– Jay Samit

Design is how you make your first impression with your consumers. Make sure it is a lasting one.

– Jay Samit

By maintaining an active feedback system at every stage of a startup, founders can reduce their burn rate, increase their virality coefficient, and retain key hires.

– Jay Samit

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