The benefit to building a startup is that customers don't have the same kind of friction when they adopt new technology. Aaron Levie More Quotes by Aaron Levie More Quotes From Aaron Levie Start with the assumption that the best way to do something is not the way it's being done right now. Aaron Levie assumption done way I'm obsessed with speed. I'm always asking myself, 'Why can't we do things faster? Why can't it happen more efficiently? Why is this requiring three meetings instead of one?' Aaron Levie brilliant three asking That's already been tried before only means the first attempt got it wrong. Aaron Levie mean firsts Entrepreneurship: 10% coach, 20% player, 30% cheerleader, 40% waterboy. Aaron Levie entrepreneur cheerleader player The business models in enterprise have changed pretty dramatically. A huge problem with enterprise software traditionally has been usually you sell to the customer and then they adopt the technology. The great thing about 'freemium' and the new way enterprise software is being sold is you get to try it first and then buy it. Aaron Levie educational technology trying When you're doing something you're passionate about, stress becomes a featurenot a bug. Aaron Levie bugs passionate stress Uber is a $3.5 billion lesson in building for how the world *should* work instead of optimizing for how the world *does* work Aaron Levie uber doe world Jeff Bezos is opening a retail store and owns a newspaper. Turns out everything we thought about the Internet is wrong. Aaron Levie internet retail newspapers Better to be right about the trend and wrong about the implementation, than the other way around. Aaron Levie implementation trends way The 10% between 90% done to 100% done takes most of the time, causes most of the stress, but is all of the value. Aaron Levie stress causes done The only barrier to entry you can create is to consistently build a great product. Aaron Levie entry barriers products 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. Aaron Levie important people thinking The only way to avoid disruption is to constantly do what you would if you were just starting out. Aaron Levie disruption starting-out way I tend to not discriminate when it comes to people I can learn from. Basically, if someone has built a meaningful business in software, technology or media, faced disruption and adversity, and overcame underdog status, I want to know how they did it. Aaron Levie adversity technology meaningful I interned at Miramax and subsequently at Paramount because I was really curious about the future of entertainment - how were we going to get films online? While the inspiration for Box didn't come from that experience directly, it was very obvious that bigger businesses had a lot of slow processes and cumbersome technology. Aaron Levie entertainment technology inspiration All of a sudden, if you think about the entire ecosystem of connected devices that can pull down information, access content and allow me to share and work and communicate, the vast majority now are not Windows computers. They are iPhones. They are iPads. They are Android devices. Aaron Levie iphone ecosystems thinking It's unfortunate biologically we have to sleep. Aaron Levie unfortunate sleep We're enamored with the concept that there's always a price. But sometimes, your goal is to build a great company, not sell it. Aaron Levie great-company goal sometimes 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. Aaron Levie incumbents building able Sometimes things are the way they are and can't be changed, other times it's because no one ever tried. Your job is to find the latter. Aaron Levie sometimes jobs way
