Words of Wisdom for All Startups From Our CEO

By Ami Gal

12.3.2013 twitter linkedin facebook
Attention all entrepreneurs:

So many extremely smart people keep telling me why not to do it or why it is not right or why it is crazy or why they don’t think it will ever work or why I will never beat the competition or why the market is dead, not-there, small, big, etc.
These words come from friends, foes, VCs, people with money, people with history, people who made it, people who are experts in failures (they are quite smart), good people, shameless people, assholes, wonderful people, people that will know better than you even if they never did anything and people that did everything.
I’ve started to log sentences/advice from people and thought, “Maybe I should make a list with the ‘best lines of advice I’ve heard so far’ – no judgments.” I’m going to list just a few and I invite all of you to add your own (maybe Geektime גיקטיים will make a competition with categories out of it ….).
Here are a few lines that I’ve heard in the last month (just a log that I started – no judgments -by the way, the VCs are extremely creative):

  • “We are not in the business of betting/gambling, we are in the business of hitchhiking.” – A VC
  • “I have never heard such a stupid idea in my life. I thought you knew better.” – A friend with some polish attributes
  • “You gave up everything else for THIS?!” – face – silence – Another friend
  • “You are too fearless and you fell in love too much with your idea.” – True
  •  “Your story is too big, focus on beating Oracle only.” – A VC
  • “Even if you beat IBM you are doomed. IBM is doomed too.” – A real genius
  • “On the one hand, it is a huge market. On the other hand, why would you focus on such a large market?” – A VC
  • “We don’t bet on companies that want to dominate a market controlled by the largest companies in the world.” – A VC
  • “Why on earth do you need this in your life?” – Recurring comment made by many good friends
  • “I can connect you to anyone, including Obama and I want $20K in cash up front.” – A few
  • “Who the f’k do you think you are to beat Oracle?” – Oracle
  • “Why not telling us exactly what you do and we’ll hand it over to the company that copies everything that you do?” – A potential customer on a mission
  • “So, you are 100 times cheaper and do the job 100 times faster. Interesting. I’m having trouble understanding your value proposition from 30,000 feet.” – A VC
  • “I don’t believe you, it can’t be right.” – All types
  • “You’ve developed a DATABASE?!?!? Are you out of your mind!?!?” – Plenty
  • Big Data is for Americans only. The rest simply will never figure it out. Maybe the China guys will.” – A very smart guy
  • “Here is a check for $10 Million” – Didn’t happen
  • “We can’t see how this is disruptive, however if it will be disruptive call us.” – A great VC
  • Big Data is passé. If you can put in some Cyber content – you’ve got it.” – X
  • “Does it do something with pictures?” – Amazingly smart girl. Really.
  • “Why don’t you come work for us?” – Customers, VCs, Friends, Competitors, Kids (you name it)
  • “You need to be in Silicon Valley 24/7. They invest loads of money in every piece of crap. You’re crap will get money in no time.” – A few
  • “Why don’t you buy a Terabyte for $1 and sell it for $2??? Why complicate everything?” – A friend that buys and sells extremely well
  • “If you can’t beat them, eat them” – A16Z, Software eats the world
  • “No way we can’t make it!” – Team
  • “Who are you?” – Family
Becoming an Entrepreneur
by annavital.
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