When you're doing something you're passionate about, stress becomes a featurenot a bug.
Read these 3 books - Crossing the Chasm, Innovators Dilemma and Behind the Cloud.
We're going from a world of customized software to standardized platforms.
You want to find the really crazy but still somewhat reasonable outliers within the customer ecosystem.
In the enterprise you want to start intentionally small.
The 10% between 90% done to 100% done takes most of the time, causes most of the stress, but is all of the value.
Innovation is hard because solving problems people didn't know they had & building something no one needs look identical at first.
If every customer is using your product "correctly", you'll never learn anything interesting about what to do next.
Tip: Take the stodgiest, oldest, slowest moving industry you can find. And build amazing software for it.
Do things that incumbents can't or won't do because it's economically or technically infeasible.
I think I'm the kind of person who would be very difficult to employ - I'm pretty annoying, but driven.
What happens to the Microsofts, Oracles and IBMs of the world is that when they get big enough, they don't think they need to bring that same level of focus and energy to the end-user experience.
You can look at the cost structure of an incumbent company and discover: where are they not going to be able to drop their prices... because that business model is fundamental to the existence of the company.
My workday begins around 11 A.M., with a cup of black coffee in each hand. If I had more hands, there would be more coffee.
Focus too much on the near-term and you won't get tomorrow's customers, focus too much on the long-term and you won't get today's.
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.
Entrepreneurship: 10% coach, 20% player, 30% cheerleader, 40% waterboy.
Everything about the enterprise, and then by definition the software the enterprise uses has changed - just in the last 5 years.
Go after the customers that are working in the future, but haven't totally lost their minds.
If you don't go to every level of your company, you distance yourself from the marketplace and from your people.
My mom is proud of me. But she might not be too happy about the hours I keep or how little I eat. I wake up so late that it would be inappropriate to have breakfast. At most, I will have a snack in the day and dinner. I realize that it's not the healthiest way to live, but it's all I really have time for.
Listen to your customers, but don't always build exactly what they're telling you. This is a really key distinction around building enterprise software.
It's unfortunate biologically we have to sleep.
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.
The best technology is aimed far enough in the future that it stands out, but close enough to the present that it blends in.
