Jay Samit Quotes

It's important for founders to think about how they would build their company from scratch - again.

When you found a company, you have the original vision, you make all the original decisions, you know every employee, you kind of know every aspect of the product architecture and its limitations.

When you're a younger company, you struggle, struggle, struggle with, 'How are we going to pay the bills, and how are we going to hire people, and how are we going to get a bigger office?' Just managing the company is so hard.

Most businesses fail because they want the right things but measure the wrong things, and they get the wrong results.

I definitely see a correlation between how many things a company gets right and how fast a company grows.

The emphasis on innovation and technology in our companies has resulted in a few of them establishing global benchmarks in product design and development, manufacturing practices and human resource capabilities. However, there is no room for complacency.

Overhead will eat you alive if not constantly viewed as a parasite to be exterminated. Never mind the bleating of those you employ. Hold out until mutiny is imminent before employing even a single additional member of staff. More startups are wrecked by overstaffing than by any other cause, bar failure to monitor cash flow.

In setting goals and executing a strategy, Wanda is sophisticated. We have good systems and departments. If targets are not reached, a yellow light goes off.

I like being part of a big company's executive team. It's fun to stretch other parts of my brain, considering questions like, 'How should we think of acquisitions?' I get to be privy to things that would never come up at a small company.

As you grow as a company, you get layers and hierarchy that, in theory, should make your decisions a lot better. They get reviewed, and thoughtful people look at decision.

In business, we use certain principles to measure performance, and I envision applying those principles in the public sector.

We had grown too fast at PayPal. Our operating expenses had grown too fast... Growth covers a lot of sin. We want to grow without sin.

When you keep things responsible and manageable, you can make some interesting movies that you maybe couldn't make otherwise.

Bayen need quality, you have to invest and upgrade!

At the end of the day, you want to do what's best for your organization, present and future.

Engineering is the art of managing scarcity - it's easy to design and build a massive bridge that will last forever if cost is not an issue. Similarly, to build a new company, you must manage scarce resources.

I'm always very careful when I'm spending the club's money. I treat it like it's my own, and I always try to sign players for what I feel is the right price.

In 2001, I did some research and identified four characteristics that successful companies share. One, they aspire to be leaders in their businesses. Two, they have global potential. Three, they are innovative. Four, they display a ruthless focus on financial returns.

I'm always investing and building things at the same time.

I can't tell you how many board meetings I've been in where the CEO is anguished over the impacts on morale that cost cutting or layoffs will bring about. You know what hurts morale even more than cost-cutting and layoffs? Going out of business.

Start step by step. I didn't start being a big company in the beginning. You go to the bank for loans when nobody knows about you.

I think about issues. I use my economic training to devise solutions.

What would I advise an aspiring young entrepreneur? Certainly I'd say read the works of great entrepreneurs and investors like Ben Horowitz, Peter Thiel, and many others. But what's more important is to get real experience at a great startup.

When I got to Activision, it was like a carnival. They had a recycling container filled with cans and a sign over it that said 'Activision Takeover Defense Fund.' Activision was making games based on passion and gut instinct. We needed to develop games based on P&L statements and what was going to sell.

I've found that entrepreneurship only gets harder every year, and as your team gets bigger, the stakes get higher.