Startup Life Quotes

You can't be an entrepreneur for other people. You can't start a company for other people. You have to love it more than you ever thought of loving something that wasn't a human being. The demands will kick you down and rob your life - but yet, it is so rewarding.

I think that's exactly what Silicon Valley was all about in those days. Let's do a startup in our parents' garage and try to create a business.

Starting a company is like throwing yourself off the cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down.

Running a real business is exacting, daunting, repetitive work. Even in Silicon Valley.

In the startup world, 'not working' is normal.

When we love something, emotion often drives our actions. This is the gift and the challenge entrepreneurs face every day. The companies we dream of and build from scratch are part of us and intensely personal. They are our families. Our lives. But the entrepreneurial journey is not for everyone. Yes, the highs are high and the rewards can be thrilling. But the lows can break your heart. Entrepreneurs must love what they do to such a degree that doing it is worth sacrifice and, at times, pain. But doing anything else, we think, would be unimaginable

The typical workday, particularly in startup mode, is from nine to six or nine to seven, then you take a two-hour break to work out and eat dinner. By that time, you're relaxed, and then you work until midnight or one A.M. If there was no break with physical activity, you'd be more tired and less alert.

What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.

Being an entrepreneur is more than a matter of simply starting a business.

One of the great and terrible things about starting a start up is that you get no credit for trying.

When I started Netscape I was brand new out of college and all the aspects of building a business, like balance sheets and hiring people, were new to me.

Being an entrepreneur is not a 9-to-5 job.

You have got to be willing to be poor as an entrepreneur.

The life of a startup is full of ups and downs, an emotional roller coaster ride that you can't quite imagine if you've spent your whole career in a corporation.

When you start a new company, you have to do it all. Yes, all of it.

You can't study to be an entrepreneur. Sometimes, you just have to jump.

When you start a company, you become really emotionally involved in it.

I had to quit a 'real job' to start my first company.

The reality is: a founder is someone who deals with a ton of different headaches and no one is universally super powered.

Like having a child, running a startup is the sort of experience that's hard to imagine unless you've done it yourself.

There is, in fact, nothing easy about being an entrepreneur.

Startups live at the intersection of existential crisis and everything going perfectly great.

The joy is in the getting there. The beginning years of starting your business, the camaraderie when you're in the pit together, are the best years of your life. So rather than being so focused on when you get big and powerful, if you can just get the juice out of that... don't miss it.

I know exactly what it feels like to be an entrepreneur with everything riding on a sale.

One of the most brilliant parts of being a first-time founder is that you experience everything for the first time. It never gets old.