Aaron Levie Quotes

• My downtime tends to resemble my uptime. Weekends are workdays, but toned down. Over the whole weekend, I may have five meetings, as opposed to six on a weekday. I used to play piano for 30 minutes at night, but I had to pull that out of my schedule. I don't have time for nonwork stuff.

  Aaron Levie

  Weekend   Night   Play  

  644

• Innovation is hard because solving problems people didn't know they had & building something no one needs look identical at first.

  Aaron Levie

  People   Innovation   Needs  

  985

• If you're in your early 20s and you're hanging out with a bunch of other people in their early 20s, nobody has a sense of the kinds of problems that real 'workers' run into every day. They're running into a completely different set of problems like 'what's the party going on right now that I should be going to?

  Aaron Levie

  Running   Real   Party  

  "This 26-Year Old Founder Is Raising $100 Million To Take On Giants Like Microsoft". Interview with Matt Rosoff, www.businessinsider.com. August 29, 2011.

  975

• The only way to avoid disruption is to constantly do what you would if you were just starting out.

  Aaron Levie

  Starting Out   Way   Disruption  

  Twitter post from May 10, 2013

  1210

• All we're really doing is repeating technologies that were tried 10, 20, 30 years ago... it's just that it was too expensive, too unusable, and we didn't have the enabling technologies to make it possible.

  Aaron Levie

  Technology   Years   Enabling  

  1405

• 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   Done   Causes  

  Twitter post from Jul 18, 2013

  5110

• That's already been tried before only means the first attempt got it wrong.

  Aaron Levie

  Mean   Firsts  

  Twitter post from Apr 25, 2013

  698

• The product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.

  Aaron Levie

  Winning   Bridges   Giants  

  Twitter post from Apr 13, 2013

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• The best technology is aimed far enough in the future that it stands out, but close enough to the present that it blends in.

  Aaron Levie

  Technology   Enough   Standing Out  

  Twitter post from Jul 03, 2012

  756

• Startups often win because it's easier to see what comes next when you don't have to worry about maintaining what came last.

  Aaron Levie

  Winning   Worry   Lasts  

  Twitter post from Jun 04, 2013

  3148

• 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.

  Aaron Levie

  Thinking   Focus   Energy  

  "Why Consumer Style Sells in the Corporate World: 10 Questions With Box Ceo Aaron Levie". Wired Interview, www.wired.com. August 20, 2012.

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• 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

  Goal   Sometimes   Great Company  

  Twitter post from Nov 14, 2013

  1931

• Go after the customers that are working in the future, but haven't totally lost their minds.

  Aaron Levie

  Mind   Building   Lost  

  1565

• I have a lot of faults. I often interrupt in meetings. I talk too loud. I talk too fast.

  Aaron Levie

  Faults   Loud   Meetings  

  220

• It's unfortunate biologically we have to sleep.

  Aaron Levie

  Sleep   Unfortunate  

  301

• 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.

  Aaron Levie

  Technology   Significant Change   Raw Materials  

  3289

• When you're doing something you're passionate about, stress becomes a featurenot a bug.

  Aaron Levie

  Stress   Passionate   Bugs  

  4019

• Jeff Bezos is opening a retail store and owns a newspaper. Turns out everything we thought about the Internet is wrong.

  Aaron Levie

  Retail   Internet   Newspapers  

  Twitter post from Oct 09, 2014

  3730

• 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.

  Aaron Levie

  Mom   Snacks   Would Be  

  762

• 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

  Three   Asking   Brilliant  

  1352

• There's a lot of pride that business owners have. It's actually really critical that pride and ownership extends to everyone in the organization. I think of everyone is in the same boat in driving the company forward.

  Aaron Levie

  Pride   Thinking   Organization  

  4997

• If there could've ever been a magical time to build an enterprise software company, now is absolutely that time.

  Aaron Levie

  Building   Software   Enterprise  

  1124

• Innovation in tech favors the naive and the stubborn. If you are too rational you won't tackle problems that others once failed at.

  Aaron Levie

  Innovation   Stubborn   Favors  

  Twitter post from May 25, 2014

  1807

• 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.

  Aaron Levie

  Long   Focus   Today  

  Twitter post from May 01, 2013

  4293

• Why we do what we do: that moment when you get to see the future on your computer screen before the rest of the world.

  Aaron Levie

  World   Computer   Moments  

  Twitter post from Feb 08, 2013

  4169

• Read these 3 books - Crossing the Chasm, Innovators Dilemma and Behind the Cloud.

  Aaron Levie

  Book   Clouds   Building  

  3016

• Modularize, don't customize. Build a platform as opposed to building all of the custom technology and custom vertical experiences.

  Aaron Levie

  Technology   Building   Platforms  

  2422

• 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.

  Aaron Levie

  Keys   Building   Distinction  

  2771

• In a user lead model, users are bringing in their own technology... and you can build software then, around the user.

  Aaron Levie

  Technology   Building   Software  

  2203

• They can bring the technology in, then you can sell to the enterprise when they want to have better control, better security... you still have the same biz model as a traditional enterprise sw company, but the way to get into the company is through the end user.

  Aaron Levie

  Technology   Want   Way  

  2120

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