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" Understand that VCs are simply a sophisticated form of financial investors who, in turn, need to satisfy their own investors. "

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" Learning how to keep track of inventory and cash flow and creating an income statement and a balance sheet are great skills to learn for managing existing businesses. "

" Persuading employees to let go of old values and beliefs and adopt new ones can be challenging. "

" Describing something as the 'Woodstock of...' has taken to mean a one-of-a-kind historic gathering. "

" Not all new ventures are at the same stage of maturity. "

" Startups have finite time and resources to find product/market fit before they run out of money. Therefore startups trade off certainty for speed, adopting 'good enough decision making' and iterating and pivoting as they fail, learn, and discover their business model. "

" In the past, when venture-funded startups told their investors they'd found a profitable business model, the first thing VCs would do is to start looking for an 'operating exec' - usually an MBA who would act as the designated 'adult' and take over the transition from Search to Build. "

" At 19, I joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War. "

" Visionary CEOs don't need someone else to demo the company's key products for them. They deeply understand products, and they have their own coherent and consistent vision of where the industry/business models and customers are today, and where they need to take the company. "

" Market type determines the startup's customer feedback and acquisition activities and spending. It changes customer needs, adoption rates, product features, and positioning as well as its launch strategies, channels and activities. "

" Companies that get started and built in New York City tend to be applied technology. "

" If you've never founded a company, rest assured it never happens as elegantly and smoothly as articles in 'Inc.' and other business magazines or case studies suggest. "

" We now understand the distinction between startups - who search for a business model - versus existing companies - that execute a business plan. "

" When your product solves a problem that costs customers sleep, revenue, or profits, things are definitely looking up. "

" Founders, presuming they know their customers, assume they know all the features customers need. "

" On Day One, a start-up is a faith-based initiative built on guesses. "

" Great VCs do everything they can to make you successful. But just like your bank, credit card company, mortgage holder, etc. they are not confused where their long-term loyalty lies. "

" Customer Development changes almost every aspect of startup behavior, performance, metrics, and, as often as not, success potential. "

" For Customer Development to succeed, everyone on the team - from investor or parent company to engineers, marketers and founders - needs to understand and agree that the Customer Development process is different to its core. "

" In a web/mobile startup, coding is not an outsourced activity. It's an integral part of the company's DNA. "

" Skunk works differed from advanced research groups in that they were more than just product development groups. They had direct interaction with customers and controlled a sales channel which allowed them to negotiate their own deals with customers. "

" As an entrepreneur, my problem was that I had too many ideas. "

" At some major events - your birth and death, for example - while you may be the center of attention, the events are managed by others and are more important to the people around you. "

" I have to think my success in the VC business was due in no small part to seeing Larry Ellison in action back in the day. "

" If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. "

" The Columbia Startup Lab is a visible symbol of how the university is making entrepreneurship an integral part of all colleges at the university. "

Entrepreneurship

" At the commencements I attended, graduates were classified by their academic rankings. Outstanding academic performance was noted in the programs and awarded with special honors. "

" At the intersection of food science and technology, food replacement startups are creating substitutes for the basic components of meals as well as replacements for complete meals. "

" Startups are companies that are still in the process of searching for a business model. Ventures that are further along and executing their business models are no longer startups; they are early-stage companies. "

" Most people appear to live an unexamined life, cruising through the years without much reflection about what it means, and/or taking what life hands them and believing it's all predestined. "

" Founders have continually struggled with and adapted the 'big business' tools, rules, and processes taught in business schools when startups failed to execute 'the plan,' never admitting to the entrepreneurs that no startup executes to its business plan. "