Kris Gopalakrishnan Quotes

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

Here in Silicon Valley, I have taken part in hundreds of conversations trying to convince people to dive in and become entrepreneurs. All too often, innovators with good, safe, jobs are unwilling to put their family's access to health care at risk by walking away from company-backed medical insurance.

We need to create an ecosystem which will make young people want to start their own company.

At a young age I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. So I'm trying to develop things on my own, too, and there are a couple things that have absolutely nothing to do with the entertainment business that I'm trying to tackle. We'll just sort of see.

Once I started down the path of co-founding Image Comics, and even co-publisher, it just seems a lot more like a career path that isn't that atypical for someone with a college degree. Whereas, someone who draws comic books as a freelancer and lives from job to job is a more unusual story.

When I started my first company, I still had a 40-hour a week job. I was working on my company on nights and weekends before I took the plunge and gave up a salary.

I think that sometimes people are frightened to take the risk of entrepreneurship.

My first company failed completely. And it failed at about ten months old. I had about 12 months of savings, so when it failed I was thinking: 'Do I go back to work?' And at that point I believed so deeply in what I was doing that I couldn't imagine anything else other than trying to make this business work.

I like to encourage people who are entrepreneurs-in-waiting.

Start a part-time business and make as many mistakes as you possibly can while you still have your daytime job.

I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you've got two kids, to start a coffee shop.

I learned I'm not a good executive, I'm an entrepreneur and I'm creative. I have to go with my gut and do what I want to do.

I have nothing against employment but it seems that our school system is too focused on training good employees but not good entrepreneurs. There should be a balance. We should learn from the entrepreneurial mindset of the Chinese.

So March 2010, we launched Pinterest, and we were at 3,000 accounts. And that wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't started building Pinterest actually in November 2009. And that alone wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't left my job to start a company in May 2008.

In order to be creatively satisfied and financially secure, you need to be a self-starter. I'm always assuming nothing's going to work out and I have to roll up my sleeves.

The entrepreneurial bug had already bitten my son Ankur by the time he got to college. As a lifelong entrepreneur, I certainly didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm by telling him he couldn't do it, but I also wanted to make sure it was balanced with the proper attention to his studies.

Based on my experience, I would say that rather than taking lessons in how to become an entrepreneur, you should jump into the pool and start swimming.

We want everyone who comes through to feel more entrepreneurial and start companies, even if they fail.

Aspiring entrepreneurs are often advised to work at a startup for a couple of years first, to understand what's involved. But often, each company's approach to success is very narrow. So my advice is, 'Just do it.'

There are lots of people who say you are born an entrepreneur - you either have that gene or not. I really disagree with that.

People are starting companies at young ages. They fail fast, learn a lot, and keep going.

Once you're an entrepreneur you're always an entrepreneur, and you need that fix.

Had I wanted, I could have set up my own company, secured funding, and made money. That proposition, however, does not excite me, since it would be a very self-centric goal.

My father set up his first business in the 1970s so that he could support his family.

If you look at the careers of great entrepreneurs and you look at the moment they took their plunge, the plunge is rarely a great financial or material risk, it’s a social risk. At the moment they started their new businesses, everyone around them said ‘you’re an idiot’.