Stewart Butterfield Quotes

Past success is no guarantee of future success, so I have learned to be an entrepreneur. I began to produce and direct my own projects.

I've been good at product entrepreneuring.

I have no problem getting financing. I have a problem catching ideas that I fall in love with for the next feature.

If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.

To me, entrepreneurship means something different. I think of it as identifying and valuing opportunity.

Other than playing the game I love, my passion is investing in innovative companies and helping the entrepreneurs behind them succeed.

Launching a business is essentially an adventure in problem-solving.

I love the business of business; I love the risk raking.

I have a good eye for great projects, talent, and entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs see the thing they want or need, then try to figure out a process of how to get it. People who shouldn't be entrepreneurs see the standard process they need to go through to get the thing they want or need then decide if they want to go through that process.

The best founders are extremely thoughtful and have an eye for quality. I don't know if there's any generic advice here that would be helpful. Startup knowledge is a moving target.

Start small; get to know the landscape. We take risks but not major risks. We always started with small capital - €4m in Holland, $10m in Russia - and as we get to know the landscape of a country, we think about other businesses.

At 25, I made many companies. I was thinking more like a businessman or entrepreneur than a CEO. I created many companies, small companies, medium companies. I tried to be involved in many kinds of activities, in finance, in real estate, in mining.

Some people are serial entrepreneurs and want to just move on to the next thing. They just want to clean the slate and start from scratch. I feel that sometimes, too, and the way that we do that here is we build things inside Shutterstock: we launch new products all the time.

What does an entrepreneur do? The first thing is they've given themselves permission to see a problem. Most people don't want to see problems... Once you see a problem and you keep looking at it, you'll find an answer.

If you are an entrepreneur, you have to think outside of the box.

You have to have a business model you believe in and like.

Sometimes, when you're building a company, out of necessity there's just a gazillion things you have to learn and figure out.

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

Dealing with business and trying to create never mixes for me.

After serving as a U.S. Navy SEAL, I started a business. In four years, it failed incredibly, but I learned a lot about business, raising equity, and choosing partners.

I think my gift lies in being a startup entrepreneur and creating environments and experiences.

There is a common and persistent belief out there that entrepreneurship is about creativity - that it's about having a great idea. But it's not, really. Entrepreneurship isn't about creativity. It's about organization-building - which, in turn, is about people.

Technical co-founders are great at envisioning where the company's going from a strategic standpoint. They have what I call the 'gut-feel' of building out their business.

For entrepreneurs, ignorance is not bliss. It's fatal. It's costly. And it's for losers. You either get organized, or get crushed.