Steven A. Cohen Quotes

You want an idea that turns into a monopoly. But you can't get a monopoly, in a big market right away; too much competition for that.

If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful.

You only stay in front by coming up with ideas your new competitors haven't thought of yet.

In a commodity business, it's very hard to be smarter than your dumbest competitor.

The business model piece is we're always talking about competing more effectively. If you're starting a company or career you don't want to compete. You want to create a monopoly. We want to invest in a company that has a good plan to create a monopoly.

Standards wars involve lots of variables, and understanding them often seems more an art than a science. They generally involve just two big players, and end in a winner-take-all situation.

In a maturing market it's not advisable to be always everybody's darling, because you get too thin.

The trick is, a market has to be nonexistent when you start. If the market is large early on, you will have too many competitors. You have to make it large.

Now if you go exactly where your competitors are, you're dead.

If you want to be around in 10 years you've got to do something to differentiate yourself from the pack.

If companies don't think systemically enough - if they try to capture too much of the value - eventually, innovation moves somewhere else.

Someone is out there looking to put you out of business. Someone is out there who thinks they have a better idea than you have. A better solution than you have. A better or more efficient product than you have.

In software and many other online markets, even dominant firms face potential threats because of the low costs for competitors to enter those markets. Threats more easily emerge because of better or newer technologies leapfrogging older ones.

When lots of stores compete, the result is a combination of better prices for you, better deals for developers, and more investment in new content and innovation.

We've got a great value proposition against Chromebooks, we are not ceding the market to anyone.

A product that wants to stand out needs different treatment.

Many first-time founders fail to understand the difference between the potential of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) and the very finite subsection they can hope to capture. No company ever captures the entire market they pioneer. Innovation doesn't happen in a vacuum, and others will jump in from the moment you've identified the potential.

There are millions of business ideas out there but only a tiny percentage of businesses succeed.

The only real way to differentiate yourself from the competition is through service.

You either disrupt your own company or someone else will.

What does the name Virgin mean? We are a company that likes to take on the giants. In too many businesses, these giants have had things their own way. We are going to have fun competing with them.

As long as you keep doing the right thing and have the best product, you can beat the bigger company.

Here's a good rule of thumb: don't worry about a competitor at all, until they're actually beating you with a real shipped product.

The half-life of companies is shrinking. So in the same ease in which you can start a company today to disrupt an incumbent, you have to also realize that somebody will do that to you as well just as easily. So if you're not just going to get on top but stay on top, that will require a real prepared mind across many companies.

I can turn an idea into a business before you know it's going to be important. My first step will blow by you.